Halometry from Astrometry

TL;DR

This paper proposes using astrometric surveys to detect nonluminous structures in the Galactic halo through variable weak gravitational lensing, enabling exploration of dark matter substructures and primordial fluctuations across a wide mass and scale range.

Contribution

It introduces new detection strategies based on correlated effects in star motions, improving sensitivity for extended dark matter targets compared to existing single-source methods.

Findings

Potential to detect dark matter subhalos and planets in the Solar System

New methods leverage correlations in star motions for better sensitivity

Probes primordial fluctuations over previously inaccessible scales

Abstract

Halometry---mapping out the spectrum, location, and kinematics of nonluminous structures inside the Galactic halo---can be realized via variable weak gravitational lensing of the apparent motions of stars and other luminous background sources. Modern astrometric surveys provide unprecedented positional precision along with a leap in the number of cataloged objects. Astrometry thus offers a new and sensitive probe of collapsed dark matter structures over a wide mass range, from one millionth to several million solar masses. It opens up a window into the spectrum of primordial curvature fluctuations with comoving wavenumbers between $5~\text{Mpc}^{-1}$ and $10^5~\text{Mpc}^{-1}$, scales hitherto poorly constrained. We outline detection strategies based on three classes of observables---multi-blips, templates, and correlations---that take advantage of correlated effects in the motion of many background light sources that are produced through time-domain gravitational lensing. While existing techniques based on single-source observables such as outliers and mono-blips are best suited for point-like lens targets, our methods offer parametric improvements for extended lens targets such as dark matter subhalos. Multi-blip lensing events may also unveil the existence, location, and mass of planets in the outer reaches of the Solar System, where they would likely have escaped detection by direct imaging.