Hierarchical Phase Space Structure of Dark Matter Haloes: Tidal debris, Caustics, and Dark Matter annihilation

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework to describe the hierarchical phase space structure of dark matter haloes, accounting for tidal debris, caustics, and primordial discreteness, with implications for dark matter detection signals.

Contribution

It introduces a correlation function approach in action-angle space to model the hierarchical phase structure without assuming symmetry or smooth accretion, and estimates its impact on dark matter annihilation signals.

Findings

Hierarchical tidal debris structure predicted with a correlation function ~ ( J)^{-1.6}

Primordial discreteness can boost annihilation signals by up to an order of magnitude

Boost is most significant beyond 20% of the virial radius and in recently formed haloes

Abstract

Most of the mass content of dark matter haloes is expected to be in the form of tidal debris. The density of debris is not constant, but rather can grow due to formation of caustics at the apocenters and pericenters of the orbit, or decay as a result of phase mixing. In the phase space, the debris assemble in a hierarchy which is truncated by the primordial temperature of dark matter. Understanding this phase structure can be of significant importance for the interpretation of many astrophysical observations and in particular dark matter detection experiments. With this purpose in mind, we develop a general theoretical framework to describe the hierarchical structure of the phase space of cold dark matter haloes. We do not make any assumption of spherical symmetry and/or smooth and continuous accretion. Instead, working with correlation functions in the action-angle space, we can fully account for the hierarchical structure (predicting a two-point correlation function ~ (\Delta J)^{-1.6} in the action space), as well as the primordial discreteness of the phase space. As an application, we estimate the boost to the dark matter annihilation signal due to the structure of the phase space within virial radius: the boost due to the hierarchical tidal debris is of order unity, whereas the primordial discreteness of the phase structure can boost the total annihilation signal by up to an order of magnitude. The latter is dominated by the regions beyond 20% of the virial radius, and is largest for the recently formed haloes with the least degree of phase mixing.