Abstract: An excess of gamma ray photons detected by the Fermi-LAT satellite in the direction of the center of the Milky Way and accounting for roughly 10% of the total observed photons has proven to be rich ground for theoretical investigation for over a decade. During this same time, there have been qualitative improvements in our knowledge of high-energy local astrophysical phenomena, especially in charged cosmic rays, which inform and update our expectations of the dominant astrophysical gamma-ray emission. In this talk I will begin by detailing new expectations for the astrophysical background based on these observations. I will then give an updated spectrum for the galactic center excess, which agrees in normalization with prior results but with noteworthy spectral differences. This will include comparison between different suggested morphologies of the excess, statistically independent analyses of different sky regions, and discussion of some of the statistical considerations that go into our final results. Finally, I will discuss implications for the interpretation of the excess, focusing on the two canonical interpretations: annihilating dark matter and millisecond pulsars (as well as their combination).
 
 
Virtual Zoom: https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/215429094