Gamma-ray searches for new physics - backgrounds and new tools

by Pearl Sandick (University of Utah)

Friday Mar 13, 2026, 4:00 PM → 5:00 PM Pacific/Honolulu

Room 114 (Watanabe Hall)

Indirect searches for dark matter using dwarf spheroidal galaxies are a promising technique that complements other indirect and direct dark matter detection strategies.  In this short talk, I'll cover some interesting new tools developed as a Utah-Hawai'i collaboration that facilitate gamma-ray searches for new physics, including MADHAT and TweedleDEE.  Searches for new physics are often limited by systematic uncertainties in modeling diffuse gamma-ray backgrounds.  To this point I'll discuss a recent likelihood-based comparison of locally constructed empirical background models (such as those used by TweedleDEE) and theoretically-motivated models that incorporate the Fermi-LAT diffuse background.