How Milky Way Satellites operate part2(Aerospace Engineering +Astronomy)
- Constraints on the epoch of dark matter formation from Milky Way satellites(arXiv)
Author : Subinoy Das, Ethan O. Nadler
Abstract : A small fraction of thermalized dark radiation that transitions into cold dark matter (CDM) between big bang nucleosynthesis and matter-radiation equality can account for the entire dark matter relic density. Because of its transition from dark radiation, “late-forming dark matter” (LFDM) suppresses the growth of linear matter perturbations and imprints the oscillatory signatures of dark radiation perturbations on small scales. The cutoff scale in the linear matter power spectrum is set by the redshift zT of the phase transition; tracers of small-scale structure can therefore be used to infer the LFDM formation epoch. Here, we use a forward model of the Milky Way (MW) satellite galaxy population to address the question: How late can dark matter form? For dark radiation with strong self-interactions, which arises in theories of neutrinolike LFDM, we report zT>5.5×106 at 95% confidence based on the abundance of known MW satellite galaxies. This limit rigorously accounts for observational incompleteness corrections, marginalizes over uncertainties in the connection between dwarf galaxies and dark matter halos, and improves upon galaxy clustering and Lyman-α forest constraints by nearly an order of magnitude. We show that this limit can also be interpreted as a lower bound on zT for LFDM that free-streams prior to its phase transition, although dedicated simulations will be needed to analyze this case in detail. Thus, dark matter created by a transition from dark radiation must form no later than one week after the big bang.
2. MOONS Surveys of the Milky Way and its Satellites(arXiv)
Author : O. A. Gonzalez, A. Mucciarelli, L. Origlia, M. Schultheis, E. Caffau, P. Di Matteo, S. Randich, A. Recio-Blanco, M. Zoccali, P. Bonifacio, E. Dalessandro, R. P. Schiavon, E. Pancino, W. Taylor, E. Valenti, A. Rojas-Arriagada, G. Sacco, K. Biazzo, M. Bellazzini, M. -R. L. Cioni, G. Clementini, R. Contreras Ramos, P. de Laverny, C. Evans, M. Haywood , et al. (15 additional authors not shown)
Abstract : The study of resolved stellar populations in the Milky Way and other Local Group galaxies can provide us with a fossil record of their chemo-dynamical and star-formation histories over timescales of many billions of years. In the galactic components and stellar systems of the Milky Way and its satellites, individual stars can be resolved. Therefore, they represent a unique laboratory in which to investigate the details of the processes behind the formation and evolution of the disc and dwarf/irregular galaxies. MOONS at the VLT represents a unique combination of an efficient infrared multi-object spectrograph and a large-aperture 8-m-class telescope which will sample the cool stellar populations of the dense central regions of the Milky Way and its satellites, delivering accurate radial velocities, metallicities, and other chemical abundances for several millions of stars over its lifetime (see Cirasuolo et al., this issue). MOONS will observe up to 1000 targets across a 25-arcminute field of view in the optical and near-infrared (0.6–1.8 micron) simultaneously. A high-resolution (R~19700) setting in the H band has been designed for the accurate determination of stellar abundances such as alpha, light, iron-peak and neutron-capture elements.
3. Milky Way Satellite Census. III. Constraints on Dark Matter Properties from Observations of Milky Way Satellite Galaxies(arXiv)
Author : E. O. Nadler, A. Drlica-Wagner, K. Bechtol, S. Mau, R. H. Wechsler, V. Gluscevic, K. Boddy, A. B. Pace, T. S. Li, M. McNanna, A. H. Riley, J. García-Bellido, Y. -Y. Mao, G. Green, D. L. Burke, A. Peter, B. Jain, T. M. C. Abbott, M. Aguena, S. Allam, J. Annis, S. Avila, D. Brooks, M. Carrasco Kind, J. Carretero
Abstract : We perform a comprehensive study of Milky Way (MW) satellite galaxies to constrain the fundamental properties of dark matter (DM). This analysis fully incorporates inhomogeneities in the spatial distribution and detectability of MW satellites and marginalizes over uncertainties in the mapping between galaxies and DM halos, the properties of the MW system, and the disruption of subhalos by the MW disk. Our results are consistent with the cold, collisionless DM paradigm and yield the strongest cosmological constraints to date on particle models of warm, interacting, and fuzzy dark matter. At 95% confidence, we report limits on (i) the mass of thermal relic warm DM, mWDM>6.5 keV (free-streaming length, λfs≲10h−1 kpc), (ii) the velocity-independent DM-proton scattering cross section, σ0<8.8×10−29 cm2 for a 100 MeV DM particle mass (DM-proton coupling, cp≲(0.3 GeV)−2), and (iii) the mass of fuzzy DM, mφ>2.9×10−21 eV (de Broglie wavelength, λdB≲0.5 kpc). These constraints are complementary to other observational and laboratory constraints on DM properties.
4.Gamma-Ray Dark Matter Searches in Milky Way Satellites — A Comparative Review of Data Analysis Methods and Current Results (arXiv)
Author : Javier Rico
Abstract : If dark matter is composed of weakly interacting particles with mass in the GeV-TeV range, their annihilation or decay may produce gamma rays that could be detected by gamma-ray telescopes. Observations of dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies of the Milky Way (dSphs) benefit from the relatively accurate predictions of dSph dark matter content to produce robust constraints to the dark matter properties. The sensitivity of these observations for the search for dark matter signals can be optimized thanks to the use of advanced statistical techniques able to exploit the spectral and morphological peculiarities of the expected signal. In this paper, I review the status of the dark matter searches from observations of dSphs with the current generation of gamma-ray telescopes: Fermi-LAT, H.E.S.S, MAGIC, VERITAS and HAWC. I will describe in detail the general statistical analysis framework used by these instruments, putting in context the most recent experimental results and pointing out the most relevant differences among the different particular implementations. This~will facilitate the comparison of the current and future results, as well as their eventual integration in a multi-instrument and multi-target dark matter search.
