No Arabic abstract
We present an in-depth exploration of the phenomenon of dynamical friction in a universe where the dark matter is composed entirely of so-called Fuzzy Dark Matter (FDM), ultralight bosons of mass $msimmathcal{O}(10^{-22}),$eV. We review the classical treatment of dynamical friction before presenting analytic results in the case of FDM for point masses, extended mass distributions, and FDM backgrounds with finite velocity dispersion. We then test these results against a large suite of fully non-linear simulations that allow us to assess the regime of applicability of the analytic results. We apply these results to a variety of astrophysical problems of interest, including infalling satellites in a galactic dark matter background, and determine that emph{(1)}~for FDM masses $mgtrsim 10^{-21}, {rm eV}, c^{-2}$, the timing problem of the Fornax dwarf spheroidals globular clusters is no longer solved and emph{(2)}~the effects of FDM on the process of dynamical friction for satellites of total mass $M$ and relative velocity $v_{rm rel}$ should require detailed numerical simulations for $left(M/10^9~M_{odot}right) left(m/10^{-22}~{rm eV}right)left(100~{rm km}~{rm s}^{-1}/v_{rm rel}right) sim 1$, parameters which would lie outside the validated range of applicability of any currently developed analytic theory, due to transient wave structures in the time-dependent regime.
A Fuzzy Dark Matter (FDM) halo consists of a soliton core close to the center and an NFW-like density profile in the outer region. Previous investigations found that the soliton core exhibits temporal oscillations and random walk excursions around the halo center. Analyzing a set of numerical simulations, we show that both phenomena can be understood as the results of wave interference -- a suitable superposition of the ground (solitonic) state and excited states in a fixed potential suffices to account for the main features of these phenomena. Such an eigenmode analysis can shed light on the evolution of a satellite halo undergoing tidal disruption. As the outer halo is stripped away, reducing the amplitudes of the excited states, the ground state evolves adiabatically. This suggests diminished soliton oscillations and random walk excursions, an effect to consider in deducing constraints from stellar heating.
A self-interacting dark matter halo can experience gravothermal collapse, resulting in a central core with an ultrahigh density. It can further contract and collapse into a black hole, a mechanism proposed to explain the origin of supermassive black holes. We study dynamical instability of the core in general relativity. We use a truncated Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution to model the dark matter distribution and solve the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation. For given model parameters, we obtain a series of equilibrium configurations and examine their dynamical instability based on considerations of total energy, binding energy, fractional binding energy, and adiabatic index. The numerical results from our semi-analytical method are in good agreement with those from fully relativistic N-body simulations. We further show for the instability to occur in the classical regime, the boundary temperature of the core should be at least $10%$ of the mass of dark matter particles; for a $10^9~{rm M_odot}$ seed black hole, the particle mass needs to be larger than a few keV. These results can be used to constrain different collapse models, in particular, those with dissipative dark matter interactions.
Fuzzy dark matter (FDM) is an attractive dark matter candidate motivated by small scale problems in astrophysics and with a rich phenomenology on those scales. We scrutinize the FDM model, more specifically the mass of the FDM particle, through a dynamical analysis for the Galactic ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) galaxies. We use a sample of 18 UFDs to place the strongest constraints to date on the mass of the FDM particle, updating on previous bounds using a subset of the sample used here. We find that most of the sample UFDs prefer a FDM particle mass heavier than $10^{-21}mathrm{eV}$. In particular, Segue 1 provides the strongest constraint, with $m_psi=1.1^{+8.3}_{-0.7}times10^{-19}mathrm{eV}$. The constraints found here are the first that are compatible with various other independent cosmological and astrophysical bounds found in the literature, in particular with the latest bounds using the Lyman-$alpha$ forest. We also find that the constraints obtained in this work are not compatible with the bounds from luminous dwarf galaxies, as already pointed out in the previous work using UFDs. This could indicate that although a viable dark matter model, it might be challenging for the FDM model to solve the small scale problems.
Fuzzy dark matter (FDM) has been a promising alternative to standard cold dark matter. The model consists of ultralight bosons with mass $m_b sim 10^{-22}$ eV and features a quantum-pressure-supported solitonic core that oscillates. In this work, we show that the soliton density oscillations persist even after significant tidal stripping of the outer halo. We report two intrinsic yet distinct timescales associated, respectively, with the ground-state soliton wavefunction $tau_{00}$ and the soliton density oscillations $tau_text{soliton}$, obeying $tau_text{soliton} /tau_{00} simeq 2.3$. The central star cluster (SC) in Eridanus II has a characteristic timescale $tau_text{soliton} / tau_text{SC} sim 2$ to $3$ that deviates substantially from unity. As a result, we demonstrate, both analytically and numerically with three-dimensional self-consistent FDM simulations, that the gravitational heating of the SC owing to soliton density oscillations is negligible irrespective of $m_b$. We also show that the subhalo mass function to form Eridanus II does not place a strong constraint on $m_b$. These results are contrary to the previous findings by Marsh & Niemeyer (2019).
We propose the existence of ultracompact minihalos as a new type of massive compact halo object (MACHO) and suggest an observational test to discover them. These new MACHOs are a powerful probe into the nature of dark matter and physics in the high energy Universe. Non-Gaussian energy-density fluctuations produced at phase transitions (e.g., QCD) or by features in the inflaton potential can trigger primordial black hole (PBH) formation if their amplitudes are delta > 30%. We show that a PBH accumulates over time a sufficiently massive and compact minihalo to be able to modify or dominate its microlensing magnification light curve. Perturbations of amplitude 0.03% < delta < 30% are too small to form PBHs, but can nonetheless seed the growth of ultracompact minihalos. Thus, the likelihood of ultracompact minihalos as MACHOs is greater than that of PBHs. In addition, depending on their mass, they may be sites of formation of the first PopIII stars. Ultracompact minihalos and PBHs produce a microlensing light curve that can be distinguished from that of a point-like object if high-quality photometric data are taken for a sufficiently long time after the peak of the magnification event. This enables them to be detected below the stellar-lensing background toward both the Magellanic Clouds and the Galactic bulge.