scholarly journals Precision Measurement Noise Asymmetry and Its Annual Modulation as a Dark Matter Signature

Universe ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin M. Roberts ◽  
Andrei Derevianko

Dark matter may be composed of self-interacting ultralight quantum fields that form macroscopic objects. An example of which includes Q-balls, compact non-topological solitons predicted by a range of theories that are viable dark matter candidates. As the Earth moves through the galaxy, interactions with such objects may leave transient perturbations in terrestrial experiments. Here we propose a new dark matter signature: an asymmetry (and other non-Gaussianities) that may thereby be induced in the noise distributions of precision quantum sensors, such as atomic clocks, magnetometers, and interferometers. Further, we demonstrate that there would be a sizeable annual modulation in these signatures due to the annual variation of the Earth velocity with respect to dark matter halo. As an illustration of our formalism, we apply our method to 6 years of data from the atomic clocks on board GPS satellites and place constraints on couplings for macroscopic dark matter objects with radii R<104km, the region that is otherwise inaccessible using relatively sparse global networks.

1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhardt R. Meurer

AbstractRecent results on NGC 2915, the first blue compact dwarf galaxy to have its mass distribution modelled, are summarised. NGC 2915 is shown to have HI well beyond its detected optical extent. Its rotation curve is well determined and fit with maximum disk mass models. The dark matter halo dominates the mass distribution at nearly all radii, and has a very dense core compared to those of normal galaxies. High-mass star formation energises the HI in the centre of the galaxy, but appears to be maintained in viriai equilibrium with the dark matter halo. The implications of these results are briefly discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 492 (4) ◽  
pp. 5102-5120
Author(s):  
Ryan Leaman ◽  
Tomás Ruiz-Lara ◽  
Andrew A Cole ◽  
Michael A Beasley ◽  
Alina Boecker ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Recent photometric observations revealed a massive, extended (MGC ≳ 105 M⊙; Rh ∼ 14 pc) globular cluster (GC) in the central region (D3D ≲ 100 pc) of the low-mass (M* ∼ 5 × 106 M⊙) dwarf irregular galaxy Pegasus. This massive GC offers a unique opportunity to study star cluster inspiral as a mechanism for building up nuclear star clusters, and the dark matter (DM) density profile of the host galaxy. Here, we present spectroscopic observations indicating that the GC has a systemic velocity of ΔV = 3 ± 8 km s−1 relative to the host galaxy, and an old, metal-poor stellar population. We run a suite of orbital evolution models for a variety of host potentials (cored to cusped) and find that the GC’s observed tidal radius (which is ∼3 times larger than the local Jacobi radius), relaxation time, and relative velocity are consistent with it surviving inspiral from a distance of Dgal ≳ 700 pc (up to the maximum tested value of Dgal = 2000 pc). In successful trials, the GC arrives to the galaxy centre only within the last ∼1.4 ± 1 Gyr. Orbits that arrive in the centre and survive are possible in DM haloes of nearly all shapes, however to satisfy the GC’s structural constraints a galaxy DM halo with mass MDM ≃ 6 ± 2 × 109 M⊙, concentration c ≃ 13.7 ± 0.6, and an inner slope to the DM density profile of −0.9 ≤ γ ≤ −0.5 is preferred. The gas densities necessary for its creation and survival suggest the GC could have formed initially near the dwarf’s centre, but then was quickly relocated to the outskirts where the weaker tidal field permitted an increased size and relaxation time – with the latter preserving the former during subsequent orbital decay.


2019 ◽  
Vol 485 (3) ◽  
pp. 3296-3316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Wegg ◽  
Ortwin Gerhard ◽  
Marie Bieth

Abstract From a sample of 15651 RR Lyrae with accurate proper motions in Gaia DR2, we measure the azimuthally averaged kinematics of the inner stellar halo between 1.5  and 20  kpc from the Galactic centre. We find that their kinematics are strongly radially anisotropic, and their velocity ellipsoid nearly spherically aligned over this volume. Only in the inner regions ${\lesssim } 5\, {\rm kpc}\,$ does the anisotropy significantly fall (but still with β &gt; 0.25) and the velocity ellipsoid tilt towards cylindrical alignment. In the inner regions, our sample of halo stars rotates at up to $50\, {\rm km}\, {\rm s}^{-1}\,$, which may reflect the early history of the Milky Way, although there is also a significant angular momentum exchange with the Galactic bar at these radii. We subsequently apply the Jeans equations to these kinematic measurements in order to non-parametrically infer the azimuthally averaged gravitational acceleration field over this volume, and by removing the contribution from baryonic matter, measure the contribution from dark matter. We find that the gravitational potential of the dark matter is nearly spherical with average flattening $q_\Phi ={1.01 \pm 0.06\, }$ between 5 and 20 kpc, and by fitting parametric ellipsoidal density profiles to the acceleration field, we measure the flattening of the dark matter halo over these radii to be $q_\rho ={1.00 \pm 0.09\, }\!.$


2019 ◽  
Vol 488 (4) ◽  
pp. 4801-4815 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fangzhou Jiang ◽  
Avishai Dekel ◽  
Omer Kneller ◽  
Sharon Lapiner ◽  
Daniel Ceverino ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The similarity between the distributions of spins for galaxies (λgal) and for dark-matter haloes (λhalo), indicated both by simulations and observations, is naively interpreted as a one-to-one correlation between the spins of a galaxy and its host halo. This is used to predict galaxy sizes in semi-analytic models via Re ≃ fjλhaloRvir, where Re is the half-mass radius of the galaxy, fj is the angular momentum retention factor, and Rvir is the halo radius. Using two suites of zoom-in cosmological simulations, we find that λgal and the λhalo of its host halo are in fact barely correlated, especially at z ≥ 1, in line with previous indications. Since the spins of baryons and dark matter are correlated at accretion into Rvir, the null correlation in the end reflects an anticorrelation between fj and λhalo, which can arise from mergers and a ‘wet compaction’ phase that many high-redshift galaxies undergo. It may also reflect that unrepresentative small fractions of baryons are tapped to the galaxies. The galaxy spin is better correlated with the spin of the inner halo, but this largely reflects the effect of the baryons on the halo. While λhalo is not a useful predictor for Re, our simulations reproduce a general relation of the form of Re = ARvir, in agreement with observational estimates. We find that the relation becomes tighter with A = 0.02(c/10)−0.7, where c is the halo concentration, which in turn introduces a dependence on mass and redshift.


1995 ◽  
Vol 74 (15) ◽  
pp. 2867-2871 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Alcock ◽  
R. A. Allsman ◽  
T. S. Axelrod ◽  
D. P. Bennett ◽  
K. H. Cook ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 497 (2) ◽  
pp. 2393-2417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandres Lazar ◽  
James S Bullock ◽  
Michael Boylan-Kolchin ◽  
T K Chan ◽  
Philip F Hopkins ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We analyse the cold dark matter density profiles of 54 galaxy haloes simulated with Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE)-2 galaxy formation physics, each resolved within $0.5{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the halo virial radius. These haloes contain galaxies with masses that range from ultrafaint dwarfs ($M_\star \simeq 10^{4.5}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$) to the largest spirals ($M_\star \simeq 10^{11}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$) and have density profiles that are both cored and cuspy. We characterize our results using a new, analytic density profile that extends the standard two-parameter Einasto form to allow for a pronounced constant density core in the resolved innermost radius. With one additional core-radius parameter, rc, this three-parameter core-Einasto profile is able to characterize our feedback-impacted dark matter haloes more accurately than other three-parameter profiles proposed in the literature. To enable comparisons with observations, we provide fitting functions for rc and other profile parameters as a function of both M⋆ and M⋆/Mhalo. In agreement with past studies, we find that dark matter core formation is most efficient at the characteristic stellar-to-halo mass ratio M⋆/Mhalo ≃ 5 × 10−3, or $M_{\star } \sim 10^9 \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$, with cores that are roughly the size of the galaxy half-light radius, rc ≃ 1−5 kpc. Furthermore, we find no evidence for core formation at radii $\gtrsim 100\ \rm pc$ in galaxies with M⋆/Mhalo &lt; 5 × 10−4 or $M_\star \lesssim 10^6 \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$. For Milky Way-size galaxies, baryonic contraction often makes haloes significantly more concentrated and dense at the stellar half-light radius than DMO runs. However, even at the Milky Way scale, FIRE-2 galaxy formation still produces small dark matter cores of ≃ 0.5−2 kpc in size. Recent evidence for a ∼2 kpc core in the Milky Way’s dark matter halo is consistent with this expectation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 485 (2) ◽  
pp. 2407-2416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lehman H Garrison ◽  
Daniel J Eisenstein

ABSTRACT We present a method for generating suites of dark matter halo catalogues with only a few N-body simulations, focusing on making small changes to the underlying cosmology of a simulation with high precision. In the context of blind challenges, this allows us to re-use a simulation by giving it a new cosmology after the original cosmology is revealed. Starting with full N-body realizations of an original cosmology and a target cosmology, we fit a transfer function that displaces haloes in the original so that the galaxy/HOD power spectrum matches that of the target cosmology. This measured transfer function can then be applied to a new realization of the original cosmology to create a new realization of the target cosmology. For a 1 per cent change in σ8, we achieve 0.1 per cent accuracy to $k = 1\, h\, \mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ in the real-space power spectrum; this degrades to 0.3 per cent when the transfer function is applied to a new realization. We achieve similar accuracy in the redshift-space monopole and quadrupole. In all cases, the result is better than the sample variance of our $1.1\, h^{-1}\, \mathrm{Gpc}$ simulation boxes.


1996 ◽  
Vol 173 ◽  
pp. 209-214
Author(s):  
C.W. Stubbs ◽  
C. Alcock ◽  
R.A. Allsman ◽  
D. Alves ◽  
T.S. Axelrod ◽  
...  

Gravitational microlensing is the most straightforward interpretation of the stellar brightenings that have been observed by our team and other experiments. These data have provided some of the most stringent limits to date on the nature of the Galaxy's dark matter halo. The number of events seen towards the LMC indicate that our Galaxy is not surrounded by a “standard” halo of MACHOs in the mass range of 10–6 to 0.3 solar masses. The observed optical depth towards the Galactic Center is an important constraint on the distribution of mass in the plane of the Galaxy.


2004 ◽  
Vol 220 ◽  
pp. 343-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maarten Baes ◽  
Herwig Dejonghe ◽  
Jonathan I. Davies

Using detailed Monte Carlo radiative transfer modeling, we examine the effects of absorption and scattering by interstellar dust on the observed kinematics of galaxies. Our modeling results have a direct impact on the derivation of the properties of dark matter haloes around both elliptical and spiral galaxies. We find that interstellar dust has a very significant effect on the observed stellar kinematics of elliptical galaxies, in the way that it mimics the presence of a dark matter halo. Taking dust into account in kinematical modeling procedures can reduce or even eliminate the need for dark matter at a few effective radii. Dust profoundly affects the optical rotation curve and stellar kinematics of edge-on disc galaxies. This effect, however, is significantly reduced when the galaxy is more than a few degrees from strictly edge-on. These results demonstrate that dust attenuation cannot be invoked as a possible mechanism to reconcile the discrepancies between the observed shallow slopes of LSB galaxy rotation curves and the dark matter cusps found in CDM cosmological simulations.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (S244) ◽  
pp. 226-230
Author(s):  
A. H. Nelson ◽  
P. R. Williams

AbstractWe report simulations of the formation of a giant disc galaxy from cosmological initial conditions. Two sets of initial conditions are used, initially smooth density for both gas and stars, representing the Warm dark Matter scenario, and an initially fluctuating density representing the standard spectrum for the Cold dark Matter scenario. For the WDM initial conditions, the galaxy has a population of long lived dwarf satellites at z = 0, with orbits close to a plane coincident with that of the giant galaxy disc. The detailed properties of these dwarfs mimic closely the observed properties of Local Group dwarfs with respect to mass, and kinematics. However they do not have individual dark matter halos, but orbit in the nearly spherical dark matter halo of the giant galaxy. The reason for this is that the initial population of dwarf dark matter haloes, which form during the initial collapse phase, all merge into the halo of the giant galaxy within a few to several Gyears, while the long lived dwarfs form as a secondary population by gravitational collapse of high angular momentum gas in the outer reaches of the giants proto-galactic disc. Due to their late formation and their more distant orbits, they survive until the present epoch as individual dwarf galaxies at radii 20-50kpc from the giants centre. For CDM initial conditions there are many more dwarf satellites at z = 0, some of which form early on as gas condensations in DM sub-halos, and survive with these individual DM halos till z = 0 due to their being sufficiently well bound to avoid merging with the main galaxy. However even in this case some second generation satellites form as initially gas only objects, just as for the smooth initial conditions of WDM.


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