Astrophysical Tests of Dark Matter Self-Interactions

Adhikari, Susmita; Banerjee, Arka; Boddy, Kimberly K.; Cyr-Racine, Francis-Yan; Desmond, Harry; Dvorkin, Cora; Jain, Bhuvnesh; Kahlhoefer, Felix; Kaplinghat, Manoj; Nierenberg, Anna; Peter, Annika H. G.; Robertson, Andrew W.; Sakstein, Jeremy; Zavala, Jesús

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2207.10638

Cited by 21 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 595 publications

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“…The self-interactions can thermalize the inner regions of dark matter halos and affect the distribution of dark matter in galaxies. Recent studies have shown that such a scenario can be favored in explaining kinematic measurements of stars and gas particles in dwarf galaxies, see [125,126]. The advantage of considering inelastic self-interacting dark matter is that it can evade stringent direct detection constraints [127,128] if the mass splitting between χ 1 and χ 2 is sufficiently large such that χ 1 + ξ → χ 2 + ξ is forbidden.…”

Section: Constraining Inelastic Dark Matter With a Light Mediatormentioning

confidence: 99%

Heating Neutron Stars with Inelastic Dark Matter and Relativistic Targets

Alvarez,

Joglekar,

Phoroutan-Mehr

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The dense environment of neutron stars makes them an excellent target for probing dark matter interactions with the Standard Model. We study neutron star heating from capture of inelastic dark matter, which can evade direct detection constraints. We investigate kinematics of the inelastic scattering process between quasirelativistic dark matter particles and ultrarelativistic targets in neutron stars, and derive analytical expressions for the maximal mass gap allowed for the scattering to occur. We implement them into a fully relativistic formalism for calculating the capture rate and apply it to various scenarios of inelastic dark matter. The projected constraints from neutron stars can systematically surpass those from terrestrial searches, including direct detection and collider experiments. Neutron stars can also be sensitive to the parameter space of inelastic self-interacting dark matter. Our results indicate that extreme astrophysical environments, such as neutron stars, are an important target for searching dark matter.

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Section: Constraining Inelastic Dark Matter With a Light Mediatormentioning

confidence: 99%

Heating Neutron Stars with Inelastic Dark Matter and Relativistic Targets

Alvarez,

Joglekar,

Phoroutan-Mehr

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…Given the differences we find in the LMC's DM and stellar wakes between FDM and CDM, it is also worth asking whether other DM particle candidates might also impact the DM and/or stellar wake in unique ways. In particular, self-interacting DM (SIDM; Carlson et al 1992;Spergel & Steinhardt 2000; see also Tulin &Yu 2018 andAdhikari et al 2022 for recent reviews), in which the DM particle has some nonnegligible cross section for self-scattering, has emerged as another promising alternative to CDM. In the context of DF wakes, self-scattering between DM particles could potentially alter both the density and velocity of DM particles within the wake, as well as induce a bow shock or mach cone in the DM (Furlanetto & Loeb 2002).…”

Section: Self-interacting Dark Mattermentioning

confidence: 99%

Structure, Kinematics, and Observability of the Large Magellanic Cloud’s Dynamical Friction Wake in Cold versus Fuzzy Dark Matter

Foote,

Besla,

Mocz

et al. 2023

ApJ

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The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) will induce a dynamical friction (DF) wake on infall to the Milky Way (MW). The MW’s stellar halo will respond to the gravity of the LMC and the dark matter (DM) wake, forming a stellar counterpart to the DM wake. This provides a novel opportunity to constrain the properties of the DM particle. We present a suite of high-resolution, windtunnel-style simulations of the LMC's DF wake that compare the structure, kinematics, and stellar tracer response of the DM wake in cold DM (CDM), with and without self-gravity, versus fuzzy DM (FDM) with m a = 10−23 eV. We conclude that the self-gravity of the DM wake cannot be ignored. Its inclusion raises the wake’s density by ∼10%, and holds the wake together over larger distances (∼50 kpc) than if self-gravity is ignored. The DM wake’s mass is comparable to the LMC’s infall mass, meaning the DM wake is a significant perturber to the dynamics of MW halo tracers. An FDM wake is more granular in structure and is ∼20% dynamically colder than a CDM wake, but with comparable density. The granularity of an FDM wake increases the stars’ kinematic response at the percent level compared to CDM, providing a possible avenue of distinguishing a CDM versus FDM wake. This underscores the need for kinematic measurements of stars in the stellar halo at distances of 70–100 kpc.

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“…The first 𝑁-body simulation using a Monte Carlo scheme of this core formation has been performed by Burkert (2000). Since then SIDM has been found to be capable of solving or at least mitigating further small-scale problems of Cold Dark Matter (CDM) (for a review see Tulin & Yu 2018;Adhikari et al 2022). This does not only include the core-cusp problem (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cosmological simulations with rare and frequent dark matter self-interactions

Fischer

Brüggen

Schmidt-Hoberg

et al. 2022

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Dark matter (DM) with self-interactions is a promising solution for the small-scale problems of the standard cosmological model. Here we perform the first cosmological simulation of frequent DM self-interactions, corresponding to small-angle DM scatterings. The focus of our analysis lies in finding and understanding differences to the traditionally assumed rare DM (large-angle) self scatterings. For this purpose, we compute the distribution of DM densities, the matter power spectrum, the two-point correlation function and the halo and subhalo mass functions. Furthermore, we investigate the density profiles of the DM haloes and their shapes. We find that overall large-angle and small-angle scatterings behave fairly similarly with a few exceptions. In particular, the number of satellites is considerably suppressed for frequent compared to rare self-interactions with the same cross-section. Overall we observe that while differences between the two cases may be difficult to establish using a single measure, the degeneracy may be broken through a combination of multiple ones. For instance, the combination of satellite counts with halo density or shape profiles could allow discriminating between rare and frequent self-interactions. As a by-product of our analysis, we provide - for the first time - upper limits on the cross-section for frequent self-interactions.

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Astrophysical Tests of Dark Matter Self-Interactions

Cited by 21 publications

References 595 publications

Heating Neutron Stars with Inelastic Dark Matter and Relativistic Targets

Heating Neutron Stars with Inelastic Dark Matter and Relativistic Targets

Structure, Kinematics, and Observability of the Large Magellanic Cloud’s Dynamical Friction Wake in Cold versus Fuzzy Dark Matter

Cosmological simulations with rare and frequent dark matter self-interactions

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