Searching For Dark Matter With Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes PDF Download

The H.E.S.S. (High Energy Spectroscopic System) experiment is an array of five Cherenkov telescopes that observe the sky in gamma-rays from about 100 GeV up to several ten TeV.Gamma rays are produced in violent non-thermal phenomena in the Universe in the neighborhood of pulsars, supernovae, black holes, ..., and could also be produced by the annihilation of dark matter particles.Numerous cosmological and astrophysical probes suggest that 85% of the total matter budget in the Universe is of unknown origin. This component of matter known as dark matter is non baryonic and could consist of yet undiscovered particles which privileged candidates are arguably massive particles with electroweak couplings with ordinary matter (WIMPs).Dark matter particles may annihilate into Standard Model particles in dense regions of the Universe. Among the annihilation products are photons which detection at high energy with ground-based Cherenkov telescopes could bring unique information on the nature of the dark matter.H.E.S.S. observes dark-matter-dense regions of the sky such as the Galactic Center and dwarf galaxy satellites of the Milky Way. A study on the interpretation of an excess of gamma-rays detected by H.E.S.S. at the Galactic Center in terms of acceleration of protons by a population of unresolved millisecond pulsars is performed.10 years of observations of the Galactic Center with the four-telescope H.E.S.S.-I array, five years of data taking towards the Galactic Center region with the full H.E.S.S.-II array and a two-years dataset towards newly discovered dwarf spheroidal galaxies are analyzed. The search for dark matter annihilation signals towards these targets provided the strongest limits so far on dark matter annihilation cross section in gamma rays of TeV energies. The potential of dark matter detection with the upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) towards the inner Galactic halo are studied. They may annihilate into Standard Model particles in dense regions of the Universe. Among the annihilation products are high energy photons. The detection of these photons with ground-based Cherenkov telescopes may reveal the nature of the dark matter. H.E.S.S. have observed some dark-matter-dense regions of the sky likethe Galactic Center and dwarf galaxies satellites of the Milky Way. In this work 10 years of observations of the Galactic Center with the four-telescopes H.E.S.S.-I array, five years of data taking towards the Galactic Center region with the full H.E.S.S.-II array and a two-years dataset towards newly discovered dwarf spheroidal galaxies are analyzed. The searches for dark matter annihilation signals towards these targets produced the strongest limits so far on dark matter annihilation cross section in gamma rays of TeV energies.Perspectives of dark matter detection with the future array CTA (Cherenkov Telescope Array) towards the inner Galactic halo are also discussed. A study on the interpretation of an excess of gamma-rays detected by H.E.S.S. at the Galactic Center in terms of acceleration of protons by a population of unresolved millisecond pulsars complements the dark matter searches.