A leading candidate for astrophysical dark matter (DM) is a massive particle with a mass in the range from 50 GeV to greater than 10 TeV and an interaction cross section on the weak scale. The self-annihilation of such particles in astrophysical regions of high DM density can generate stable secondary particles including very high energy gamma-rays with energies up to the DM particle mass. Dwarf spheroidal galaxies of the Local Group are attractive targets to search for the annihilation signature of DM due to their proximity and large DM content. We report on gamma-ray observations taken with the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) of several dwarf galaxy targets as well as the globular cluster M5 and the local group galaxies M32 and M33. We discuss the implications of these measurements for the parameter space of DM particle models.
In the cosmological paradigm, cold Dark Matter (DM) dominates the mass content of the Universe and is present at every scale. Candidates for DM include many extensions of the standard model, with a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) in the mass range from 50 GeV to greater than 10 TeV. The self-annihilation of WIMPs in astrophysical regions of high DM density can produce secondary particles, including very high energy (VHE) gamma rays, with energies up to the dark matter particle mass. The VERITAS array of Cherenkov telescopes, designed for the detection of VHE gamma rays in the 100 Ge…
In this white paper, submitted as a part of Snowmass 2013 (subgroup CF2), we examine the current status and future prospects of the VERITAS indirect dark matter detection program. The VERITAS array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs), sensitive in the 0.1-50 TeV regime, is in the process of completing a multi-year program aimed at detecting signatures of neutralino dark matter. This program is spread out over a range of astrophysical targets which can potentially yield definitive signatures of neutralino self-annihilation such as dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) and the center…
In the cosmological paradigm, cold dark matter (DM) dominates the mass content of the Universe and is present at every scale. Candidates for DM include many extensions of the Standard Model with weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the mass range from ~10 GeV to greater than 10 TeV. The self-annihilation or decay of WIMPs in astrophysical regions of high DM density can produce secondary particles including very-high-energy (VHE; E>100 GeV) gamma rays. VERITAS, an array of atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, sensitive to VHE gamma rays in the 85 GeV-30 TeV energy range, has been utiliz…
Very high energy gamma-ray observations offer indirect methods for studying the highest energy cosmic rays in our Universe. The origin of cosmic rays at energies greater than $10^{18}$ eV remains a mystery, and many questions in particle astrophysics exist. The VERITAS observatory in southern Arizona, USA, carries out an extensive observation program of the gamma-ray sky at energies above 85 GeV. Observations of Galactic and extragalactic sources in the TeV band provide clues to the highly energetic processes occurring in these objects, and could provide indirect evidence for the origin of cos…
The search for Dark Matter (DM) has great potential to reveal physics beyond the Standard Model. As such, searches for evidence of DM particles are being carried out using a wide range of techniques, such as direct searches for DM particles, searches for DM produced with colliders, and indirect searches for the Standard Model annihilation products of DM. Dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) are excellent targets for indirect Dark Matter searches due to their relatively high DM content and negligible expected astrophysical background. A collaboration was formed to maximise the sensitivity of DM se…
The VERITAS collaboration has approved long-term observations on several distant, hard-spectrum blazars. We present first results from VERITAS long-term observations of 1ES1218+304, 1ES0229+200, and 1ES0414+009. Gamma-ray observations of distant, hard-spectrum blazars has emerged as an effective, indirect probe of the universe's diffuse extragalactic background light (EBL), due to the extinction of gamma-rays via the pair production interaction $γ_{TeV}γ_{EBL}\rightarrow e^{+}e^{-}$, which is expected to produce absorption features in distant gamma-ray sources. The sources presented here emit …
VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) is one of the most sensitive currently operating arrays of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, which detect very high-energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) gamma rays. VERITAS is currently in its 11th year of full-array operations with four 12m-diameter telescopes. Many Galactic sources of VHE gamma rays have been detected by VERITAS, such as pulsar wind nebulae, binary systems, and supernova remnants, and the study of VHE emission from these objects has enabled a deeper understanding of the underlying physical processes responsible f…
Located in southern Arizona, VERITAS is amongst the most sensitive detectors for astrophysical very high energy (VHE; E>100 GeV) gamma rays and has been operational since April 2007. We highlight some recent results from VERITAS observations. These include the long-term observations of the gamma-ray binaries HESS J0632+057 and LS I +61° 303, the observations of the Galactic Center region, and of the supernova remnant Cas~A. We discuss the results from a decade of multi-wavelength observations of the blazar 1ES 1215+303, the EHT 2017 campaign on the M87 galaxy, the discovery of 3C 264 in VHE, a…
VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) is an array of atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes sensitive to very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays above 100 GeV. Located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in southern Arizona, USA, the VERITAS array of four 12m-diameter telescopes began full operation in September 2007. Two major upgrades, the relocation of telescope 1 in Summer 2009 and the upgrade of the level-2 trigger in Fall 2011, made VERITAS the most sensitive VHE instrument in the northern hemisphere. The VERITAS Collaboration consists of scientists from institutions…
In the cosmological paradigm, cold dark matter (DM) dominates the mass content of the Universe and is present at every scale. Candidates for DM include many extensions of the standard model, with a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) in the mass range from $\sim$10 GeV to greater than 10 TeV. The self-annihilation or decay of WIMPs in astrophysical regions of high DM density can produce secondary particles including very high energy (VHE) gamma rays with energy up to the DM particle mass. VERITAS, an array of atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, sensitive to VHE gamma rays in the 85 GeV - …
The extragalactic background light (EBL) contains all the radiation emitted by nuclear and accretion processes since the epoch of recombination. Direct measurements of the EBL in the near-IR to mid-IR waveband are extremely difficult due mainly to the zodiacal foreground light. Instead, gamma-ray astronomy offers the possibility to indirectly set limits on the EBL by studying the effects of gamma-ray absorption in the spectra of detected sources in the very high energy range (VHE: $>$100 GeV). These effects can be generally seen in the spectra of VHE blazars as a softening (steepening) of the …
In the cosmological paradigm, cold dark matter (DM) dominates the mass content of the Universe and is present at every scale. Candidates for DM include many extensions of the standard model, such as weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the mass range from $\sim$10 GeV to greater than 10 TeV. The self-annihilation or decay of WIMPs in astrophysical regions of high DM density can produce secondary particles including very high energy (VHE) gamma rays with energy up to the DM particle mass. VERITAS, an array of atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, sensitive to VHE gamma rays in the 85 GeV…
Dark matter (DM) is largely believed to be the dominant component of the matter content of the Universe. Astronomical measurements can be utilized to search for Standard Model (SM) annihilation or decay products of DM, complementing direct and collider-based searches. Among DM particle candidates, Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are an attractive one. Their decay or annihilation could produce secondary particles including very-high-energy (VHE: $E>100$ GeV) gamma rays, which could be detected by imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs). One of the most favourable target cl…
The HAWC observatory recently published their second source catalog with 39 very high energy gamma-ray sources based on 507 days of exposure time. Among these, there were 16 sources that are more than one degree away from any known TeV source. We studied 13 of these 16 sources with VERITAS and \textit{Fermi}-LAT data. VERITAS, an array of four imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes observing gamma rays with energies higher than 85 GeV, can provide a more detailed image of the source with much shorter exposure time and with better angular resolution. With \textit{Fermi}-LAT data, we searched …
The VERITAS array of Cherenkov telescopes, designed for the detection of gamma-rays in the 100 GeV-10 TeV energy range, performs dark matter searches over a wide variety of targets. VERITAS continues to carry out focused observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the Local Group, of the Milky Way galactic center, and of Fermi-LAT unidentified sources. This report presents our extensive observations of these targets, new statistical techniques, and current constraints on dark matter particle physics derived from these observations.
Cosmological and astrophysical observations suggest that 85\% of the total matter of the Universe is made of Dark Matter (DM). However, its nature remains one of the most challenging and fundamental open questions of particle physics. Assuming particle DM, this exotic form of matter cannot consist of Standard Model (SM) particles. Many models have been developed to attempt unraveling the nature of DM such as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), the most favored particle candidates. WIMP annihilations and decay could produce SM particles which in turn hadronize and decay to give SM sec…
Dark matter candidates such as weakly-interacting massive particles are predicted to annihilate or decay into Standard Model particles leaving behind distinctive signatures in gamma rays, neutrinos, positrons, antiprotons, or even anti-nuclei. Indirect dark matter searches, and in particular those based on gamma-ray observations and cosmic ray measurements could detect such signatures. Here we review the strengths and limitations of this approach and look into the future of indirect dark matter searches.
Supernova Remnants (SNRs) are broadly accepted as the main accelerators of Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) with energies up to the knee region. Recent measurements of pion bumps in IC 443 and W 44 by Fermi-LAT show indirect evidence of the acceleration of hadronic particles in SNRs. But, whether SNRs are the powerhouses for GCR acceleration all the way up to the knee region still remains an unsolved question. Tycho is a promising target for this study because it has been widely studied in multi-wavelength observations from IR to TeV and it is a young type Ia SNR located in a relatively clean envir…
In this review the current status of several searches for particle dark matter with the Fermi Large Area Telescope instrument is presented. In particular, the current limits on the weakly interacting massive particles, obtained from the analyses of gamma-rays and cosmic-ray electron/positron data, will be illustrated.
Primordial black holes (PBHs) are thought to have been formed as a result of density fluctuations in the very early Universe. It is suggested that PBHs of mass $\sim 5 \times 10^{14} \mathrm{\ g}$ or less have evaporated through the release of Hawking radiation by the present day. However, PBHs of initial mass $10^{15} \mathrm{\ g}$ should still be evaporating at the present epoch. Over the past few years, very high-energy (VHE; E $>$ 100 GeV) gamma-ray emission from PBHs in the form of a burst has been searched for using ground-based gamma-ray instruments. However, no observational evidence h…
If the astronomical dark matter is made of weakly interacting, massive and stable species, it should annihilate on itself into particles. This process should produce rare antimatter cosmic rays and lead to distortions in their energy distributions. The AMS-02 spectrometer has been measuring them with unprecedented accuracy. It is timely to investigate if anomalies have been found in the positron and antiproton spectra and if so, if they indirectly point toward the presence of DM particles annihilating inside the Milky Way.
Even if Supersymmetric particles are found at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), it will be difficult to prove that they constitute the bulk of the Dark Matter (DM) in the Universe using LHC data alone. We study the complementarity of LHC and DM indirect searches, working out explicitly the reconstruction of the DM properties for a specific benchmark model in the coannihilation region of a 24-parameters supersymmetric model. Combining mock high-luminosity LHC data with present-day null searches for gamma-rays from dwarf galaxies with the Fermi LAT, we show that current Fermi LAT limits already h…
We conduct a search for periodic emission in the very high-energy gamma-ray band (VHE; E > 100 GeV) from a total of 13 pulsars in an archival VERITAS data set with a total exposure of over 450 hours. The set of pulsars includes many of the brightest young gamma-ray pulsars visible in the Northern Hemisphere. The data analysis resulted in non-detections of pulsed VHE gamma rays from each pulsar. Upper limits on a potential VHE gamma-ray flux are derived at the 95% confidence level above three energy thresholds using two methods. These are the first such searches for pulsed VHE emission from eac…
The elemental energy spectra of cosmic rays play an important role in understanding their acceleration and propagation. Most current results are obtained either from direct measurements by balloon or satellite detectors, or from indirect measurements by air shower detector arrays on the Earth's surface. Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), used primarily for gamma-ray astronomy, can also be used for cosmic-ray physics. They are able to measure Cherenkov light emitted both by heavy nuclei and by secondary particles produced in their air showers, and are thus sensitive to the charge and ene…
I review the current status of dark matter searches using direct, indirect and accelerator techniques. A detailed review of individual experiments is beyond the scope of these proceedings. I focus instead on the challenges (sometimes limitations) faced by each of the approaches, which is what make them complementary, and the reason we must ensure that they are developed concurrently.
This article summarizes the status of Indirect and Direct searches for Dark Matter, with a special focus and a critical look on the former. It is the write-up of a rapporteur talk given at the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2015) in The Hague, The Netherlands.
Indirect searches for dark matter (DM) have conventionally been applied to the products of DM annihilation or decay. If DM couples to light force carriers, however, it can be captured into bound states via dissipation of energy that may yield detectable signals. We extend the indirect searches to DM bound state formation and transitions between bound levels, and constrain the emission of unstable dark photons. Our results significantly refine the predicted signal flux that could be observed in experiments. As a concrete example, we use Fermi-LAT dwarf spheroidal observations to obtain constrai…
Cosmic rays interacting in the solar atmosphere produce showers that result in a flux of high-energy neutrinos from the Sun. These form an irreducible background to indirect solar WIMP co-annihilation searches, which look for heavy dark matter particles annihilating into final states containing neutrinos in the Solar core. This background will eventually create a sensitivity floor for indirect WIMP co-annihilation searches analogous to that imposed by low-energy solar neutrino interactions for direct dark matter detection experiments. We present a new calculation of the flux of solar atmospher…
This white paper describes the basic idea for indirect dark matter searches using antideuterons. Low energy antideuterons produced by dark matter annihilations/decays provide an attractive dark matter signature, due to the low astrophysical background. The current and future experiments have a strong potential to detect antideuterons from dark matter. They are complementary not only with each other, but also with other dark matter searches.
Observational evidence for dark matter can be explained by Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). These dark matter particle candidates could indirectly be detected through the observation of signals produced as part of WIMP annihilations or decays. Latest results from indirect searches for WIMPs are reviewed. Current and planned experiments are presented and their prospects and discovery potential discussed.
The indirect detection of dark matter annihilation and decay using observations of photons, charged cosmic rays, and neutrinos offers a promising means of identifying the particle nature of this elusive component of the universe. The last decade has seen substantial advances in observational data sets, complemented by new insights from numerical simulations, which together have enabled for the first time strong constraints on dark matter particle models, and have revealed several intriguing hints of possible signals. This review provides an introduction to indirect detection methods and an ove…
Gamma rays from the annihilation of dark matter particles in the Galactic halo provide a particularly promising means of indirectly detecting dark matter. Here, we demonstrate that pronounced spectral features at energies near the dark matter particles' mass, which are a generic prediction for most models, can significantly improve the sensitivity of gamma-ray telescopes to dark matter signals. We derive projected limits on such features (including the traditionally looked-for line signals) and show that they can be much more efficient in constraining the nature of dark matter than the model-i…
The complementarity of direct, indirect and collider searches for dark matter has improved our understanding concerning the properties of the dark matter particle. I will review the basic concepts that these methods rely upon and highlight what are the most important information they provide when it comes down to interpret the results in terms of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). Later, I go over some of the latest results emphasizing the implications to dark matter theory in a broad sense and point out recent developments and prospects in the field.
Indirect searches for dark matter are based on detecting an anomalous flux of photons, neutrinos or cosmic-rays produced in annihilations or decays of dark matter candidates gravitationally accumulated in heavy cosmological objects, like galaxies, the Sun or the Earth. Additionally, evidence for dark matter that can also be understood as indirect can be obtained from early universe probes, like fluctuations of the Cosmic Microwave Background temperature, the primordial abundance of light elements or the Hydrogen 21-cm line. The techniques needed to detect these different signatures require ver…
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will have a unique chance of discovery for a large range of masses in Weakly Interacting Massive Particles models of dark matter. The principal target for dark matter searches with CTA is the centre of the Galactic Halo. The best strategy is to perform CTA observations within a few degrees of the Galactic Centre, with the Galactic Centre itself and the most intense diffuse emission regions removed from the analysis. Assuming a cuspy dark matter density profile for the Milky Way, 500 hours of observations in this region provide sensitivities to and below the …
The nature of cosmological dark matter finds its explanation in physics beyond the Standard model of elementary particles. The landscape of dark matter candidates contains a wide variety of species, either elusive or hardly detectable in direct experimental searches. Even in case, when such searches are possible the interpretation of their results implies additional sources of information, which provide indirect effects of dark matter. Some nontrivial probes for the nature of the dark matter are presented in the present issue.
We propose a dedicated analysis approach for indirect Dark Matter searches with Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes. By using the full likelihood analysis, we take complete advantage of the distinct features expected in the gamma ray spectrum of Dark Matter origin, achieving better sensitivity with respect to the standard analysis chains. We describe the method and characterize its general performance. We also compare its sensitivity with that of the current standards for several Dark Matter annihilation models, obtaining gains of up to factors of order of 10. We compute the improved limits that …
We perform a detailed study of the dark Z' portal using a generic parametrization of the Z'-quarks couplings, both for light (8-15)GeV and heavy (130-1000)GeV dark matter scenarios. We present a comprehensive study of the collider phenomenology including jet clustering, hadronization, and detector artifacts, which allows us to derive accurate bounds from the search for new resonances in dijet events and from mono-jet events in the LHC 7TeV, LHC 8TeV, and Tevatron 1.96 TeV data. We also compute the dark matter relic abundance, the relevant scattering cross sections and pair-annihilation spectru…
Over the past decade, extensive studies have been undertaken to search for photon signals from dark matter annihilation or decay for dark matter particle masses above $\sim1$ GeV. However, due to the lacking sensitivity of current experiments at MeV-GeV energies, sometimes dubbed the 'MeV gap', dark matter models with MeV to sub-GeV particle masses have received little attention so far. Various proposed MeV missions (like, e.g., e-ASTROGAM or AMEGO) are aimed at closing this gap in the mid- or long-term future. This, and the absence of clear dark matter signals in the GeV-TeV range, makes it r…
The gravitino in models with a small violation of R-parity is a well-motivated decaying dark matter candidate that leads to a cosmological scenario that is consistent with big bang nucleosynthesis and thermal leptogenesis. The gravitino lifetime is cosmologically long-lived since its decays are suppressed by the Planck-scale as well as the small R-parity violating parameter. We discuss the signals in different cosmic-ray species coming from the decay of gravitino dark matter, namely gamma rays, positrons, antiprotons, antideuterons and neutrinos. Comparison to cosmic-ray data can be used to co…
We compare the first results on searches for supersymmetry with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to the current and near-term performance of experiments sensitive to neutralino dark matter. We limit our study to the particular slices of parameter space of the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension to the Standard Model where CMS and ATLAS exclusion limits have been presented so far. We show where, on that parameter space, the lightest neutralino possesses a thermal relic abundance matching the value inferred by cosmological observations. We then calculate rates for, and estimate the perfo…
The binary millisecond radio pulsar PSR J1023+0038 exhibits many characteristics similar to the gamma-ray binary system PSR B1259--63/LS 2883, making it an ideal candidate for the study of high-energy non-thermal emission. It has been the subject of multi-wavelength campaigns following the disappearance of the pulsed radio emission in 2013 June, which revealed the appearance of an accretion disk around the neutron star. We present the results of very high-energy gamma-ray observations carried out by VERITAS before and after this change of state. Searches for steady and pulsed emission of both …
Several constructions, of stringy origins or not, generate abelian gauge extensions of the Standard Model (SM). Even if the particles of the SM are not charged under this extra $U'(1)$, one cannot avoid the presence of a kinetic mixing between $U'(1)$ and the hypercharge $U_Y(1)$. In this work, we constraint drastically this kinetic mixing, taking into account the recent experimental data from accelerator physics, direct detection and indirect detection of dark matter. We show that the region respecting WMAP and experimental constraints is now very narrowed along the pole line where $M_{Z_D}\s…
Indirect searches for products of dark matter annihilation and decay face the challenge of identifying an uncertain and subdominant signal in the presence of uncertain backgrounds. Two valuable approaches to this problem are (1) using analysis methods which take advantage of different features in the energy spectrum and angular distribution of the signal and backgrounds, and (2) more accurate characterization of backgrounds, which allows for more robust identification of possible signals. These two approaches are complementary and can be significantly strengthened when used together. I review …
We introduce a new type of gamma-ray spectral feature, which we denominate gamma-ray triangle. This spectral feature arises in scenarios where dark matter self-annihilates via a chiral interaction into two Dirac fermions, which subsequently decay in flight into another fermion and a photon. The resulting photon spectrum resembles a sharp triangle and can be readily searched for in the gamma-ray sky. Using data from the Fermi-LAT and H.E.S.S. instruments, we find no evidence for such spectral feature and therefore set strong upper bounds on the corresponding annihilation cross section. A concre…
We investigate the scenario where the dark matter only interacts with the charged leptons in the standard model via a neutral vector mediator $Z'$. Such a scenario with a 430 GeV dark matter can fit the recent positron fluxes observed by the AMS-02 Collaborations, with the reasonable boost factors. We study the possibility of searching such leptophilic $Z'$ via its lepton final states and invisible decay modes at the future electron-positron colliders, such as the International Linear Collider (ILC) and the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC). We find that for the benchmark models with $Z'$ mass fr…
I present a short overview of the latest developments in indirect searches for dark matter using gamma rays, X-rays, charged cosmic rays, micro waves, radio waves, and neutrinos. I briefly outline key past, present, and future experiments and their search strategies. In several searches there are exciting anomalies which could potentially be emerging dark matter signals. I discuss these anomalous signals, and some future prospects to determine their origins.
Low-energy antinuclei measurements for background-free indirect dark matter searches and PBH signatures
Northeastern University（东北大学）；University of Hawaii at Manoa（夏威夷大学马诺阿分校）；University of Torino/INFN（都灵大学/意大利国家核物理研究所）；University of Maryland, Baltimore County（马里兰大学巴尔的摩县分校）；University of Wisconsin–Madison（威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校）；Stockholm University（斯德哥尔摩大学）；Oakland University（奥克兰大学）；University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）；University of California, Santa Cruz（加利福尼亚大学圣克鲁兹分校）；Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）
In these lectures, I describe a variety of efforts to identify or constrain the identity of dark matter by detecting the annihilation or decay products of these particles, or their effects. After reviewing the motivation for indirect searches, I discuss what we have learned about dark matter from observations of gamma rays, cosmic rays and neutrinos, as well as the cosmic microwave background. Measurements such as these have been used to significantly constrain a wide range of thermal relic dark matter candidates, in particular those with masses below a few hundred GeV. I also discuss a number…
Indirect dark matter searches targeting dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) have matured rapidly during the past decade. This has been because of the substantial increase in kinematic data sets from the dSphs, the new dSphs that have been discovered, and the operation of the Fermi-LAT and many ground-based gamma-ray experiments. Here we review the analysis methods that have been used to determine the dSph dark matter distributions, in particular the "J-factors," comparing and contrasting them, and detailing the underlying systematics that still affect the analysis. We discuss prospects for impro…
Indirect Searches for Dark Photon-Photon Tridents in Celestial Objects
Stockholm University（斯德哥尔摩大学）；The Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics（奥斯卡·克莱因宇宙粒子物理中心）；Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica（中央研究院物理研究所）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine（加州大学欧文分校物理与天文学系）
These lectures, presented at TASI 2016: Anticipating the Next Discoveries in Particle Physics, provide an introduction to some key methods and tools of indirect dark matter searches. Topics covered include estimation of dark matter signals, thermal freezeout and related scenarios, potential effects of dark matter annihilation on the early universe, modeling photon signals from annihilation or decay, and a brief and qualitative introduction to diffusive propagation of cosmic rays. The second half of the notes gives a status report (circa summer 2016) on selected experimental searches, the resul…
While dark matter (DM) is the key ingredient for a successful theory of structure formation, its microscopic nature remains elusive. Indirect detection may provide a powerful test for some strongly motivated DM particle models. Nevertheless, astrophysical backgrounds are usually expected with amplitudes and spectral features similar to the chased signals. On galactic scales, these backgrounds arise from interactions of cosmic rays (CRs) with the interstellar gas, both being difficult to infer and model in detail from observations. Moreover, the associated predictions unavoidably come with theo…
We derive the spectra arising from non-relativistic dark matter annihilations or decays into intermediary particles with arbitrary spin, which subsequently produce neutrinos or photons via two-body decays. Our approach is model independent and predicts spectral features restricted to a kinematic box. The overall shape within that box is a polynomial determined by the polarization of the decaying particle. We illustrate our findings with two examples. First, with the neutrino spectra arising from dark matter annihilations into the massive Standard Model gauge bosons. Second, with the gamma-ray …
The quest for the elusive dark matter (DM) that permeates the Universe (and in general the search for signatures of Physics beyond the Standard Model at astronomical scales) provides a unique opportunity and a tough challenge to the high-energy astrophysics community. In particular, the so-called DM indirect searches - mostly focused on a class of theoretically well-motivated DM candidates such as the weakly-interacting massive particles - are affected by a complex astrophysical background of cosmic radiation. The understanding and modeling of such background requires a deep comprehension of a…
