Dark matter as a condensate: Deduction of microscopic properties

TL;DR

This paper models dark matter as a Bose-Einstein condensate, deriving microscopic particle properties from astrophysical observations by incorporating thermal effects and fitting to data.

Contribution

It introduces a model that deduces dark matter particle properties from astrophysical phenomena, including thermal effects and observational data fitting.

Findings

Estimated dark matter particle mass with 18% error

Determined scattering length with 7% error

Model successfully explains galaxy rotation curves and light deflection

Abstract

In the present work we model dark matter as a Bose-Einstein condensate and the main goal is the deduction of the microscopic properties, namely, mass, number of particles, and scattering length, related to the particles comprised in the corresponding condensate. This task is done introducing in the corresponding model the effects of the thermal cloud of the system. Three physical conditions are imposed, i.e., mechanical equilibrium of the condensate, explanation of the rotation curves of stars belonging to dwarf galaxies, and, finally, the deflection of light due to the presence of dark matter. These three aforementioned expressions allow us to cast the features of the particles in terms of detectable astrophysical variables. Finally, the model is contrasted against observational data and in this manner we obtain values for the involved microscopic parameters of the condensate. The statistical errors are seven and eighteen percent for the scattering length and mass of the dark matter particle, respectively.