Abstract

Indirect searches for dark matter are based on detecting an anomalous flux of photons, neutrinos or cosmic-rays produced in annihilations or decays of dark matter candidates gravitationally accumulated in heavy cosmological objects, like galaxies, the Sun or the Earth. Additionally, evidence for dark matter that can also be understood as indirect can be obtained from early universe probes, like fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background temperature, the primordial abundance of light elements or the Hydrogen 21-cm line. The techniques needed to detect these different signatures require very different types of detectors: Air shower arrays, gamma- and X-ray telescopes, neutrino telescopes, radio telescopes or particle detectors in balloons or satellites. While many of these detectors were not originally intended to search for dark matter, they have proven to be unique complementary tools for direct search efforts. In this review we summarize the current status of indirect searches for dark matter, mentioning also the challenges and limitations that these techniques encounter.

Highlights

  • The term “dark matter” was originally coined because of the need to explain the observed rotation curves of stars in galaxies and the peculiar velocities of galaxies within clusters

  • As we showed for the case of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the energy injected into the intergalactic medium due to dark matter annihilations can be related to the annihilation cross section and candidate mass

  • Even that severe constraints from accelerator experiments have closed a big chunk of the supersymmetric parameter space, which was originally a favourite to provide a dark matter candidate with the right mass and interaction strength, the possibilities for particle candidates remain quite wide: Models with very low or very high masses and/or very weak or strong interactions are still viable and escape current accelerator constraints

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Summary

Introduction

The term “dark matter” was originally coined because of the need to explain the observed rotation curves of stars in galaxies and the peculiar velocities of galaxies within clusters. I have tried to provide a personal choice of topics and mention some general problems faced in the field of indirect dark matter searches that I think are relevant and that sometimes can have a bearing on the interpretation of results (the choice of halo model or the consideration of particle physics or astrophysical uncertainties for example) This means that I have not followed a historical approach (there are excellent reviews from that perspective [21,22]), neither I have tried to be complete in describing the theoretical models being usually, or less usually, considered (there are excellent reviews on that [23,24,25]), or tried to be comprehensive in mentioning the results of every single experiment that exists in the field. With these caveats in mind, I hope this review is of use to some readers

Dark Matter in Galactic Halos
Commonly
Dark Matter Signatures from the Cosmos
The plot shows a combined limitaon results
Spectrum
Neutrinos
The IceCube result a two-component
10. Maximum
Cosmic-Rays
Constrains from Cosmology
Discussion
Background
Findings
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