Kavli Affiliate: Mark Vogelsberger
| First 5 Authors: Connor A. Painter, Michael Boylan-Kolchin, Philip Mocz, Mark Vogelsberger,
| Summary:
Fuzzy Dark Matter (FDM) comprised of ultralight ($m sim 10^{-22}~rm{eV}$)
boson particles has received significant attention as a viable alternative to
Cold Dark Matter (CDM), as it approximates CDM on large scales ($gtrsim 1$
Mpc) while potentially resolving some of its small-scale problems via
kiloparsec-scale quantum interference. However, the most basic FDM model, with
one free parameter (the boson mass), is subject to a tension: small boson
masses yield the desired cores of dwarf galaxies but underpredict structure in
the Lyman-$alpha$ forest, while large boson masses render FDM effectively
identical to CDM. This Catch-22 problem may be alleviated by considering an
axion-like particle with attractive particle self-interactions. We simulate an
idealized FDM halo with self-interactions parameterized by an energy decay
constant $f sim 10^{15}~rm{GeV}$ related to the axion symmetry-breaking
conjectured to solve the strong-CP problem in particle physics. We observe
solitons, a hallmark of FDM, condensing within a broader halo envelope, and
find that the density profile and soliton mass depend on self-interaction
strength. We propose generalized formulae to extend those from previous works
to include self-interactions. We also investigate a critical mass threshold
predicted for strong interactions at which the soliton collapses into a
compact, unresolved state. We find that the collapse happens quickly and its
effects are initially contained to the central region of the halo.
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