Cold dark matter in the Milky Way halo may have structure defined by flows with low velocity dispersion. The Axion Dark Matter eXperiment high resolution channel is especially sensitive to axions in such low velocity dispersion flows. Results from a combined power spectra analysis of the high resolution channel axion search are presented along with a discussion of the assumptions underlying such an analysis. We exclude KSVZ axion dark matter densities of {rho} > 0.2 GeV/cm^3 and DFSZ densities of {rho} > 1.4 GeV/cm^3 over a mass range of m_a = 3.3{mu}eV to 3.69{mu}eV for models having velocity dispersions of {Delta}{beta} < 3x10^-6.
Non-virialized dark-matter axions may be present in the Milky Way halo in the form of low-velocity-dispersion flows. The Axion Dark Matter eXperiment performed a search for the conversion of these axions into microwave photons using a resonant cavity immersed in a strong, static magnetic field. The spread of photon energy in these measurements was measured at spectral resolutions of the order of 1 Hz and below. If the energy variation were this small, the frequency modulation of any real axion signal due to the orbital and rotational motion of the Earth would become non-negligible. Conservative estimates of the expected signal modulation were made and used as a guide for the search procedure. The photon frequencies covered by this search are 812$-$852 and 858$-$892 MHz, which correspond to an axion mass of 3.36$-$3.52 and 3.55$-$3.69 {mu}eV. No axion signal was found, and limits were placed on the maximum local density of non-virialized axions of these masses.
Wave dark matter ($psi$DM), which satisfies the Schrodinger-Poisson equation, has recently attracted substantial attention as a possible dark matter candidate. Numerical simulations have in the past provided a powerful tool to explore this new territory of possibility. Despite their successes to reveal several key features of $psi$DM, further progress in simulations is limited, in that cosmological simulations so far can only address formation of halos below $sim 2times 10^{11} M_odot$ and substantially more massive halos have become computationally very challenging to obtain. For this reason, the present work adopts a different approach in assessing massive halos by constructing wave-halo solutions directly from the wave distribution function. This approach bears certain similarity with the analytical construction of particle-halo (cold dark matter model). Instead of many collisionless particles, one deals with one single wave that has many non-interacting eigenstates. The key ingredient in the wave-halo construction is the distribution function of the wave power, and we use several halos produced by structure formation simulations as templates to determine the wave distribution function. Among different models, we find the fermionic King model presents the best fits and we use it for our wave-halo construction. We have devised an iteration method for constructing the nonlinear halo, and demonstrate its stability by three-dimensional simulations. A Milky-Way-sized halo has also been constructed, and the inner halo is found flatter than the NFW profile. These wave-halos have small-scale interferences both in space and time producing time-dependent granules. While the spatial scale of granules varies little, the correlation time is found to increase with radius by one order of magnitude across the halo.
We consider a dark matter halo (DMH) of a spherical galaxy as a Bose-Einstein condensate of the ultra-light axions interacting with the baryonic matter. In the mean-field limit, we have derived the integro-differential equation of the Hartree-Fock type for the spherically symmetrical wave function of the DMH component. This equation includes two independent dimensionless parameters: (i) b{eta}- the ratio of baryon and axion total mases and (ii) {xi}- the ratio of characteristic baryon and axion spatial parameters. We extended our dissipation algorithm for studying numerically the ground state of the axion halo in the gravitational field produced by the baryonic component. We calculated the characteristic size, Xc, of DMH as a function of b{eta} and {xi} and obtained an analytical approximation for Xc.
The dark matter problem is almost a century old. Since the 1930s evidence has been growing that our cosmos is dominated by a new form of non-baryonic matter, that holds galaxies and clusters together and influences cosmic structures up to the largest observed scales. At the microscopic level, we still do not know the composition of this dark, or invisible matter, which does not interact directly with light. The simplest assumption is that it is made of new particles that interact with gravity and at most weakly with known elementary particles. I will discuss searches for such new particles, both space- and Earth-bound including those placed in deep underground laboratories. While a dark matter particle hasnt been yet identified, even after decades of concerted efforts, new technological developments and experiments have reached sensitivities where a discovery might be imminent, albeit certainly not guaranteed.
We propose an X-ray mission called Xenia to search for decaying superweakly interacting Dark Matter particles (super-WIMP) with a mass in the keV range. The mission and its observation plan are capable of providing a major break through in our understanding of the nature of Dark Matter (DM). It will confirm, or reject, predictions of a number of particle physics models by increasing the sensitivity of the search for decaying DM by about two orders of magnitude through a wide-field imaging X-ray spectrometer in combination with a dedicated observation program. The proposed mission will provide unique limits on the mixing angle and mass of neutral leptons, right handed partners of neutrinos, which are important Dark Matter candidates. The existence of these particles is strongly motivated by observed neutrino flavor oscillations and the problem of baryon asymmetry of the Universe. In super-WIMP models, the details of the formation of the cosmic web are different from those of LambdaCDM. The proposed mission will, in addition to the search for decaying Dark Matter, provide crucial insight into the nature of DM by studying the structure of the cosmic web. This will be done by searching for missing baryons in emission, and by using gamma-ray bursts as backlight to observe the warm-hot intergalactic media in absorption.