1999/09/30 by David N. Spergel, Paul J. Steinhardt · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.84.3760
published as Phys.Rev.Lett.84:3760-3763,2000 · 4 pages, no figures; added references, pedagogical improvements, to appear in PRL
arxiv created 2000/02/28 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
Cosmological models with cold dark matter composed of weakly interacting particles predict overly dense cores in the centers of galaxies and clusters and an overly large number of halos within the Local Group compared to actual observations. We propose that the conflict can be resolved if the cold dark matter particles are self-interacting with a large scattering cross-section but negligible annihilation or dissipation. In this scenario, astronomical observations may enable us to study dark matter properties that are inaccessible in the laboratory