Three Birds with One Stone: Core-Collapsed SIDM Halos as the Common Origin of Dense Perturbers in Lenses, Streams, and Satellites

Abstract

We show that core-collapsed self-interacting dark matter halos of mass $\sim 10^6{M}_{\odot }$, originally simulated to explain the dense perturber of the GD-1 stellar stream, also reproduce the structural properties inferred for the dense perturber detected in the strong lensing system JVAS B1938+666 from radio observations. Furthermore, these halos are sufficiently compact and dense to gravitationally capture field stars in satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, providing a natural explanation for the origin of Fornax 6, a stellar cluster in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Our results demonstrate that observations of halos with similar masses but residing in different cosmic environments offer a powerful and complementary probe of self-interacting dark matter.

4 pages, 2 figures; added new Figure 2 and extended discussion; accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters