Towards detecting lines from dark matter annihilations with GLAST

Abstract: Dark matter (DM) constitutes one of the most intriguing but so far unresolved issues in physics. In many extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics, the existence of a stable Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) is predicted. The WIMP is an excellent DM particle candidate and one of the most interesting scenarios include an annihilation of two WIMPs into two gamma-rays. If the WIMPs are assumed to be non-relativistic, the resulting photons will both have an energy equal to the mass of the WIMP and will manifest themselves as a monochromatic spectral line in the energy spectrum. This type of signal would represent a “smoking gun” for DM, since no other known astrophysical process should be able to produce it. When searching for a line, the energy resolution and performance of the calorimeter are key factors. In this thesis, these are investigated using beam test data, taken at CERN in 2006. Four statistical methods that can be used to search for DM spectral lines are, then, studied in terms of their power and coverage. The methods are based on both hypothesis tests and confidence interval calculations. Two peak finding methods are also tested on a simulated data set representing one year of realistic data, obtained with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on-board the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST). The data set is called Service Challenge 2 (SC2) and contains a variety of gamma-ray sources, including different DM components. Finally, an upper limit on < ?? > ??, based on SC2, is calculated.