2020/03/04 by Siddharth Mishra-Sharma, Ken Van Tilburg, Neal Weiner · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Computer science #Cosmology #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark energy #Dark matter #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Gravitational lens #Milky Way #Physics #Population #Scalar (mathematics) #Scalar field dark matter #Spectral density #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Weak gravitational lensing #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.HE #astro-ph.IM #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.102.023026
published as Phys. Rev. D 102, 023026 (2020) · 18+11 pages, 12+4 figures
arxiv created 2020/03/04 · openalex publication_date 2020/07/22 · arxiv updated 2020/07/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Astrometric weak gravitational lensing is a powerful probe of the distribution of matter on sub-Galactic scales, which harbor important information about the fundamental nature of dark matter. We propose a novel method that utilizes angular power spectra to search for the correlated pattern of apparent motions of celestial objects induced from time-dependent lensing by a population of Galactic subhalos. Application of this method to upcoming astrometric datasets will allow for the direct measurement of the properties of Galactic substructure, with implications for the underlying particle physics. We show that, with near-future astrometric observations, it may be possible to statistically detect populations of cold dark matter subhalos, compact objects, as well as density fluctuations sourced by scalar field dark matter. Currently-unconstrained parameter space will already be accessible using upcoming data from the ongoing Gaia mission.