Probing Cold Dark Matter Cusps by Gravitational Lensing

Abstract

I elaborate on my prediction that an indirect detection of cold dark matter (CDM) may be possible by observing the gravitational lensing effects of the CDM cusp caustics at cosmological distances. Cusps in the distribution of CDM are plentiful once density perturbations enter the nonlinear regime of structure formation. Caustic ring model of galactic halo formation provides a well defined density profile and geometry near the cusps of the caustic rings. I calculate the gravitational lensing effects of the cusps in this model. As a pointlike background source passes behind a cusp of a cosmological foreground halo, the magnification in its image may be detected by present instruments. Depending on the strength of detected effect and the time scale of brightness change, it may even be possible to discriminate between the CDM candidates: axions and weakly interacting massive particles.

Invited Contribution to the IJMPD Special Issue on Dark Matter and Dark Energy edited by D. Ahluwalia-Khalilova and D. Grumiller. To appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys. D Special December 2006 issue

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• The Caustic Ring Model of the Milky Way Halo
• Does the Second Caustic Ring of Dark Matter Cause the Monoceros Ring of Stars ?
• Constraint on dark matter central density in the Eddington inspired Born-Infeld (EiBI) gravity with input from Weyl gravity