SEARCH FOR DARK MATTER THROUGH VERY HIGH ENERGY GAMMA-RAYS

Annihilations of WIMPs can occur in high density regions of our Galaxy such as the Galactic Centre, dwarf galaxies and other types of substructures in Galactic haloes. High energy gamma-rays can be produced and may be detected by imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs). After a short overview of observations with current IACTs, basic principles of indirect detection through gamma-rays are given. Selected results on targeted searches such as satellites galaxies of the Milky Way are shown. In the absence of a clear signal, modelling the dark matter halo profile of these objects allows to put constraints on the particle physics parameters such as the annihilation cross section and the mass of the dark matter particle in the framework of models beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Besides theses searches are wide-field survey searches for DM substructures in the Galactic halo. The case for dark matter spikes around intermediate mass black holes will be discussed. Finally, the next generation of IACTs is presented.