An SIDM Solution to the Extreme Diversity of Low-mass Halo Properties

Author:

Ethan O. Nadler, Daneng Yang, Hai-Bo Yu

Keyword:

Astrophysics, Astrophysics of Galaxies, Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA), Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)

journal:

date:

2023-06-01 16:00:00

Abstract

The properties of low-mass dark matter halos appear to be remarkably diverse relative to predictions of cold, collisionless dark matter, even in the presence of baryons. We show that self-interacting dark matter can simultaneously explain two extreme measurements of halo diversity in different directions -- namely, the rotation curves of low-concentration halos associated with gas-rich ultra-diffuse galaxies in the field and the inner density profile of the dense substructure perturbing the strong lens galaxy SDSSJ0946+1006. We present the first cosmological zoom-in simulation featuring strong dark matter self-interactions in a galaxy group environment centered on a $10^{13}~M_{\mathrm{\odot}}$ host halo. These interactions produce kiloparsec-scale cores in low-concentration isolated halos, which could host the ultra-diffuse galaxies, while most surviving subhalos of the group-mass host are deeply core-collapsed, yielding excellent candidates for the observed dense strong-lens perturber. Our scenario can be further tested with observations of galactic systems over a wide mass range.

PDF: An SIDM Solution to the Extreme Diversity of Low-mass Halo Properties.pdf