A Search for Dark Matter Gamma Rays in the Galactic Halo with HAWC

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC) is a high energy (500 GeV to 100 TeV) gamma ray detector located in central Mexico. HAWC operates via the water Cherenkov technique and has both a wide (~2 sr) field of view and near continuous duty cycle, making it ideal for unbiased sky surveys and analysis of highly extended sources. We made use of HAWC's survey abilities to search for dark matter signals originating from the Galactic halo. By taking an unbiased sample of the sky, we set characteristic upper limits on dark matter annihilation as a function of declination. These limits are then used to calculate the HAWC sensitivity to dark matter emission at various points in the sky and calculate the HAWC sensitivity to emission from dark matter substructure assuming a particular model. With this sensitivity model, we find the optimal regions for various dark matter spatial profiles of the Galactic main halo for a dark matter search with HAWC. We perform a search for dark matter gamma rays in this region and set upper limits on dark matter annihilation in the Galactic halo.