Do dark matter axions form a condensate with long-range correlation?
Recently there has been significant interest in the claim that dark matter axions gravitationally thermalize and form a Bose-Einstein condensate with a cosmologically long-range correlation. This has potential consequences for galactic scale observations. Here we critically examine this claim. We po...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Physical Society
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99961 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6742-4532 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3850-3688 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3802-5206 |
| _version_ | 1811086285909000192 |
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| author | Guth, Alan Hertzberg, Mark Peter Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics Guth, Alan Hertzberg, Mark Peter Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda |
| author_sort | Guth, Alan |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Recently there has been significant interest in the claim that dark matter axions gravitationally thermalize and form a Bose-Einstein condensate with a cosmologically long-range correlation. This has potential consequences for galactic scale observations. Here we critically examine this claim. We point out that there is an essential difference between the thermalization and formation of a condensate due to repulsive interactions, which can indeed drive long-range order, and that due to attractive interactions, which can lead to localized Bose clumps (stars or solitons) that only exhibit short-range correlation. While the difference between repulsion and attraction is not present in the standard collisional Boltzmann equation, we argue that it is essential to the field theory dynamics, and we explain why the latter analysis is appropriate for a condensate. Since the axion is primarily governed by attractive interactions—gravitation and scalar-scalar contact interactions—we conclude that while a Bose-Einstein condensate is formed, the claim of long-range correlation is unjustified. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:23:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/99961 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:23:45Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/999612022-09-28T13:53:20Z Do dark matter axions form a condensate with long-range correlation? Guth, Alan Hertzberg, Mark Peter Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research Guth, Alan Hertzberg, Mark Peter Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda Recently there has been significant interest in the claim that dark matter axions gravitationally thermalize and form a Bose-Einstein condensate with a cosmologically long-range correlation. This has potential consequences for galactic scale observations. Here we critically examine this claim. We point out that there is an essential difference between the thermalization and formation of a condensate due to repulsive interactions, which can indeed drive long-range order, and that due to attractive interactions, which can lead to localized Bose clumps (stars or solitons) that only exhibit short-range correlation. While the difference between repulsion and attraction is not present in the standard collisional Boltzmann equation, we argue that it is essential to the field theory dynamics, and we explain why the latter analysis is appropriate for a condensate. Since the axion is primarily governed by attractive interactions—gravitation and scalar-scalar contact interactions—we conclude that while a Bose-Einstein condensate is formed, the claim of long-range correlation is unjustified. United States. Dept. of Energy (Cooperative Research Agreement Contract DE-SC00012567) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professors and Scholars Program) 2015-11-20T17:32:36Z 2015-11-20T17:32:36Z 2015-11 2015-07 2015-11-16T23:00:06Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1550-7998 1550-2368 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99961 Guth, Alan H., Mark P. Hertzberg, and C. Prescod-Weinstein. “Do Dark Matter Axions Form a Condensate with Long-Range Correlation?” Phys. Rev. D 92, no. 10 (November 2015). © 2015 American Physical Society https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6742-4532 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3850-3688 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3802-5206 en http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.92.103513 Physical Review D Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. American Physical Society application/pdf American Physical Society American Physical Society |
| spellingShingle | Guth, Alan Hertzberg, Mark Peter Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda Do dark matter axions form a condensate with long-range correlation? |
| title | Do dark matter axions form a condensate with long-range correlation? |
| title_full | Do dark matter axions form a condensate with long-range correlation? |
| title_fullStr | Do dark matter axions form a condensate with long-range correlation? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Do dark matter axions form a condensate with long-range correlation? |
| title_short | Do dark matter axions form a condensate with long-range correlation? |
| title_sort | do dark matter axions form a condensate with long range correlation |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99961 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6742-4532 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3850-3688 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3802-5206 |
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