Stellar Wakes from Dark Matter Subhalos
Author(s)
Buschmann, Malte; Kopp, Joachim; Safdi, Benjamin R.; Wu, Chih-Liang
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We propose a novel method utilizing stellar kinematic data to detect low-mass substructure in the Milky Way’s dark matter halo. By probing characteristic wakes that a passing dark matter subhalo leaves in the phase-space distribution of ambient halo stars, we estimate sensitivities down to subhalo masses of ∼10[superscript 7] M[subscript ⊙] or below. The detection of such subhalos would have implications for dark matter and cosmological models that predict modifications to the halo-mass function at low halo masses. We develop an analytic formalism for describing the perturbed stellar phase-space distributions, and we demonstrate through idealized simulations the ability to detect subhalos using the phase-space model and a likelihood framework. Our method complements existing methods for low-mass subhalo searches, such as searches for gaps in stellar streams, in that we can localize the positions and velocities of the subhalos today.
Date issued
2018-05Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of PhysicsJournal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Buschmann, Malte et al. "Stellar Wakes from Dark Matter Subhalos." Physical Review Letters 120, 21 (May 2018): 211101 © 2018 American Physical Society
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0031-9007
1079-7114