Cosmological particle-in-cell simulations with ultralight axion dark matter

Veltmaat, Jan; Niemeyer, J. C.

doi:10.1103/physrevd.94.123523

Cited by 113 publications

(129 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The gravitationally bounded objects that one could identify as DM galaxy halos all have a common structure: one central soliton surrounded by a Navarro-Frenk-White-like envelope created by the interference of the Schrodinger wave functions [38], features that have been confirmed by dedicated numerical simulations [43][44][45][46][47].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

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Scalar field dark matter with a cosh potential, revisited

Ureña–López

2019

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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Dark matter models in which the constituent particle is an ultra-light boson have become part of the mainstream discussion in cosmology and astrophysics. At the classical level, the models are represented by the dynamics of a (real or complex) scalar field endowed with a potential that contains its self-interactions, and for this reason are generically known as scalar field dark matter models. Here, we revisit the properties of such a model with a cosh potential and compare it with other known examples in the literature. Within the cosmological context, the self-interaction in the potential induces a radiation-like behavior at early times of the scalar field density, which is followed by a proper matter-like behavior at the onset of rapid field oscillations around the minimum of the potential. The solutions are found by numerical means, and from them we obtain information about the cosmological observables up to the level of linear density perturbations. We also study the general properties of selfgravitating objects in the non-relativistic limit and determine the role in them of the selfinteraction obtained from the cosh potential. An overall conclusion is that, for the range of values in its parameters allowed by different constraints, a cosh potential behaves almost indistinguishable from the simpler quadratic one, which also means that the two models suffer the same tight constraints from cosmological and astrophysical observations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…If Λ g = 0, we recover from Eqs. (3.3) the well-known Schrodinger-Poisson (SP) system that has been the standard workhorse to study the formation of large scale structure in SFDM models (eg [38,40,44,45,105]).…”

Section: General Stability and Equilibrium Configurationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scalar field dark matter with a cosh potential, revisited

Ureña–López

2019

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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“…7 We thank Riccardo Murgia for providing the code for the second calculation. Schwabe et al (2016) and Veltmaat & Niemeyer (2016b). Simulations will quantify the scatter around (semi-) analytic results for the mass function, such as Press-Schechter.…”

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confidence: 99%

Unbiased constraints on ultralight axion mass from dwarf spheroidal galaxies

González‐Morales

Marsh

Peñarrubia

et al. 2017

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

111

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It has been suggested that the internal dynamics of dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) can be used to test whether or not ultralight axions with m a ∼ 10 −22 eV are a preferred dark matter candidate. However, comparisons to theoretical predictions tend to be inconclusive for the simple reason that while most cosmological models consider only dark matter, one observes only baryons. Here we use realistic kinematic mock data catalogs of Milky Way dSph's to show that the "mass-anisotropy degeneracy" in the Jeans equations leads to biased bounds on the axion mass in galaxies with unknown dark matter halo profiles. In galaxies with multiple chemodynamical components this bias can be partly removed by modelling the mass enclosed within each subpopulation. However, analysis of the mock data reveals that the least-biased constraints on the axion mass result from fitting the luminosity-averaged velocity dispersion of the individual chemodynamical components directly. Applying our analysis to two dSph's with reported stellar subcomponents, Fornax and Sculptor, and assuming that the halo profile has not been acted on by baryons, yields core radii r c > 1.5 kpc and r c > 1.2 kpc respectively, and m a < 0.4 × 10 −22 eV at 97.5% confidence. These bounds are in tension with the number of observed satellites derived from simple (but conservative) estimates of the subhalo mass function in Milky Way-like galaxies. We discuss how baryonic feedback might affect our results, and the impact of such a small axion mass on the growth of structures in the Universe.

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“…If self-interactions can be neglected, this type of dark matter candidate is often referred to as fuzzy dark matter (FDM) [4,5]. Unlike CDM which produces cuspy halo profiles, FDM produces flat halo cores [10,23,24] on scales smaller than the de Broglie wavelength of particles with the halo's virial velocity, the so-called quantum Jeans length [5,25]. Below this scale, quantum effects suppress gravitational collapse.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Core-halo mass relation of ultralight axion dark matter from merger history

2017

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In the context of structure formation with ultralight axion dark matter, we offer an alternative explanation for the mass relation of solitonic cores and their host halos observed in numerical simulations. Our argument is based entirely on the mass gain that occurs during major mergers of binary cores and largely independent of the initial core-halo mass relation assigned to hosts that have just collapsed. We find a relation between the halo mass M h and corresponding core mass Mc, Mc ∝ M 2β−1 h , where (1 − β) is the core mass loss fraction. Following the evolution of core masses in stochastic merger trees, we find empirical evidence for our model. Our results are useful for statistically modeling the effects of dark matter cores on the properties of galaxies and their substructures in axion dark matter cosmologies.

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Cosmological particle-in-cell simulations with ultralight axion dark matter

Cited by 113 publications

References 43 publications

Scalar field dark matter with a cosh potential, revisited

Scalar field dark matter with a cosh potential, revisited

Unbiased constraints on ultralight axion mass from dwarf spheroidal galaxies

Core-halo mass relation of ultralight axion dark matter from merger history

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