Core-Cusp revisited and Dark Matter Phase Transition Constrained at O(0.1) eV with LSB Rotation Curve

TL;DR

This study tests the Bound Dark Matter model against galaxy rotation curves, finding it fits data well and constrains the phase transition energy Ec around 0.1 eV, supporting a core-like dark matter profile.

Contribution

It introduces and tests a particle physics motivated dark matter profile with a phase transition, fitting galaxy data better than traditional profiles.

Findings

BDM profile fits rotation curves as well or better than NFW, Burkert, ISO.

Constrained Ec around 0.1 eV, indicating a phase transition energy.

Core radius varies with galaxy mass model, from 300 pc to 1.48 kpc.

Abstract

Recently a new particle physics model called Bound Dark Matter (BDM) has been proposed in which dark matter (DM) particles are massless above a threshold energy (Ec) and acquire mass below it due to nonperturbative methods. Therefore, the BDM model describes DM particles which are relativistic, hot dark matter, in the inner regions of galaxies and describes nonrelativistic, cold dark matter, where halo density is below rho_c = Ec^4. To realize this idea in galaxies we use a particular DM cored profile that contains three parameters: a scale length (rs) and density (rho_0) of the halo, and a core radius (rc) stemming from the relativistic nature of the BDM model. We test this model by fitting rotation curves of seventeen Low Surface Brightness galaxies from The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey (THINGS). Since the energy Ec parameterizes the phase transition due to the underlying particle physics model, it is independent on the details of galaxy or structure formation and therefore the DM profile parameters rs, rc, Ec are constrained, leaving only two free parameters. The high spatial and velocity resolution of this sample allows to derive the model parameters through the numerical implementation of the chi^2-goodness-of-fit test to the mass models. We compare the fittings with those of Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW), Burkert, and Pseudo-Isothermal (ISO) profiles. Through the results we conclude that the BDM profile fits better, or equally well, than NFW, Burkert, and ISO profiles and agree with previous results implying that cored profiles are preferred over the N-body motivated cuspy profile. We also compute 2D likelihoods of the BDM parameters rc and Ec for the different galaxies and matter contents, and find an average galaxy core radius rc=300 pc and a transition energy Ec = 0.11 eV when the DM halo is the only component. In Kroupa mass model, we obtain a core rc=1.48 kpc, and energy Ec=0.06 eV.