Baryon-driven growth of solitonic cores in fuzzy dark matter halos

TL;DR

This paper uses high-resolution simulations to study how baryons influence the formation and properties of solitonic cores in fuzzy dark matter halos, revealing that baryons make cores more massive and compact, affecting galaxy rotation curves.

Contribution

It introduces a new simulation-based framework to understand baryon effects on FDM solitonic cores and proposes a simple method to estimate their density profiles.

Findings

Baryons increase the mass and compactness of FDM cores.

Core properties are governed by local dark matter velocity dispersion.

Baryonic effects complicate the compatibility of FDM with galaxy rotation curves.

Abstract

We present zoom-in simulations of fuzzy dark matter (FDM) halos including baryons and star-formation with sufficient resolution to follow the formation and evolution of central solitons. We find that their properties are determined by the local dark matter velocity dispersion in the combined dark matter-baryon gravitational potential. This motivates a simple prescription to estimate the radial density profiles of FDM cores in the presence of baryons. As cores become more massive and compact if baryons are included, galactic rotation curve measurements are likely harder to reconcile with FDM.