Superfluid dark matter in tension with weak gravitational lensing data

TL;DR

Superfluid dark matter aims to unify particle dark matter and MOND-like behavior but fails to match recent weak gravitational lensing data, indicating current models are incompatible with observations.

Contribution

This paper tests the superfluid dark matter model against weak lensing data and demonstrates its incompatibility in its current form.

Findings

SFDM reproduces MOND only near galactic centers

Weak lensing data aligns with MOND predictions at large radii

SFDM cannot fit the weak lensing observations

Abstract

Superfluid dark matter (SFDM) is a model that promises to reproduce the successes of both particle dark matter on cosmological scales and those of Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) on galactic scales. SFDM reproduces MOND only up to a certain distance from the galactic center, and only for kinematic observables: It does not affect trajectories of light. We test whether this is consistent with a recent analysis of weak gravitational lensing that has probed accelerations around galaxies to unprecedentedly large radii. This analysis found the data to be close to the prediction of MOND, suggesting they might be difficult to fit with SFDM. To investigate this matter, we solved the equations of motion of the model and compared the result to observational data. Our results show that the SFDM model is incompatible with the weak-lensing observations, at least in its current form.