1) Dark Matter

In the standard cosmology model, the normal matter, dark matter and dark energy share ~4.9%, 26.6%, 68.5% of the total energy density of today’s Universe. All of the evidence for the dark matter is from its gravitational effects, and its physical nature is unknown. One of the leading candidates for dark matter particles is the weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). WIMPs may annihilate with each other or decay, and then produce stable standard model particle pairs, such as electrons/positrons, neutrinos/anti-neutrinos, protons/antiprotons and gamma-rays. Measuring the spectra and/or spatial distributions of these cosmic rays and gamma-rays can be an effective way to probe dark matter --- known as indirect detection. DAMPE will be able to precisely measure the cosmic ray and gamma-ray spectra from 10 GeV to 10 TeV. Anomalous peaks or structures in the energy spectra of electrons/positrons or gamma rays could signal the existence of dark matter particles.

2) Cosmic rays

With 3+ years’ operation, DAMPE will be able to measure electrons/positrons from 10 GeV to greater than 10 TeV, and protons/heliums and heavier nuclei from 10 GeV to greater than 100 TeV. The spectra, as well as the anisotropy, of these particles will improve our understanding of the origin and interstellar propagation of cosmic rays. In particular, DAMPE may be able to test a long-standing hypothesis that nearby pulsars or supernova remnants (e.g., Vela) are efficient TeV electron accelerators.

3) Gamma-ray astronomy

DAMPE observes gamma-ray photons in the energy range of 0.6 GeV to greater than 10 TeV with very high energy resolution (<1.5% @ 800 GeV). The collected gamma-ray data can be used to study the violent high energy astrophysical processes in gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei, pulsars, the Fermi GeV bubbles and so on. High energy gamma-ray observations can also probe the extragalactic background light, the intergalactic magnetic field, and the fundamental physics such as Lorentz invariance violation and quantum gravity.