The First dark microhalos
Earth-mass dark matter halos are likely to have been the first bound structures to form in the Universe. Whether such objects have survived to the present day in galaxies depends on, among other factors, the rate of encounters with normal stars. In this letter, we estimate the amount of tidal heating and mass loss in microhalos as a result of stellar encounters. We find that while microhalos are only mildly heated in dwarf galaxies of low stellar density, and they should have been completely destroyed in bulge or M32-like regions of high stellar density. In disk galaxies, such as the Milky Way, the disruption rate depends strongly on the orbital parameters of the microhalo; while stochastic radial orbits in triaxial Galactic potential are destroyed first, systems on non-planar retrograde orbits with large pericenters survive the longest. Since many microhalos lose a significant fraction of their material to unbound tidal streams, the final dark matter distribution in the solar neighborhood is better described as a superposition of microstreams rather than as a set of discrete spherical clumps in an otherwise homogeneous medium. Different morphologies of microhalos have implications for direct and indirect dark matter detection experiments.
- Research Organization:
- Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH03000
- OSTI ID:
- 15020145
- Report Number(s):
- FERMILAB-PUB-05-357-A; arXiv eprint number astro-ph/0508215; TRN: US200612%%35
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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