Simulations of Galaxy Cluster Collisions with a Dark Plasma Component

Abstract

Dark plasma is an intriguing form of self-interacting dark matter with an effective fluid-like behavior, which is well motivated by various theoretical particle physics models. We aim to find an explanation for an isolated mass clump in the Abell 520 system, which cannot be explained by traditional models of dark matter, but has been detected in weak lensing observations. We performed N-body smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of galaxy cluster collisions with a two component model of dark matter, which is assumed to consist of a predominant non-interacting dark matter component and a 10-40 percent mass fraction of dark plasma. The mass of a possible dark clump was calculated for each simulation in a parameter scan over the underlying model parameters. In two higher resolution simulations shock-waves and Mach cones were observed to form in the dark plasma halos. By choosing suitable simulation parameters, the observed distributions of dark matter in both the Bullet Cluster (1E 0657-558) and Abell 520 (MS 0451.5+0250) can be qualitatively reproduced.

12 pages, 1 table, 6 figures now including two internal energy maps. The final version to appear in Astronomy & Astrophysics

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Cited by in corpus (14)

• Dynamics of millicharged dark matter in supernova remnants
• Long range dark matter self-interactions and plasma instabilities
• Astrophysical Tests of Dark Matter Self-Interactions
• The Weak Scale from Weak Gravity
• Dark matter halos in the multicomponent model. I. Substructure
• Unification for the Darkly Charged Dark Matter
• Astrophysical Plasma Instabilities induced by Long-Range Interacting Dark Matter
• Resolution of the small scale structure issues with dissipative dark matter from multiple Standard Model sectors
• The Realistic Scattering of Puffy Dark Matter
• Probing Self-Interacting Dark Matter via Gravitational-Wave Background from Eccentric Supermassive Black Hole Mergers
• Boosting Asymmetric Charged DM via Thermalization
• MeV scale model of SIMP dark matter, neutrino mass and leptogenesis
• Dark plasmas in the nonlinear regime: constraints from particle-in-cell simulations
• Structure Formation with Dark Magnetohydrodynamics