Constraints on dark matter self-interaction from galactic core size
Abstract
Self-interaction of particulate dark matter may help thermalising the central region of the galactic halo and driving core formation. The core radius is expectedly sensitive to the self-interaction strength of dark matter (DM). In this paper we study the feasibility of constraining dark matter self-interaction from the distribution of the core radius in isolated haloes. We perform systematic DM only N-body simulations of spherically symmetric isolated galactic haloes in the mass range of 1010-1015 M ⊙, incorporating the impact of isotropic DM self-interaction. Comparing the simulated profiles with the observational data, we provide a conservative upper limit on the self-interaction cross-section, σ/m < 9.8 cm2 / gm at 95 % confidence level. We report significant dependence of the derived bounds on the galactic density distribution models assumed for the analysis.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
- Pub Date:
- September 2022
- DOI:
- 10.1088/1475-7516/2022/09/011
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2202.12247
- Bibcode:
- 2022JCAP...09..011S
- Keywords:
-
- dark matter theory;
- cosmological simulations;
- dark matter simulations;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies;
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
- E-Print:
- 19 pages, 2 tables and 9 figures, matches published version