Speaker
Description
Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) continue to be one of the best instruments to search for dark matter indirectly. One of the key criteria to an effective search is the selection of sources. In the past, these sources have been selected based on their high J-factors (e.g. the galactic center and dwarf spheroidal galaxies) but after many deep searches, IACTs have yet to find any dark matter signal from any of these sources. In many cosmological simulations, one of the natural outputs is a series of dense substructures located nearby which may have higher J-factors than even some dwarf spheroidals and could be detectable by both Fermi-LAT and VERITAS. We have performed a search for such candidates in the Fermi-LAT catalog and have observed the strongest canidates with VERITAS to confirm or refute their dark matter origin. We will discuss some of the unique signatures and parallel science benefits that can be obtained in such a study using three new candidates as examples.
