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Register a new userGravitational probes of dark matter physics
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The nature of dark matter is one of the most pressing questions in particle physics. Yet all our present knowledge of the dark sector to date comes from its gravitational interactions with astrophysical systems. Moreover, astronomical results still have immense potential to constrain the particle properties of dark matter. We introduce a simple 2D parameter space which classifies models in terms of a particle physics interaction strength and a characteristic astrophysical scale on which new physics appears, in order to facilitate communication between the fields of particle physics and astronomy. We survey the known astrophysical anomalies that are suggestive of non-trivial dark matter particle physics, and present a theoretical and observational program for future astrophysical measurements that will shed light on the nature of dark matter.
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The existence of cosmological dark matter is in the bedrock of the modern cosmology. The dark matter is assumed to be nonbaryonic and to consist of new stable particles. However if composite dark matter contains stable electrically charged leptons and quarks bound by ordinary Coulomb interaction in elusive dark atoms, these charged constituents of dark atoms can be the subject of direct experimental test at the colliders. In such models the excessive negatively double charged particles are bound with primordial helium in O-helium atoms, maintaining specific nuclear-interacting form of the dark matter. The successful development of composite dark matter scenarios appeals to experimental search for doubly charged constituents of dark atoms, making experimental search for exotic stable double charged particles experimentum crucis for dark atoms of composite dark matter. (abridged)
In this white paper, we discuss the prospects for characterizing and identifying dark matter using gravitational waves, covering a wide range of dark matter candidate types and signals. We argue that present and upcoming gravitational wave probes offer unprecedented opportunities for unraveling the nature of dark matter and we identify the most urgent challenges and open problems with the aim of encouraging a strong community effort at the interface between these two exciting fields of research.
There is a vast menagerie of plausible candidates for the constituents of dark matter, both within and beyond extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics. Each of these candidates may have scattering (and other) cross section properties that are consistent with the dark matter abundance, BBN, and the most scales in the matter power spectrum; but which may have vastly different behavior at sub-galactic cutoff scales, below which dark matter density fluctuations are smoothed out. The only way to quantitatively measure the power spectrum behavior at sub-galactic scales at distances beyond the local universe, and indeed over cosmic time, is through probes available in multiply imaged strong gravitational lenses. Gravitational potential perturbations by dark matter substructure encode information in the observed relative magnifications, positions, and time delays in a strong lens. Each of these is sensitive to a different moment of the substructure mass function and to different effective mass ranges of the substructure. The time delay perturbations, in particular, are proving to be largely immune to the degeneracies and systematic uncertainties that have impacted exploitation of strong lenses for such studies. There is great potential for a coordinated theoretical and observational effort to enable a sophisticated exploitation of strong gravitational lenses as direct probes of dark matter properties. This opportunity motivates this white paper, and drives the need for: a) strong support of the theoretical work necessary to understand all astrophysical consequences for different dark matter candidates; and b) tailored observational campaigns, and even a fully dedicated mission, to obtain the requisite data.
Dark matter may be in the form of non-baryonic structures such as compact subhalos and boson stars. Structures weighing between asteroid and solar masses may be discovered via gravitational microlensing, an astronomical probe that has in the past helped constrain the population of primordial black holes and baryonic MACHOs. We investigate the non-trivial effect of the size of and density distribution within these structures on the microlensing signal, and constrain their populations using the EROS-2 and OGLE-IV surveys. Structures larger than a solar radius are generally constrained more weakly than point-like lenses, but stronger constraints may be obtained for structures with mass distributions that give rise to caustic crossings or produce larger magnifications.
We calculate the accurate spectrum of the stochastic gravitational wave background from U(1) gauge fields produced by axion dark matter. The explosive production of gauge fields soon invalidates the applicability of the linear analysis and one needs nonlinear schemes. We make use of numerical lattice simulations to properly follow the nonlinear dynamics such as backreaction and rescattering which gives important contributions to the emission of gravitational waves. It turns out that the axion with the decay constant $f sim 10^{16}$ GeV which gives the correct dark matter abundance predicts the circularly polarized gravitational wave signature detectable by SKA. We also show that the resulting gravitational wave spectrum has a potential to explain NANOGrav 12.5 year data.
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