Non-local Interactions are Essential Elements for Dark Matter Halo Stability: A Cross-Model Study

TL;DR

This study emphasizes the importance of non-local interactions for dark matter halo stability, showing that standard collision-less models are insufficient and that quantum effects influence halo boundary characteristics.

Contribution

It introduces a systematic framework to analyze dark matter halo stability considering non-local interactions and quantum effects, expanding beyond traditional models.

Findings

Non-local interactions are essential for halo stability.

Standard collision-less models are inadequate without non-local effects.

Quantum effects influence halo boundary sharpness and extent.

Abstract

This paper introduces a comprehensive methodology for examining the stability of dark matter (DM) halos, emphasizing the necessity for non-local inter-particle interactions, whether they are fundamental or effective in nature, to maintain halo stability. We highlight the inadequacy of vanilla cold collision-less DM models in forecasting a stable halo without considering a "non-local" interaction in the halo's effective free energy, which could potentially arise from factors like baryonic feedback, self-interactions, or the intrinsic quantum characteristics of dark particles. The stability prerequisite necessitates significant effective interactions between any two points within the halo, regardless of their distance from the center. The methodology proposed herein offers a systematic framework to scrutinize the stability of various DM models and refine their parameter spaces. We deduce that DM halos within a model, where the deviation from the standard cold collision-less framework is confined to regions near the halo center, are unlikely to exhibit stability in their outer sectors. In our study, we demonstrate that the issue of instability within DM halos cannot be addressed adequately using perturbative quantum effects. This issue is less pronounced for fermionic DM but suffers from a higher degree of severity when considering bosonic DM. We find that halos made of bosons with notable quantum effects have sharp edges, while those made of fermions show more diffuse boundaries extending toward infinity. We also explore the broadest form of the effective free-energy around a chosen mass profile.