Title: Dark matter phenomenology of high-speed galaxy cluster collisions

Abstract

Here, we perform a general computational analysis of possible post-collision mass distributions in high-speed galaxy cluster collisions in the presence of self-interacting dark matter. Using this analysis, we show that astrophysically weakly self-interacting dark matter can impart subtle yet measurable features in the mass distributions of colliding galaxy clusters even without significant disruptions to the dark matter halos of the colliding galaxy clusters themselves. Most profound such evidence is found to reside in the tails of dark matter halos’ distributions, in the space between the colliding galaxy clusters. Such features appear in our simulations as shells of scattered dark matter expanding in alignment with the outgoing original galaxy clusters, contributing significant densities to projected mass distributions at large distances from collision centers and large scattering angles of up to 90°. Our simulations indicate that as much as 20% of the total collision’s mass may be deposited into such structures without noticeable disruptions to the main galaxy clusters. Such structures at large scattering angles are forbidden in purely gravitational high-speed galaxy cluster collisions.Convincing identification of such structures in real colliding galaxy clusters would be a clear indication of the self-interacting nature of dark matter. Our findings may offer an explanation formore » the ring-like dark matter feature recently identified in the long-range reconstructions of the mass distribution of the colliding galaxy cluster CL0024+017.« less

Authors:

Mishchenko, Yuriy ^[1]; Ji, Chueng-Ryong ^[2]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Izmir Univ. of Economics (Turkey). Faculty of Engineering
2. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States). Dept. of Physics

Publication Date:

Sat Jul 29 00:00:00 EDT 2017

Research Org.:

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); American Physical Society (APS), College Park, MD (United States); The Science Academy (Turkey)

OSTI Identifier:

1373336

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1429490

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-05CH11231; FG02-03ER41260

Resource Type:

Published Article

Journal Name:

European Physical Journal. C, Particles and Fields

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: European Physical Journal. C, Particles and Fields Journal Volume: 77 Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 1434-6044

Publisher:

Springer

Country of Publication:

Germany

Language:

English

Subject:

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; 97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING