The dark matter profile of the Milky Way: a non-parametric reconstruction

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel non-parametric method to directly reconstruct the Milky Way's dark matter profile from observational data without assuming a specific functional form, enabling unbiased and accurate mapping of dark matter distribution.

Contribution

The paper presents a new non-parametric approach for dark matter profile reconstruction that does not rely on predefined models, improving the accuracy and objectivity of galactic dark matter mapping.

Findings

Successfully constrained the dark matter profile between 2.5 and 25 kpc from the Galactic center.

Demonstrated the method's ability to produce unbiased dark matter profiles without theoretical assumptions.

Achieved competitive accuracy in dark matter distribution estimation.

Abstract

We present the results of a new, non-parametric method to reconstruct the Galactic dark matter profile directly from observations. Using the latest kinematic data to track the total gravitational potential and the observed distribution of stars and gas to set the baryonic component, we infer the dark matter contribution to the circular velocity across the Galaxy. The radial derivative of this dynamical contribution is then estimated to extract the dark matter profile. The innovative feature of our approach is that it makes no assumption on the functional form nor shape of the profile, thus allowing for a clean determination with no theoretical bias. We illustrate the power of the method by constraining the spherical dark matter profile between 2.5 and 25 kpc away from the Galactic centre. The results show that the proposed method, free of widely used assumptions, can already be applied to pinpoint the dark matter distribution in the Milky Way with competitive accuracy, and paves the way for future developments.