2010/06/30 by Miguel Pato, Oscar Agertz, Gianfranco Bertone +2 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Baryon #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Milky Way #Physics #RADIUS #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.82.023531
published as Phys.Rev.D82:023531,2010 · 6 pages, 3 figures, matches published version
arxiv created 2010/07/29 · openalex publication_date 2010/07/29 · arxiv updated 2014/11/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A precise determination of the local dark matter density and an accurate control over the corresponding uncertainties are of paramount importance for dark matter (DM) searches. Using very recent high-resolution numerical simulations of a Milky Way like object, we study the systematic uncertainties that affect the determination of the local dark matter density based on dynamical measurements in the Galaxy. In particular, extracting from the simulation with baryons the orientation of the Galactic stellar disk with respect to the DM distribution, we study the DM density for an observer located at \ensuremath∼8 kpc from the Galactic center on the stellar disk, \ensuremathρ0. This quantity is found to be always larger than the average density in a spherical shell of the same radius \ensuremathρ0, which is the quantity inferred from dynamical measurements in the Galaxy, and to vary in the range \ensuremathρ0/\ensuremathρ0=1.01--1.41. This suggests that the actual dark matter density in the solar neighborhood is on average 21% larger than the value inferred from most dynamical measurements, and that the associated systematic errors are larger than the statistical errors recently discussed in the literature.