Simulated Milky Way analogues: implications for dark matter direct searches

Bozorgnia, N.; Calore, F.; Schaller, M.; Lovell, M.; Bertone, G.; Frenk, C.S.; Crain, R.A.; Navarro, J.F.; Schaye, J.; Theuns, T.

Abstract

We study the implications of galaxy formation on dark matter direct detection using high resolution hydrodynamic simulations of Milky Way-like galaxies simulated within the EAGLE and APOSTLE projects. We identify Milky Way analogues that satisfy observational constraints on the Milky Way rotation curve and total stellar mass. We then extract the dark matter density and velocity distribution in the Solar neighbourhood for this set of Milky Way analogues, and use them to analyse the results of current direct detection experiments. For most Milky Way analogues, the event rates in direct detection experiments obtained from the best fit Maxwellian distribution (with peak speed of 223–289 km/s) are similar to those obtained directly from the simulations. As a consequence, the allowed regions and exclusion limits set by direct detection experiments in the dark matter mass and spin-independent cross section plane shift by a few GeV compared to the Standard Halo Model, at low dark matter masses. For each dark matter mass, the halo-to-halo variation of the local dark matter density results in an overall shift of the allowed regions and exclusion limits for the cross section. However, the compatibility of the possible hints for a dark matter signal from DAMA and CDMS-Si and null results from LUX and SuperCDMS is not improved.

Citation

Bozorgnia, N., Calore, F., Schaller, M., Lovell, M., Bertone, G., Frenk, C., …Theuns, T. (2016). Simulated Milky Way analogues: implications for dark matter direct searches. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2016(5), Article 024. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2016/05/024

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 4, 2016
• Online Publication Date: May 11, 2016
• Publication Date: May 11, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jun 5, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 23, 2017
• Journal: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2016
• Issue: 5
• Article Number: 024
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2016/05/024
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1385598