Principal properties of the velocity distribution of dark matter particles on the outskirts of the Solar System

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new model for the velocity distribution of dark matter particles near the Solar System's outskirts, based on the properties of old halo objects, suggesting it is highly anisotropic and differs from the conventional Maxwellian distribution.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach linking old halo objects' properties to dark matter velocity distribution, challenging the standard Maxwellian assumption used in detection experiments.

Findings

Dark matter velocity distribution is highly anisotropic.

Distribution peaks near 500 km/s, unlike Maxwellian.

Detection signals could differ significantly from traditional models.

Abstract

The velocity distribution of the dark matter particles on the outskirts of the Solar System remains unclear. We suggest to determine it using experimentally found properties of the oldest halo objects. Indeed, the oldest halo stars and globular clusters form a collisionless system, as well as dark matter particles do, and they evolved in the same gravitational field. If we accept this analogy, we can show that the velocity distribution of the dark matter particles should be highly anisotropic and have a sharp maximum near $\upsilon\sim 500$ {km/s}. The distribution is totally different from the Maxwell one. We analyze the influence of the distribution function on the results of dark matter detection experiments. It is found that the direct detection signal should differ noticeably from the one calculated from the Maxwell distribution with $<\upsilon>\simeq 220$ {km/s}, which is conventional for direct detection experiments (the ratio depends on the detector properties and typically falls within the range between 6 and 0.2). Moreover, the sharp distinction from the Maxwell distribution can be very essential to the observations of dark matter annihilation.