Search for Dark Matter Satellites Using the Fermi-Lat

Numerical simulations based on the ΛCDM model of cosmology predict a large number of as yet unobserved Galactic dark mattersatellites. We report the results of a Large Area Telescope (LAT) search for these satellites via the γ-ray emission expected from the annihilationof weakly interacting massive particle( WIMP) dark matter. Some dark mattersatellites are expected to have hard γ-ray spectra, finite angular extents, and a lack of counterparts at other wavelengths. We sought to identify LAT sources with these characteristics, focusing on γ-ray spectra consistent with WIMP annihilationthrough the bb channel. We found no viable dark mattersatellite candidates using one year of data, and we present a framework for interpreting this result in the context of numerical simulations to constrain the velocity-averaged annihilationcross section for a conventional 100GeV WIMP annihilatingthrough the bb channel.