On the interpretation of dark matter self-interactions in Abell 3827
Self-interactions of dark matter particles can potentially lead to an observable separation between the dark matter halo and the stars of a galaxy moving through a region of large dark matter density. Such a separation has recently been observed in a galaxy falling into the core of the galaxy cluste...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2015
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| Summary: | Self-interactions of dark matter particles can potentially lead to an observable separation between the dark matter halo and the stars of a galaxy moving through a region of large dark matter density. Such a separation has recently been observed in a galaxy falling into the core of the galaxy cluster Abell 3827. We estimated the DM self-interaction cross section needed to reproduce the observed effects and find that the sensitivity of Abell 3827 has been significantly overestimated in a previous study. Our corrected estimate is $\tilde{\sigma}/m_\text{DM} \sim 3\:\text{cm}^2\:\text{g}^{-1}$ when self-interactions result in an effective drag force and $\sigma/m_\text{DM} \sim 1.5\:\text{cm}^2\:\text{g}^{-1}$ for the case of contact interactions, in some tension with previous upper bounds. |
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