CoPS/Nordita seminar [before December 2008]

Indirect search for dark matter with H.E.S.S.

by Dr Joachim Ripken (Stockholm university)

Europe/Stockholm
FA32

FA32

Description
The Universe is filled with non-baryonic Dark Matter which prevails the known form of matter (leptons and baryons). Indirect Dark Matter search methods are sensitive to self-annihilating Dark Matter candidates: among the spray of particles released in the self-annihilation process,gamma-rays and to some extent neutrinos can be used to trace regions with high overdensities of Dark Matter. The energy of these photons reaches up to the mass of the annihilating particles. For Dark Matter particles moremassive than $100 \, \text{GeV}$, atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes become sensitive to these radiation energies while for less massive particles, space-based detection techniques are favorable (e.g. with the recently commissioned Fermi mission). Here, we present a summary of results obtained with the H.E.S.S. experiment located in Namibia using four $100\, \text{m}^2$ optical telescopes to detect and image air Cherenkov lightfrom extensive air showers. The experiment has been used to search for annihilation radiation from various candidate regions with enhanced Dark Matter density.