Dark Matter Annihilation and Decay Searches with the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory

Understand

In order to observe annihilation and decay of dark matter, several types of potential sources should be considered.

• Some sources, such as dwarf galaxies, are expected to have very low astrophysical backgrounds but fairly small dark matter densities.
• Other sources, like the Galactic center, are expected to have larger densities of dark matter but also have more complicated backgrounds from other astrophysical sources.
• To search for signatures of dark matter, the large field-of-view of the HAWC detector, covering 2 sr at a time, especially enables searches from sources of dark matter annihilation and decay, which are extended over several degrees on the sky.