Searching for Dark Matter in Dwarf Galaxies: How Observations of a Local Dwarf Galaxy Provide Insight into the Nature of Exotic Dark Matter

Despite more than 75 years of effort, astrophysicists are still trying to identify the particle or particles that comprise the majority of the dark matter. While the most direct approach may be to detect dark matter particles in a new instrument or manufacture them in a collider, these methods face significant challenges because dark matter is notoriously difficult to detect. In this book, an alternative approach is analyzed, in which we constrain the properties of dark matter by observing the by-products of the annihilation of dark matter particles with their antiparticles. Likely dark matter candidates, including the neutralino of supersymmetry theory, are expected to produce observable gamma rays from such annihilation events, as well as electrons and positrons, which should generate observable radio synchrotron radiation in the presence of normal galactic magnetic fields. This book is for anyone interested in how we can target dark matter-rich dwarf galaxies, without supermassive black holes or other large masses capable of disrupting the dark matter concentration at their centers, and use these signals to learn about the nature of exotic dark matter.