Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 88-93). / If dark matter consists of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), such as the supersymmetric neutralino, various theories predict that their annihilation in the galaxy can give rise to anomalous features in the otherwise smooth spectra of charged cosmic rays. Up to now searches for these spectral anomalies have focused largely on antiparticles (p, e+) due to their lower astrophysical backgrounds. In this thesis we present results of a search for dark matter annihilation in the charge Z = -1 spectrum of AMS-01 (essentially electrons and antiprotons). To avoid model dependent complications we assume that the primary annihilation channel is through W+W- production. We use the galactic propagation software GALPROP to determine the dark matter spectra at Earth from a smooth isothermal source. Fits to the data did not reveal any contribution from dark matter and limits were placed on the rate of W+W- production in the galaxy and on the corresponding cross-section for WIMP annihilation through the W+W- channel (given a smooth isothermal distribution). / by Gianpaolo Patrick Carosi. / Ph.D.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MIT/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34398 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Carosi, Gianpaolo Patrick |
| Contributors | Peter Fisher and Kate Scholberg., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics. |
| Publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Source Sets | M.I.T. Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 93 p., application/pdf |
| Rights | M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission., http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/34398, http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 |
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