Reinterpreting the Fermi Gamma–Ray Halo of the Milky Way in Terms of Future–Mass Projection Gravity

A recent analysis of fifteen years of Fermi–LAT data reports a statistically significant, approximately spherical gamma–ray halo around the MilkyWay, with a spectrum that peaks near Eγ ∼ 20 GeV and a morphology well fitted by the square of a smooth Navarro–Frenk–White (NFW) density profile. Interpreted as annihilation of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) into b¯b, the corresponding cross section is ⟨σv⟩ ∼ (5–8) × 10−25 cm3 s−1, which exceeds the canonical thermal relic value and lies in tension with bounds from dwarf spheroidal galaxies and the extragalactic gamma–ray background. In this work, the same halo is reinterpreted within the Future–Mass Projection (FMP) framework, a diffeomorphism–invariant bilocal modification of gravity defined on a closed time path. In the Newtonian limit, FMP produces an effective “future–mass” density ρF sourced nonlocally by baryons, such that the Poisson equation becomes ∇2Φ = 4πG(ρb + ρF). The Fermi halo is then naturally identified with ρF of the Milky Way, and its NFW parameters calibrate the FMP kernel for our Galaxy. We show that the required kernel parameters (ε, k0) fall in the same range previously inferred from SPARC rotation curves, cluster lensing (including the Bullet Cluster), and cosmological background evolution. In this picture the 20 GeV gamma–ray excess constrains cosmic–ray emission and transport in the FMP–modified potential, while the WIMP interpretation becomes at best an upper limit on any genuine nonbaryonic component.