Sensitivity Reach to TeV Dark Matter

Even though TeV-scale dark matter (DM) candidates face challenges from decades of null searches, the scenario remains compelling given that simple realizations such as Wino and Higgsino DM remain undetected. The ultimate sensitivity, at the moment of the writing, of current Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes is explored in the context of a broad range of TeV-scale DM candidates—including specific ones such as the Wino, Higgsino, and Quintuplet. Realistic mock H.E.S.S.-like observations of the inner Milky Way halo are performed and several uncertainties impacting the limits are explored—from theoretical expectations on the DM distribution and spectra, to the instrumental and astrophysical background uncertainties. H.E.S.S.-like instruments can obtain results competitive with neutrino telescopes when exploring annihilation into neutrino line final states. The sensitivity to the Wino and Quintuplet can probe thermal masses, while the thermal Higgsino is still standing a factor of a few out of reach for the adopted DM distributions.