Les Houches Lectures on Indirect Detection of Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper provides an overview of indirect dark matter detection methods, including theoretical models, expected signals, and current experimental constraints, aimed at graduate students for foundational understanding.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive introduction to the key concepts, tools, and current status of indirect dark matter searches, emphasizing intuition and practical methods.

Findings

Discussion of energy injection effects on the early universe

Outline of methods to calculate particle energy and spatial distributions

Summary of current constraints and anomalies in indirect detection

Abstract

These lectures, presented at the 2021 Les Houches Summer School on Dark Matter, provide an introduction to key methods and tools of indirect dark matter searches, as well as a status report on the field circa summer 2021. Topics covered include the possible effects of energy injection from dark matter on the early universe, methods to calculate both the expected energy distribution and spatial distribution of particles produced by dark matter interactions, an outline of theoretical models that predict diverse signals in indirect detection, and a discussion of current constraints and some claimed anomalies. These notes are intended as an introduction to indirect dark matter searches for graduate students, focusing primarily on intuition-building estimates and useful concepts and tools.