A New Challenge for Dark Matter Models

TL;DR

This paper identifies a new challenge for cold dark matter models by showing that certain Milky Way satellites are too dense to be explained as typical satellites, posing a problem that current dark matter theories cannot resolve.

Contribution

The study introduces the 'too-dense-to-be-satellite' problem, revealing dense dwarf galaxies that challenge existing CDM models and are not solvable by baryonic physics or current dark matter modifications.

Findings

Two Milky Way satellites are too dense to be explained as typical satellites.

These galaxies have surface densities exceeding cosmic dark energy density.

Some satellites require formation halo masses below the atomic cooling limit.

Abstract

Cold dark matter (CDM) has faced a number of challenges mainly at small scales, such as the too-big-to-fail problem, and core-cusp density profile of dwarf galaxies. Such problems were argued to have a solution either in the baryonic physics sector or in modifying the nature of dark matter to be self-interacting, or self-annihilating, or ultra-light. Here we present a new challenge for CDM by showing that two of Milky Way's satellites (Horologium I, and Tucana II) are too dense, requiring the formation masses and redshifts of halos in CDM not compatible with being a satellite. These too-dense-to-be-satellite systems are dominated by dark matter and exhibit a surface density above mean dark energy cosmic surface density $\sim\Omega_{\Lambda} \rho_c c/H_0\approx 600~\rm M_{\odot}/pc^2$. This value corresponds to dark matter pressure of $\approx 10^{-9}{\rm erg/cm^3}$. Along with the recently reported excess in small-scale substructures found in cluster-lenses, this problem, unlike other issues facing CDM, has no solution in the baryonic sector and none of the current alternatives of dark matter can account for it. The too-dense-to-be-satellite problem presented in this work provides a new clue for the nature of dark matter, never accounted for before. We note that Horologium I and Tucana II have only been discovered in the past $\sim6$ years with DES, and future surveys (such as those done by Vera C. Rubin Observatory) may uncover a broader population of such galaxies. Moreover, we find that a number of MW's satellite require formation halo masses below the atomic cooling limit which by itself is another challenging observation to account for in CDM.