Dark matter line searches with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
S. Abe, J. Abhir, A. Abhishek, F. Acero, A. Acharyya, R. Adam, Arnau Aguasca-Cabot, I. Agudo, Alejandra Aguirre-Santaella, Jorge Alfaro, R. Alfaro, Nuria Álvarez Crespo, Rafael Alves Batista, J.-P. Amans, Elena Amato, G. Ambrosi, Lucia Angel, C. Aramo, Cornelia Arcaro, T. T. H. Arnesen, Luisa Arrabito, Katsuaki Asano, Y. Ascasíbar, J. Aschersleben, Halim Ashkar, Michael Backes, Ali Baktash, Csaba Balázs, Matteo Balbo, Andrés Baquero, V. Barbosa Martins, U. Barres de Almeida, J. A. Barrio, Ivana Batković, R. Batzofin, J. Baxter, Jordi Gonzàlez, Geoff Beck, W. Benbow, D. Berge, E. Bernardini, J. Bernete, K. Bernlöhr, A. Berti, B. Bertucci, Pooja Bhattacharjee, Saptashwa Bhattacharyya, C. Bigongiari, A. Biland, E. Bissaldi, J. Biteau, O. Blanch, Jiří Blažek, F. Bocchino, C. Boisson, J. Bolmont, G. Bonnoli, Alberto Bonollo, P. Bordas, Ž. Bošnjak, E. Bottacini, M. Böttcher, Torsten Bringmann, E. Bronzini, Robert Brose, A. M. Brown, Giorgio Brunelli, A. Bulgarelli, T. Bulik, Irene Burelli, L. Burmistrov, Michael Burton, Mario Buscemi, T. Bylund, Jean-Yves Cailleux, A. Campoy-Ordaz, Brandon Khan Cantlay, Giulio Capasso, Anderson Caproni, R. Capuzzo‐Dolcetta, P. A. Caraveo, Sami Caroff, A. Carosi, R. Carosi, E. Carquín, Marie-Sophie Carrasco, F. Cassol-Brunner, Luca Castaldini, N. Castrejón, A. J. Castro‐Tirado, Davide Cerasole, M. Cerruti, P. M. Chadwick, S. Chaty, A. Chen, M. Chernyakova, A. Chiavassa, J. Chudoba, L. Chytka, Gloria Maria Cicciari
Abstract
Abstract Monochromatic gamma-ray signals constitute a potential smoking gun signature for annihilating or decaying dark matter particles that could relatively easily be distinguished from astrophysical or instrumental backgrounds. We provide an updated assessment of the sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) to such signals, based on observations of the Galactic centre region as well as of selected dwarf spheroidal galaxies. We find that current limits and detection prospects for dark matter masses above 300 GeV will be significantly improved, by up to an order of magnitude in the multi-TeV range. This demonstrates that CTA will set a new standard for gamma-ray astronomy also in this respect, as the world's largest and most sensitive high-energy gamma-ray observatory, in particular due to its exquisite energy resolution at TeV energies and the adopted observational strategy focussing on regions with large dark matter densities. Throughout our analysis, we use up-to-date instrument response functions, and we thoroughly model the effect of instrumental systematic uncertainties in our statistical treatment. We further present results for other potential signatures with sharp spectral features, e.g. box-shaped spectra, that would likewise very clearly point to a particle dark matter origin.