Cosmological structure formation and soliton phase transition in fuzzy dark matter with axion self-interactions

Mocz, Philip; Fialkov, Anastasia; Vogelsberger, Mark; Boylan-Kolchin, Michael; Chavanis, Pierre-Henri; Amin, Mustafa A; Bose, Sownak; Dome, Tibor; Hernquist, Lars; Lancaster, Lachlan; Notis, Matthew; Painter, Connor; Robles, Victor H; Zavala, Jesús

Abstract

We investigate cosmological structure formation in fuzzy dark matter (FDM) with the attractive self-interaction (SI) with numerical simulations. Such a SI would arise if the FDM boson were an ultra-light axion, which has a strong CP symmetry-breaking scale (decay constant). Although weak, the attractive SI may be strong enough to counteract the quantum ‘pressure’ and alter structure formation. We find in our simulations that the SI can enhance small-scale structure formation, and soliton cores above a critical mass undergo a phase transition, transforming from dilute to dense solitons.

Citation

Mocz, P., Fialkov, A., Vogelsberger, M., Boylan-Kolchin, M., Chavanis, P.-H., Amin, M. A., Bose, S., Dome, T., Hernquist, L., Lancaster, L., Notis, M., Painter, C., Robles, V. H., & Zavala, J. (2023). Cosmological structure formation and soliton phase transition in fuzzy dark matter with axion self-interactions. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 521(2), 2608-2615. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad694

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 28, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Mar 6, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-05
• Deposit Date: May 11, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: May 11, 2023
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Print ISSN: 0035-8711
• Electronic ISSN: 1365-2966
• Publisher: Royal Astronomical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 521
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 2608-2615
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad694
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1173005