Halo Properties in Cosmological Simulations of Self-interacting Cold Dark Matter

By R. Dav'e, David N. Spergel, Paul J. Steinhardt, Benjamin Dan Wandelt. 2000

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We present a comparison of halo properties in cosmological simulations of collisionless cold dark matter (CDM) and self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) for a range of dark matter cross sections. We find, in agreement with various authors, that CDM yields cuspy halos that are too centrally concentrated as compared to observations. Conversely, SIDM simulations using a Monte Carlo N-body technique produce halos with significantly reduced central densities and flatter cores. We introduce a concentration parameter based on enclosed mass that we expect will be straightforward to determine observationally and present predictions for SIDM and CDM. SIDM also produces more spherical halos than CDM, providing possibly the strongest observational constraint on SIDM. In our simulations with SIDM cross sections σDM ≈ 10-23 to 10-25 cm2 GeV-1, collisions reduce the central density in galaxy halos, with larger cross sections producing lower densities. Simulations in the upper end of this range best match current observations of galaxy properties but are disfavored by cluster simulations of Yoshida and colleagues. This problem would be alleviated in models in which the cross section is velocity dependent.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d3a3e051b97a5dfb01c9ce9018cc80246e467da0

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Citations in the corpus

Dark Matter Candidates from Particle Physics and Methods of Detection (2010, background): “These expectations are borne out by simulations of self-interacting dark matter in the hard sphere limit (215; 218; 219).”
What does the Bullet Cluster tell us about Self-Interacting Dark Matter? (2016, methodology): “This algorithm is similar to that used in other SIDM simulations (Kochanek & White 2000; Yoshida et al. 2000; Davé et al. 2001; Koda & Shapiro 2011; Vogelsberger, Zavala & Loeb 2012; Fry et al. 2015), with these algorithms differing in the number of neighbours (or search volume) used to find…”
The Cosmological simulation code GADGET-2 (2005, background): “Also, both Yoshida et al. (2000) and Dav´e et al. (2001) studied halo formation with self-interacting dark matter, modelled by explicitly introducing collisional terms for the dark matter particles.”
Hidden charged dark matter (2009, background): “Cosmological simulations [79, 80] seem to indicate that core collapse occurs on a time scale much longer than the relaxation time scale, if at all.”
The Central Mass Distribution in Dwarf and Low Surface Brightness Galaxies (2002, background): “Early simulations foundα = 1 (Dubinski & Carlberg 1991, Navarro, Frenk, & White 1996, 1997), but later simulations found steeper slopes withα = 1.5 (Fukushige & Makino 1997; Moore et al. 1998, 1999; Davé et al. 2001; Klypin et al. 2001).”
Chandra Observations of A2029: The Dark Matter Profile Down to below 0.01rvir in an Unusually Relaxed Cluster (2002, background): “…of DM is the current subject of much theoretical work in cosmology, with detailed simulations yielding different expectations for the amount and distribution of DM in cluster cores (e.g., Navarro, Frenk, & White 1997, hereafter NFW97; Moore et al. 1999, hereafter M99; Davé et al. 2001).”
THE SHAPE OF THE INNER MILKY WAY HALO FROM OBSERVATIONS OF THE PAL 5 AND GD–1 STELLAR STREAMS (2016, background): “…especially interesting prediction, as, e.g., non-canonical dark–matter models such as self-interacting dark matter predict that halos should be spherical in their high-density inner regions (Spergel & Steinhardt 2000; Yoshida et al. 2000; Davé et al. 2001; Miralda-Escudé 2002; Peter et al. 2013).”
Core formation in dwarf haloes with self-interacting dark matter: no fine-tuning necessary (2014, background): “However, cosmological halos only see core collapse for higher cross sections, and not consistently for a fixed halo mass (Yoshida et al., 2000; Colı́n et al., 2002; Davé et al., 2001; Rocha et al., 2013).”
Mining for Dark Matter Substructure: Inferring Subhalo Population Properties from Strong Lenses with Machine Learning (2019, background): “Dark matter self-interactions (Spergel & Steinhardt 2000; Yoshida et al. 2000; Dav´e et al. 2001; Col´ın et al. 2002; Vogels-berger et al. 2012; Peter et al. 2013; Zavala et al. 2013; Kaplinghat et al. 2014, 2016; Kamada et al. 2017; Elbert et al. 2018; Vogelsberger et al. 2019; Kahlhoefer et al.…”