Licentiate thesis: A Search for Dark Matter Lines with H.E.S.S II
by
Knut Dundas Morå(Stockholm University, Department of Physics)
→
Europe/Stockholm
FB42
FB42
Description
small or no interactions with standard model particles. Dark matter is an integral part of the
current understanding of cosmology, and leaves signs in the movements of stars and galaxies,
as well as the Cosmic Microwave Background. The erakly interacting massive particle
(WIMP) is a well-studied dark matter model that would be expected to have a mass around
the weak scale, 100 GeV. WIMPs annihilating in the galactic center could give rise to monoenergetic
gamma-rays in addition to a more extended spectrum. This thesis details a search for
a dark matter line in a region 1.5° west of the galactic center using the High Energy
Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) imaging air Cherenkov telescope. The inclusion of a fifth
telescope in the array enabled the analysis to extend the HESS energy range down to 100 GeV
for a spectral line search. At 130 GeV, a limit of 1.38 10^-27 cm^3/s on the velocity-weighted
cross-section at 95% confidence limit could be set using15.2 hours of data. The analysis is the
first paper using all five telescopes of H.E.S.S. II. The main subject of the thesis has been in
optimization of this analysis as well as future H.E.S.S. pointings.
