Speaker
Kirsten Anne Tollefson
(Michigan State University (US))
Description
The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory is a continuously operated, wide field-of-view (FOV) observatory sensitive to 100 GeV – 100 TeV gamma rays and cosmic rays. HAWC has been making observations since summer 2012 and officially commenced data-taking operations with the completed detector on March 20, 2015. With an instantaneous FOV of 2 steradians, HAWC observes 2/3 of the sky in 24 hours and can be used to search for astrophysical signatures of dark matter (DM) and primordial black holes (PBHs). In particular, HAWC should be the most sensitive experiment to signals coming from annihilation or decay of dark matter with masses greater than 10-100 TeV. I will present the HAWC sensitivity and current limits to dark matter signals from several likely sources of these signals, including dwarf spheroidal galaxies, galaxy clusters, emission from the center of the Milky Way, and from non-luminous dark matter subhalos. I will also show HAWC's sensitivity and current limits on evaporating PBHs.
Author
Kirsten Anne Tollefson
(Michigan State University (US))
