Is a Simple Collisionless Relic Dark Matter Particle Ruled Out?

Abstract

The central densities of dark matter (DM) halos are much lower than predicted in cold DM models of structure formation. Confirmation that they have cores with a finite central density would allow us to rule out many popular types of collisionless particle as candidates for DM. Any model that leads to cusped halos (such as cold DM) is already facing serious difficulties on small scales and hot DM models have been excluded. Here I show that fermionic warm DM is inconsistent with the wide range of phase space densities in the DM halos of well-observed nearby galaxies.

6 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX uses emulateapj.sty, revised version to appear in ApJ Letters. Argument clarified and strengthened in response to criticism, conclusions little changed

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• Dwarf Galaxy Rotation Curves and the Core Problem of Dark Matter Halos
• Formation and structure of halos in a warm dark matter cosmology
• Halo Cores and Phase Space Densities: Observational Constraints on Dark Matter Physics and Structure Formation
• Constraints on Warm Dark Matter from Cosmological Reionization
• Halpha rotation curves: the soft core question
• Unitarity Bounds and the Cuspy Halo Problem
• Dark matter in Draco and the Local Group: Implications for direct detection experiments
• A Large Dark Matter Core in the Fornax Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy?
• New Mass Estimators for Tracer Populations
• A Limit on the Cosmological Mass Density and Power Spectrum from the Rotation Curves of Low Surface Brightness Galaxies
• MOND plus classical neutrinos not enough for cluster lensing
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• Dynamical friction for dark halo satellites: effects of tidal massloss and growing host potential
• Dark matter phase space densities
• Supersymmetric dark matter in M31: can one see neutralino annihilation with CELESTE?
• The Central Mass and Phase-Space Densities of Dark Matter Halos: Cosmological Implications
• The Halo Density Profiles with Non-Standard N-body Simulations