New Frontiers in Indirect Dark Matter Detection: Probing capabilities of Future Ground-Based Gamma-Ray Observatories

• Grant number: 24/15560-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: January 15, 2025
• End date: January 14, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Elementary Particle Physics and Fields
• Principal Investigator: Aion da Escóssia Melo Viana
• Grantee: Aion da Escóssia Melo Viana
• Host Investigator: James Anthony Hinton
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Max Planck Society, Heidelberg, Germany
• Associated research grant: 21/01089-1 - Cherenkov Telescope Array: construction and first discoveries, AP.ESP

Abstract

The nature of dark matter stands as one of the most intriguing puzzles in particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. The Galactic Center, with its high density of dark matter and close proximity, is predicted to be the most intense source of gamma rays from annihilation or decay of these novel particles, potentially surpassing other sources by several orders of magnitude. Even with the significant background from various astrophysical sources, it continues to be one of the most promising regions for uncovering new, massive dark matter particles. This project focuses on the particle physics and astrophysical modeling of the dark matter signal and the backgrounds in the Galactic Center region. The primary objective is to apply new methods, based on multivariate regression and machine learning techniques, to disentangle the overlapping sources in this region to detect and characterize the dark matter component with the highest significance. These methods will be used to implement a multi-dimensional template analysis scheme, which will be applied to study the sensitivity of future observatories, such as the Southern Wide field-of-view Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO), in detecting dark matter annihilation or decay signals from the Galactic Center region.