Sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array to a dark matter signal from the Galactic centre

Understand

We provide an updated assessment of the power of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) to search for thermally produced dark matter at the TeV scale, via the associated gamma-ray signal from pair-annihilating dark matter particles in the region around the Galactic centre.

• We find that CTA will open a new window of discovery potential, significantly extending the range of robustly testable models given a standard cuspy profile of the dark matter density distribution.
• Importantly, even for a cored profile, the projected sensitivity of CTA will be sufficient to probe various well-motivated models of thermally produced dark matter at the TeV scale.
• This is due to CTA's unprecedented sensitivity, angular and energy resolutions, and the planned observational strategy.