Dark matter dynamics and indirect detection
Abstract
Non-baryonic, or “dark”, matter is believed to be a major component of the total mass
budget of the universe. We review the candidates for particle dark matter and discuss
the prospects for direct detection (via interaction of dark matter particles with laboratory detectors) and indirect detection (via observations of the products of dark matter self-annihilations), focusing in particular on the Galactic center, which is among the most promising targets for indirect detection studies. The gravitational potential at the Galactic center is dominated by stars and by the supermassive black hole, and the dark matter distribution is expected to evolve on sub-parsec scales due to interaction with
these components. We discuss the dominant interaction mechanisms and show how they
can be used to rule out certain extreme models for the dark matter distribution, thus
increasing the information that can be gleaned from indirect detection searches.
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