Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

TeV dark matter search program with the Cherenkov Telescope Array: the strategy and synergies with current gamma-ray experiments

Gabrijela Zaharijas
(T. Bringmann, C. Eckner, A. Sokolenko, L. Yang (for the CTA consortium))

Abstract:

High-energy gamma rays are among the most promising tools to constrain or reveal the nature of dark matter, in particular the Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMP) models. The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is well into its pre-construction phase and will soon probe the high-energy gamma-ray sky in the 20 GeV - 300 TeV energy range. Thanks to its improved energy and angular resolutions as well as significantly larger effective area when compared to the current generation of ground based Cherenkov telescopes, the CTA is expected to probe a parameter space of heavier dark matter (above 100 GeV), with unprecedented sensitivity, reaching the dark matter thermal annihilation rate at the TeV regime. This talk will summarize the planned dark matter search strategies with CTA, focusing on the signal of dark matter in the center of our Galaxy. As observed with the Fermi LAT at lower energies, this region exhibits complex gamma-ray emission and the CTA is expected to be the first ground based observatory sensitive to large scale diffuse astrophysical emission, also present in that region. In this talk we report on the collaboration effort to study the impact of extended astrophysical emission backgrounds on dark matter search, based on the astrophysical emission observed with the Fermi/LAT at lower energies and to suggest the promising data analysis and observational strategies for the upcoming CTA data.