Can plasma physics establish a significant bound on long range dark matter interactions?

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether plasma physics can set meaningful bounds on long-range interactions of dark matter, specifically through dark electromagnetism, by analyzing plasma-like instabilities and comparing with astronomical data.

Contribution

It applies plasma physics principles to dark matter models, deriving new constraints on dark electromagnetic interactions from observational data.

Findings

Dark electromagnetic self-interaction $ ext{α}_D < 4 imes 10^{-25}$

Plasma instabilities can impose significant bounds on dark matter interactions

Astronomical observations support the derived constraints

Abstract

Dark matter has been theorized to be charged under its own "dark electromagnetism" (dark-EM). Under this hypothesis, dark matter can behave like a cold collisionless plasma of self-interacting dark matter particles, and exhibit plasma-like instabilities with observational consequences. Using the results published in [1], which studied the degree of slowdown between two interpenetrating $e^-\,e^+$ plasma clouds due to plasma instabilities, estimates of similar interactions for colliding "dark plasmas" are explored. Comparison with astronomical observations reveals strong new constraints on dark-EM with the dark electromagnetic self-interaction $\alpha_{D} < 4 \times 10^{-25}$.