DAMPE squib? Significance of the 1.4 TeV DAMPE excess

We present a Bayesian and frequentist analysis of the DAMPE charged cosmic ray spectrum. The spectrum, by eye, contained a spectral break at about 1 TeV and a monochromatic excess at about 1.4 TeV. The break was supported by a Bayes factor of about 10(10) and we argue that the statistical significance was resounding. We investigated whether we should attribute the excess to dark matter annihilation into electrons in a nearby subhalo. We found a local significance of about 3.6 sigma and a global significance of about 2.3 sigma, including a two-dimensional look-elsewhere effect by simulating 1000 pseudo-experiments. The Bayes factor was sensitive to our choices of priors, but favoured the excess by about 2 for our choices. Thus, whilst intriguing, the evidence for a signal is not currently compelling. (C) 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.