Constraining Dissipative Dark Matter Self-Interactions.
- Resource Type
- Academic Journal
- Authors
- Essig R; C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA.; McDermott SD; Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Center for Particle Astrophysics, Batavia, Illinois 92376, USA.; Yu HB; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA.; Zhong YM; Physics Department, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
- Source
- Publisher: American Physical Society Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0401141 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1079-7114 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00319007 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Phys Rev Lett Subsets: PubMed not MEDLINE; MEDLINE
- Subject
- Language
- English
We study the gravothermal evolution of dark matter halos in the presence of dissipative dark matter self-interactions. Dissipative interactions are present in many particle-physics realizations of the dark-sector paradigm and can significantly accelerate the gravothermal collapse of halos compared to purely elastic dark matter self-interactions. This is the case even when the dissipative interaction timescale is longer than the free-fall time of the halo. Using a semianalytical fluid model calibrated with isolated and cosmological N-body simulations, we calculate the evolution of the halo properties-including its density profile and velocity dispersion profile-as well as the core-collapse time as a function of the particle model parameters that describe the interactions. A key property is that the inner density profile at late times becomes cuspy again. Using 18 dwarf galaxies that exhibit a corelike dark matter density profile, we derive constraints on the strength of the dissipative interactions and the energy loss per collision.