Joint Constraints on Fuzzy and Warm Dark Matter from Satellite Populations of the Milky Way and Andromeda

Abstract

We perform a joint analysis of the Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31) satellite populations to constrain the properties of fuzzy dark matter (FDM) and thermal-relic warm dark matter (WDM). We combine MW satellite observations from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) with M31 satellite data from the Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey (PAndAS), and model the corresponding observable satellite populations using the empirical galaxy--halo connection model described in Nadler et al. (2020) together with the appropriate selection functions. Uncertainties in the virial masses of the MW and M31 are incorporated through host-mass priors that linearly scale the relevant model parameters, allowing us to infer the full posterior distributions of all parameters. For the FDM case, we obtain $m_{\mathrm{FDM}}>1.74\times 10^{-20}\mathrm{eV}$ (95\% CL) and $m_{\mathrm{FDM}}>1.42\times 10^{-20}\mathrm{eV}$ (20:1 posterior ratio). For thermal-relic WDM, we find $m_{\mathrm{WDM}}>6.20\mathrm{keV}$ (95\% CL) and $m_{\mathrm{WDM}}>5.75\mathrm{keV}$ (20:1 posterior ratio). These results represent a moderate improvement over MW-only constraints, and provide the strongest constraints to date on the FDM and WDM derived from satellite galaxy populations in the Local Group.

15 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ