A Multi-disciplinary Approach to Dark Matter Searches

Download or read book A Multi-disciplinary Approach to Dark Matter Searches written by Miguel Figueiredo Vaz Pato and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A large portion of the present Universe is composed of a non-luminous kind of matter, which is intrinsically distinct from ail mass constituents known to exist. The evidence for this so-called Dark Matter spans sub-galactic to cosmological scales, and strongly suggests that it contributes around 80-85% of the matter content in our Universe. Over the past years, numerous experimental results relevant for Dark Matter searches have been released, triggering a great deal of excitement in the field. Moreover, plenty of data are expected in the near future. This thesis aims at linking Dark Matter models and their experimental signatures in current and upcoming detectors. As far as indirect Dark Matter detection is concerned, special attention is paid to the recently reported electron/positron excess in cosmic rays, which can in principle be explained by Dark Matter annihilations in our Galaxy. In order to test this possibility we perform a multi-messenger analysis combining the constraints from different astrophysical channels such as antiprotons, gamma-rays and radio signals. The uncertainties entering the computation of Dark Matter signatures are very significant and ultimately limit our ability to extract the properties of Dark Matter in case of discovery. Therefore, to assess and forecast ail relevant uncertainties is crucial, and a large portion o this thesis is devoted to that topic. In particular, we study the prospects for pinpointing cosmic-ray propagation with AMS-02, the systematic uncertainties regarding the local Dark Matter density and the effect of astrophysical unknowns on direct detection experiments.