Search for Galactic dark matter substructures with Cherenkov telescopes

Abstract

Weakly interacting massive dark matter (DM) particles are expected to self-annihilate or decay, generating high-energy photons in these processes. This establishes the possibility for indirect detection of DM by γ-ray telescopes. For probing the secondary products of DM, accurate knowledge about the DM density distribution in potential astrophysical targets is crucial. In this contribution, the prospects for the detection of subhalos in the Galactic DM halo with present and future imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACT) are investigated. The source count distribution and angular power spectra for γ-rays originating from annihilating DM in subhalos are calculated from N-body simulation results. To study the systematic uncertainties coming from the modeling of the DM density distribution, parameters describing the γ-ray yield from subhalos are varied in 16 benchmark models. We conclude that Galactic subhalos of annihilating DM are probably too faint to be a promising target for IACT observations, even with the prospective Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA).

8 pages, 5 figures. Included in Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, The Hague, The Netherlands (July 30 - August 6, 2015)

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