Prospects of detecting gamma-ray signal of dark matter interaction with the MACE telescope

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the potential of the MACE gamma-ray telescope to detect dark matter interactions by analyzing its sensitivity to gamma-ray signals from WIMP annihilation in astrophysical environments like Segue1.

Contribution

It presents a feasibility study of using MACE to constrain dark matter particle properties, specifically the velocity-averaged annihilation cross-section, through simulated gamma-ray spectra.

Findings

MACE can set upper limits on <σv> for WIMPs in the 200 GeV - 10 TeV range.

Simulations show MACE's sensitivity to gamma-ray signals from dark matter annihilation.

Feasibility of detecting or constraining dark matter signals with 100 hours of observation.

Abstract

The MACE (Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment) telescope has started its regular gamma-ray observations at Hanle in India. Located at an altitude of $\sim$ 4.3 km above sea level and equipped with a 21 m diameter large quasi-parabolic reflector, it has the capability to explore the gamma-ray sky in the energy range above 20 GeV with very high sensitivity. In this work, we present the results from the feasibility studies for searching high-energy gamma-ray signals from dark matter interaction in potential astrophysical environments. We study the impact of MACE response function and other instrumental characteristics to probe the velocity average interaction cross-section ($<\sigma v>$) of the weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), expected from the thermal dark matter freeze-out during the decoupling era. We consider the presence of dark matter in the form of pure WIMPs in the mass range 200 GeV - 10 TeV to produce distinctive gamma-ray spectra through its self-annihilation into standard model particles using the Pythia simulation package. The convolution of gamma-ray spectra corresponding to different standard model channels with the MACE response function is used to estimate the upper limit on $<\sigma v>$ for 100 hours of expected MACE observation of Segue1 (a dwarf spheroidal galaxy) which is a potential site of dark matter.