Interstellar Gas and a Dark Disk

Abstract

We introduce a potentially powerful method for constraining or discovering a thin dark matter disk in the Milky Way. The method relies on the relationship between the midplane densities and scale heights of interstellar gas being determined by the gravitational potential, which is sensitive to the presence of a dark disk. We show how to use the interstellar gas parameters to set a bound on a dark disk and discuss the constraints suggested by the current data. However, current measurements for these parameters are discordant, with the uncertainty in the constraint being dominated by the molecular hydrogen midplane density measurement, as well as by the atomic hydrogen velocity dispersion measurement. Magnetic fields and cosmic ray pressure, which are expected to play a role, are uncertain as well. The current models and data are inadequate to determine the disk's existence, but, taken at face value, may favor its existence depending on the gas parameters used.

27 pages, 7 figures. Accepted to ApJ

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Cited by in corpus (22)

• Dark matter local density determination: recent observations and future prospects
• Constraining a Thin Dark Matter Disk with Gaia
• Using Gaia DR2 to Constrain Local Dark Matter Density and Thin Dark Disk
• Symmetry of Cosmological Observables, and a High Hubble Constant as an Indicator of a Mirror World Dark Sector
• Weighing the Galactic disk using phase-space spirals II. Most stringent constraints to a thin dark disk using Gaia EDR3
• The volumetric star formation law in the Milky Way
• Measuring the local matter density using Gaia DR2
• Cooling in a Dissipative Dark Sector
• Updated Kinematic Constraints on a Dark Disk
• Tracing the Dynamical Mass in Galaxy Disks Using HI Velocity Dispersion and its Implications for the Dark Matter Distribution in Galaxies
• The ALMA-ALPAKA survey II. Evolution of turbulence in galaxy disks across cosmic time: difference between cold and warm gas
• Direct Detection of Mirror Matter in Twin Higgs Models
• Nonthermal production of dark radiation and dark matter
• Point Sources from Dissipative Dark Matter
• Weighing the Galactic disk in sub-regions of the solar neighbourhood using Gaia DR2
• Using LSST Microlensing to Constrain Dark Compact Objects in Spherical and Disk Configurations
• Accretion of Dissipative Dark Matter onto Active Galactic Nuclei
• Galactic Geology: Probing Time-Varying Dark Matter Signals with Paleo-Detectors
• Weighing the Local Interstellar Medium using Gamma Rays and Dust
• Towards a fully consistent Milky Way disk model V. The disk model for 4 $-$ 14 kpc
• Testing merging of Dark Exotic Stars from Gravitational Waves in the Multi-messenger approach
• 6-quark Dark Matter