Technical Comment on "The dark matter interpretation of the 3.5-keV line is inconsistent with blank-sky observations"

Abstract

I show that model dependencies in the analysis by Dessert, Rodd & Safdi (2020) relax their claimed constraint by a factor of ~20. After including conservative model choices, the derived limits are comparable to or slightly better than limits from previous searches. Further model tests and expansion of the data energy may enhance or relax sensitivity of the methodology.

Comments: 7 pages, 2 figures. To be submitted as a Technical Comment to the journal Science