Constraining the Collisional Nature of the Dark Matter Through Observations of Gravitational Wakes

Abstract

We propose to use gravitational wakes as a direct observational probe of the collisional nature of the dark matter. We calculate analytically the structure of a wake generated by the motion of a galaxy in the core of an X-ray cluster for dark matter in the highly-collisional and collisionless limits. We show that the difference between these limits can be recovered from detailed X-ray or weak lensing observations. We also discuss the sizes of sub-halos in these limits. Preliminary X-ray data on the motion of NGC 1404 through the Fornax group disfavors fluid-like dark matter but does not exclude scenarios in which the dark matter is weakly collisional.

29 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ

References in corpus (6)

• Off-Axis Cluster Mergers: Effects of a Strongly Peaked Dark Matter Profile
• Substructure and dynamics of the Fornax Cluster
• Q-ball candidates for self-interacting dark matter
• Chandra observtaion of A2256 - a cluster at the early stage of merging
• Zooming in on the Coma Cluster with Chandra: Compressed Warm Gas in the Brightest Cluster Galaxies
• Signatures of Galaxy-Cluster Interactions: Spiral Galaxy Rotation Curve Asymmetry, Shape, and Extent

Cited by in corpus (29)

• Dark Matter Self-interactions and Small Scale Structure
• Direct constraints on the dark matter self-interaction cross-section from the merging galaxy cluster 1E0657-56
• Constraints on the Self-Interaction Cross-Section of Dark Matter from Numerical Simulations of the Merging Galaxy Cluster 1E 0657-5
• A Textbook Example of a Bow Shock in the Merging Galaxy Cluster 1E0657-56
• Hunting for the Dark Matter Wake Induced by the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Towards Closing the Window on Strongly Interacting Dark Matter: Far-Reaching Constraints from Earth's Heat Flow
• Dark Matter Candidates: A Ten-Point Test
• Discovery of a Ringlike Dark Matter Structure in the Core of the Galaxy Cluster Cl 0024+17
• Dynamical Friction of a Circular-Orbit Perturber in a Gaseous Medium
• All-Sky Dynamical Response of the Galactic Halo to the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Formation and Evolution of the Self-Interacting Dark Matter Halos
• Constraints on the Collisional Nature of the Dark Matter from Gravitational Lensing in the Cluster A2218
• The effect of the deforming dark matter haloes of the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud on the Orphan-Chenab stream
• Challenges for Kinetic Unified Dark Matter
• Weak Lensing Results of the Merging Cluster A1758
• Nonlinear Dynamical Friction in a Gaseous Medium
• Structure, Kinematics, and Observability of the Large Magellanic Cloud's Dynamical Friction Wake in Cold vs. Fuzzy Dark Matter
• Dark matter-baryons separation at the lowest mass scale: the Bullet Group
• Gravitationally Induced Density Wake of a Circularly Orbiting Object As an Interpretative Framework of Ubiquitous Spirals and Arcs
• The gravitational drag force on an extended object moving in a gas
• Radial structure, inflow & central mass of stationary radiative galaxy clusters
• I. Analysis of candidates for interacting galaxy clusters
• Gaseous drag on a gravitational perturber in Modified Newtonian Dynamics and the structure of the wake
• A determination of the LMC dark matter subhalo mass using the MW halo stars in its gravitational wake
• Gaseous Dynamical Friction: a Numerical Study of Extended Perturbers
• New Cold Dark Matter Crisis Revealed by Multiscale Cluster Lensing
• Dipole Distortions in the Intergalactic Medium
• Constraining the Nature of Dark Matter from Tidal Radii of Cluster Galaxy Subhalos
• The Multidimensional Milky Way