Section on Prospects for Dark Matter Detection of the White Paper on the Status and Future of Ground-Based TeV Gamma-Ray Astronomy

This is a report on the findings of the dark matter science working group for the white paper on the status and future of TeV gamma-ray astronomy. The white paper was commissioned by the American Physical Society, and the full white paper can be found on astro-ph (arXiv:0810.0444). This detailed section discusses the prospects for dark matter detection with future gamma-ray experiments, and the complementarity of gamma-ray measurements with other indirect, direct or accelerator-based searches. We conclude that any comprehensive search for dark matter should include gamma-ray observations, both to identify the dark matter particle (through the charac- teristics of the gamma-ray spectrum) and to measure the distribution of dark matter in galactic halos.Comment: Report from the Dark Matter Science Working group of the APS commissioned White paper on ground-based TeV gamma ray astronomy (19 pages, 9 figures

Determining Supersymmetric Parameters With Dark Matter Experiments

In this article, we explore the ability of direct and indirect dark matter experiments to not only detect neutralino dark matter, but to constrain and measure the parameters of supersymmetry. In particular, we explore the relationship between the phenomenological quantities relevant to dark matter experiments, such as the neutralino annihilation and elastic scattering cross sections, and the underlying characteristics of the supersymmetric model, such as the values of mu (and the composition of the lightest neutralino), m_A and tan beta. We explore a broad range of supersymmetric models and then focus on a smaller set of benchmark models. We find that by combining astrophysical observations with collider measurements, mu can often be constrained far more tightly than it can be from LHC data alone. In models in the A-funnel region of parameter space, we find that dark matter experiments can potentially determine m_A to roughly +/-100 GeV, even when heavy neutral MSSM Higgs bosons (A, H_1) cannot be observed at the LHC. The information provided by astrophysical experiments is often highly complementary to the information most easily ascertained at colliders.Comment: 46 pages, 76 figure

A comparison between the detection of gamma rays and positrons from neutralino annihilation

We study the indirect detection of neutralino dark matter using positrons and gamma rays from its annihilation in the galactic halo. Considering the HESS data as the spectrum constituting the gamma--ray background, we compare the prospects for the experiments GLAST and PAMELA in a general supergravity framework with non--universal scalar and gaugino masses. We show that with a boost factor of about 10, PAMELA will be competitive with GLAST for typical NFW cuspy profiles.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, 1 reference added. Final version to appear in JCA

Section on prospects for dark matter detection of the white paper on the status and future of ground-based TeV gamma-ray astronomy.

This is a report on the findings of the dark matter science working group for the white paper on the status and future of TeV gamma-ray astronomy. The white paper was commissioned by the American Physical Society, and the full white paper can be found on astro-ph (arXiv:0810.0444). This detailed section discusses the prospects for dark matter detection with future gamma-ray experiments, and the complementarity of gamma-ray measurements with other indirect, direct or accelerator-based searches. We conclude that any comprehensive search for dark matter should include gamma-ray observations, both to identify the dark matter particle (through the characteristics of the gamma-ray spectrum) and to measure the distribution of dark matter in galactic halos

Section on prospects for dark matter detection of the white paper on the status and future of ground-based TeV gamma-ray astronomy.

This is a report on the findings of the dark matter science working group for the white paper on the status and future of TeV gamma-ray astronomy. The white paper was commissioned by the American Physical Society, and the full white paper can be found on astro-ph (arXiv:0810.0444). This detailed section discusses the prospects for dark matter detection with future gamma-ray experiments, and the complementarity of gamma-ray measurements with other indirect, direct or accelerator-based searches. We conclude that any comprehensive search for dark matter should include gamma-ray observations, both to identify the dark matter particle (through the charac- teristics of the gamma-ray spectrum) and to measure the distribution of dark matter in galactic halos

Dark Matter Signatures in the Anisotropic Radio Sky.

We calculate intensity and angular power spectrum of the cosmological background of synchrotron emission from cold dark matter annihilations into electron positron pairs. We compare this background with intensity and anisotropy of astrophysical and cosmological radio backgrounds, such as from normal galaxies, radio-galaxies, galaxy cluster accretion shocks, the cosmic microwave background and with Galactic foregrounds. Under modest assumptions for the dark matter clustering we find that around 2 GHz average intensity and fluctuations of the radio background at sub-degree scales allows to probe dark matter masses >100 GeV and annihilation cross sections not far from the natural values ~ 3 x 10^(-26) cm^3/s required to reproduce the correct relic density of thermal dark matter. The angular power spectrum of the signal from dark matter annihilation tends to be flatter than that from astrophysical radio backgrounds. Furthermore, radio source counts have comparable constraining power. Such signatures are interesting especially for future radio detectors such as SKA.Comment: 30 papes, jcap preprint format, 11 figures; final version, very minor change