Direct constraints on the dark matter self-interaction cross-section from the merging galaxy cluster 1E0657-56

By M. Markevitch, A. Gonzalez, D. Clowe, A. Vikhlinin, L. David, W. Forman, C. Jones, S. Murray, W. T. CfA, U. Florida and 3 more. 2003

829 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We compare new maps of the hot gas, dark matter, and galaxies for 1E0657-56, a cluster with a rare, high-velocity merger occurring nearly in the plane of the sky. The X-ray observations reveal a bullet-like gas subcluster just exiting the collision site. A prominent bow shock gives an estimate of the subcluster velocity, 4500 km/s, which lies mostly in the plane of the sky. The optical image shows that the gas lags behind the subcluster galaxies. The weak-lensing mass map reveals a dark matter clump lying ahead of the collisional gas bullet, but coincident with the effectively collisionless galaxies. From these observations, one can directly estimate the cross-section of the dark matter self-interaction. That the dark matter is not fluid-like is seen directly in the X-ray -- lensing mass overlay; more quantitative limits can be derived from three simple independent arguments. The most sensitive constraint, sigma/m<1 cm^2/g, comes from the consistency of the subcluster mass-to-light ratio with the main cluster (and universal) value, which rules out a significant mass loss due to dark matter particle collisions. This limit excludes most of the 0.5-5 cm^2/g interval proposed to explain the flat mass profiles in galaxies. Our result is only an order-of-magnitude estimate which involves a number of simplifying, but always conservative, assumptions; stronger constraints may be derived using hydrodynamic simulations of this cluster.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3810d76b3196a735bcc746498cf9e058e2aaa3dd

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Citations in the corpus

THE ATACAMA COSMOLOGY TELESCOPE: ACT-CL J0102−4915 “EL GORDO,” A MASSIVE MERGING CLUSTER AT REDSHIFT 0.87 (2011, methodology): “These bullet systems have been used to offer direct evidence for the existence of dark matter (Clowe et al. 2004, 2006) and to set constraints on the self-interaction cross-section of the dark matter particle (Markevitch et al. 2004; Randall et al. 2008; Bradač et al. 2008).”
Double-Disk Dark Matter (2013, background): “Observations of the Bullet Cluster have also set bounds on dark matter self-interactions [38,39], which for SIDM have been argued to be weaker than those from halo shapes [17, 33].”
Sensitivity projections for dark matter searches with the Fermi large area telescope (2016, neutral): “, [16]) or Standard Model particles (e.”
Search for Gravitational Lensing Signatures in LIGO-Virgo Binary Black Hole Events (2019, background): “Gravitational lensing, verified by numerous electromagnetic observations, has led to groundbreaking findings such as the detection of exoplanets (Cassan et al. 2012) and highly credible evidence for dark matter (Clowe et al. 2004; Markevitch et al. 2004).”
Revealing the Properties of Dark Matter in the Merging Cluster MACS J0025.4–1222 (2008, methodology): “Secondly, the apparent survival of the dark matter content after the recent merger event, implied by the massto-light ratios, confirms that the dark matter needs to be collisionless (Markevitch et al. 2004).”
X-ray–optical classification of cluster mergers and the evolution of the cluster merger fraction (2011, methodology): “…of dark matter (Clowe et al. 2006; Limousin et al. 2010; Richard et al. 2010) and has, in addition, been used to place upper limits on the dark matter self-interaction cross-section, σ /m, of the putative dark matter particle (Markevitch et al. 2004; Clowe et al. 2006; Bradač et al. 2008).”
Cosmological Parameters from Observations of Galaxy Clusters (2011, positive): “Using gravitational lensing data to estimate the dark matter column densities through these clusters, Markevitch et al. (2004) and Bradač et al. (2008a) use the observed dark matter and X-ray peak separations to derive limits on the velocity-independent dark matter self-interaction cross-section…”
Discovery of a Ringlike Dark Matter Structure in the Core of the Galaxy Cluster Cl 0024+17 (2007, methodology): “Observational constraints on self-interacting cross sections of dark matter particles can be made by a variety of methods (e.g., Spergel & Steinhardt 2000; Miralda-Escude 2002; Gnedin & Ostriker 2001; Furlanetto & Loeb 2002; Hennawi & Ostriker 2002; Natarajan et al. 2002; Markevitch et al. 2004).”
Cosmology and Fundamental Physics with the Euclid Satellite (2012, methodology): “Furthermore, more recent analyses of SIDM models (Markevitch et al. 2004; Randall et al. 2008) utilize data from the Bullet Cluster to provide another independent limit on the scattering cross section, though the upper bound remains unchanged.”
A Dark Core in Abell 520 (2007, methodology): “This offset provides compelling geometrical evidence for the existence of dark matter (Clowe et al. 2006) as well as limits on the dark matter self-interaction cross section (Markevitch et al. 2004).”
Gravitational lensing (2010, background): “Several recent studies find the x-ray gas lagging behind the dark matter in merging clusters [81, 228, 308], as expected for hot gas embedded into collision-less darkmatter halos.”