Ellen Sirks ellen.l.sirks@durham.ac.uk
Academic Visitor
Hydrodynamical simulations of merging galaxy clusters: giant dark matter particle colliders, powered by gravity
Sirks, Ellen L; Harvey, David; Massey, Richard; Oman, Kyle A; Robertson, Andrew; Frenk, Carlos; Everett, Spencer; Gill, Ajay S; Lagattuta, David; McCleary, Jacqueline
Authors
David Harvey
Professor Richard Massey r.j.massey@durham.ac.uk
Professor
Dr Kyle Oman kyle.a.oman@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor - Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow
Andrew Robertson
Professor Carlos Frenk c.s.frenk@durham.ac.uk
Professor
Spencer Everett
Ajay S Gill
Dr David Lagattuta david.j.lagattuta@durham.ac.uk
Post Doctoral Research Associate
Jacqueline McCleary
Abstract
Terrestrial particle accelerators collide charged particles, then watch the trajectory of outgoing debris – but they cannot manipulate dark matter. Fortunately, dark matter is the main component of galaxy clusters, which are continuously pulled together by gravity. We show that galaxy cluster mergers can be exploited as enormous, natural dark matter colliders. We analyse hydrodynamical simulations of a universe containing self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) in which all particles interact via gravity, and dark matter particles can also scatter off each other via a massive mediator. During cluster collisions, SIDM spreads out and lags behind cluster member galaxies. Individual systems can have quirky dynamics that makes them difficult to interpret. Statistically, however, we find that the mean or median of dark matter’s spatial offset in many collisions can be robustly modelled, and is independent of our viewing angle and halo mass even in collisions between unequal-mass systems. If the SIDM cross-section were σ/m = 0.1 cm2 g−1 = 0.18 barn GeV−1, the ‘bulleticity’ lag would be ∼5 per cent that of gas due to ram pressure, and could be detected at 95 per cent confidence level in weak lensing observations of ∼100 well-chosen clusters.
Citation
Sirks, E. L., Harvey, D., Massey, R., Oman, K. A., Robertson, A., Frenk, C., Everett, S., Gill, A. S., Lagattuta, D., & McCleary, J. (2024). Hydrodynamical simulations of merging galaxy clusters: giant dark matter particle colliders, powered by gravity. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 530(3), 3160-3170. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae1012
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Apr 10, 2024 |
Online Publication Date | Apr 17, 2024 |
Publication Date | 2024-05 |
Deposit Date | Jul 4, 2024 |
Publicly Available Date | Jul 4, 2024 |
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 | 530 |
Issue | 3 |
Pages | 3160-3170 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae1012 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2516808 |
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Copyright Statement
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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