Searching for dwarf spheroidal galaxies and other Galactic dark matter substructures with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Over the past century, it has become clear that about a quarter of the known universe is composed of an invisible, massive component termed ``dark matter''. Some of the most popular theories of physics beyond the Standard Model suggest that dark matter may be a new fundamental particle that could self-annihilate to produce gamma rays. Nearby over-densities in the dark matter halo of our Milky Way present some of the most promising targets for detecting the annihilation of dark matter. We used the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on-board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to search for gamma rays produced by dark matter annihilation in Galactic dark matter substructures. We searched for gamma-ray emission coincident with Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies, which trace the most massive Galactic dark matter substructures. We also sought to identify nearby dark matter substructures that lack all astrophysical tracers and would be detectable only through gamma-ray emission from dark matter annihilation. We found no conclusive evidence for gamma-ray emission from dark matter annihilation, and we set stringent and robust constraints on the dark matter annihilation cross section. While gamma-ray searches for dark matter substructure are currently the most sensitive and robust probes of dark matter annihilation, they are just beginning to intersect the theoretically preferred region of dark matter parameter space. Thus, we consider future prospects for increasing the sensitivity of gamma-ray searches through improvements to the LAT instrument performance and through upcoming wide-field optical surveys.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2013 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Drlica-Wagner, Alex |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Physics. |
| Primary advisor | Bloom, E. (Elliott) |
| Thesis advisor | Bloom, E. (Elliott) |
| Thesis advisor | Allen, Steven W. (Steven Ward) |
| Thesis advisor | Funk, Stefan, 1974- |
| Advisor | Allen, Steven W. (Steven Ward) |
| Advisor | Funk, Stefan, 1974- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Alex Drlica-Wagner. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Physics. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2013. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2013 by Karl Alexander Drlica-Wagner
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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