Dark matter in satellite galaxies: Will future Iimaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes play a role?

Addressing the question about the importance of future Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) for indirect detection of Dark Matter (DM), I will review the results of a paper by Bringmann et al. (2008) in which the authors computed the gamma-ray flux from DM annihilation associated to the halos of two reference dwarf Spheroidal galaxies, Draco and Willman 1. The previously neglected contribution of Virtual Internal Bremsstrahlung is also taken into account, which produces, when present, a bump in the higher part of the energy spectrum. The boost factor is the quantity used to describe how far the experiment is from probing interesting DM scenarios and it is computed for the next generation of IACTs, namely MAGIC-II and CTA. Due to the presence of spectral features, the boost factors can vary, becoming dependent to the characteristics of the particular DM candidate, obstacling a clear statement about prospects of detection. However, at least for the case of Willman 1 observed by CTA, boost factors may be below 10, even without considering the effect of substructures or the Sommerfeld enhancement. This, added to the comparison with the prospects of detection by the Fermi satellite, clearly demonstrate that the answer to the question in the title is an affirmative one.