The Dark Matter Discovery Potential of the Advanced Particle-Astrophysics Telescope (APT)

Abstract

Gamma-ray observations of Milky Way dwarf galaxies have been used to place stringent constraints on the dark matter's annihilation cross section. In this paper, we evaluate the sensitivity of the proposed Advanced Particle-astrophysics Telescope (APT) to dark matter in these systems, finding that such an instrument would be capable of constraining thermal relics with masses as large as $m_X\sim 600 \, {\rm GeV}$. Furthermore, in dark matter scenarios motivated by the observed Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess, we predict that APT would detect several dwarf galaxies with high-significance. Such observations could be used to test the predicted proportionality between the gamma-ray fluxes and $J$-factors of individual dwarf galaxies, providing us with an unambiguous test of the origin of the Galactic Center Excess.