2023/07/06 by Heliudson Bernardo, Robert Brandenberger, Bernardo, Heliudson +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2307.03041
openalex publication_date 2023/07/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We consider a cosmic string moving through a gas of superfluid dark matter (SFDM) particles and analyze how it affects the dark matter distribution. We look at two different cases: first, a cosmic string passing through an already condensed region, and second, through a region that is not yet condensed. In the former, the string induces a weak shock in the superfluid, and the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) survives. In the latter, a wake of larger density is formed behind the string, and we study under which conditions a BEC can be formed in the virialized region of the wake. By requiring the thermalization of the DM particles and the overlap of their de Broglie wavelengths inside the wake, we obtain an upper bound on the mass of the dark matter particles on the order of 10 eV, which is compatible with typical SFDM models.