Project F5:
"Empowering indirect dark-matter searches with cosmological surveys"

Project Description

Dark matter constitutes roughly one-fourth of the total mass-energy content of the Universe, but its nature remains yet elusive. Searches for dark matter across all channels have historically been driven by theoretical progress in concert with more powerful experiments and more sensitive search methods. A promising channel has been opened up by searches for gamma-rays from annihilation or decay of dark-matter (DM) particles in DM-dominated objects like dwarf galaxies in the halo of the Milky Way, the Galactic Center, or other local mass concentrations. This project is primarily dedicated to the indirect detection of dark matter using state-of-the-art very high-energy gamma-ray and radio observatories. We leverage wide-field cosmological surveys to search for the most promising faint dwarf galaxy targets and map large-scale structure, thereby maximising the sensitivity of these astrophysical searches.
In Phase 1 of CIM, we achieved the first combination of cosmological and astroparticle-physics limits on dark matter, and we discovered a previously unknown dwarf spheroidal galaxy in cosmological survey data, demonstrating the power of this method to uncover new targets.
In Phase 2 we continue to employ cosmological surveys for the discovery of candidate dwarf galaxies in the halo of the Milky Way for identifying the best targets for indirect Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) searches, by addressing the questions:

1. How far can we improve the analysis threshold of present telescopes in the energy regime relevant for DM searches, and how can we use observation time most efficiently?
2. What are the properties, in addition to a high mass-to-light (M/L) ratio, that makes a galactic dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) an ideal target for future DM searches?
3. What new high M/L targets for indirect DM searches can be identified from wide-field cosmological surveys?
4. Can we complement targeted DM searches with cross-correlations between the large-scale structure (LSS) and radio/ gamma-ray data to yield competitive constraints?