The Distribution of Dark Matter in the Milky Way's Disk

TL;DR

This study compares hydrodynamic and dark matter-only simulations of the Milky Way to understand how baryonic physics influence local dark matter distribution and implications for direct detection experiments.

Contribution

It demonstrates that baryonic physics cause a 30% increase in local dark matter density and modify the velocity distribution, affecting detection experiment results.

Findings

Dark matter density in the disk is enhanced by 30%.

The dark disk contributes only 9% of local DM density.

Velocity distribution shifts to higher speeds, easing experimental tensions.

Abstract

We present an analysis of the effects of dissipational baryonic physics on the local dark matter (DM) distribution at the location of the Sun, with an emphasis on the consequences for direct detection experiments. Our work is based on a comparative analysis of two cosmological simulations of a Milky Way halo: Eris, a full hydrodynamic simulation, and ErisDark, its DM-only realization. We find that two distinct processes lead in Eris to a 30% enhancement of DM in the disk plane at the location of the Sun: the accretion and disruption of satellites resulting in a DM component with net angular momentum and the contraction of baryons pulling DM into the disk plane without forcing it to co-rotate. Owing to its particularly quiescent merger history for dark halos of Milky Way mass, the co-rotating dark disk in Eris is less massive than what has been suggested by previous work, contributing only 9% of the local DM density. The speed distribution in Eris is broadened and shifted to higher speeds compared to its DM-only twin simulation ErisDark. At high speeds $f(v)$ falls more steeply in Eris than in ErisDark or the SHM, easing the tension between recent results from the CDMS-II and XENON100 experiments. The non-Maxwellian aspects of $f(v)$ are still present, but much less pronounced in Eris than in DM-only runs. The weak dark disk increases the time-averaged scattering rate by only a few percent at low recoil energies. On the high velocity tail, however, the increase in typical speeds due to baryonic contraction results in strongly enhanced mean scattering rates compared to ErisDark, although they are still suppressed compared to the SHM. Similar trends are seen regarding the amplitude of the annual modulation, while the modulated fraction is increased compared to the SHM and decreased compared to ErisDark.