The Hidden Friend's Wake: Dark Matter and a Binary at the Galactic Center*

Recent dynamical evidence suggests that Sgr A*, the massive object at the center of the Milky Way, may be a binary of two black holes rather than a single black hole. The existence of such a binary has dynamical consequences for the distribution of dark matter at the galactic center, with dramatic implications for dark matter annihilation signals. We show that the existence of a binary companion would significantly relax constraints on the dark matter annihilation cross-section from the galactic center, and would substantially weaken the case for dark matter annihilation as the origin of the claimed galactic center excess.