On the Late-Time Evolution of Velocity-Dependent Self-Interacting Dark Matter Halos

2023/12/14 by Sophia Gad-Nasr, Kimberly K. Boddy, Gad-Nasr, Sophia +7 · 1 voice · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Scientific Research and Discoveries #astro-ph.GA #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2312.09296

openalex publication_date 2023/12/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We study the evolution of isolated self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) halos that undergo gravothermal collapse and are driven deep into the short-mean-free-path regime. We assume spherical Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) halos as initial conditions and allow for elastic dark matter self-interactions. We discuss the structure of the halo core deep in the core-collapsed regime and how it depends on the particle physics properties of dark matter, in particular, the velocity dependence of the self-interaction cross section. We find an approximate universality deep in this regime that allows us to connect the evolution in the short- and long-mean-free-path regimes, and approximately map the velocity-dependent self-interaction cross sections to constant ones for the full gravothermal evolution. We provide a semi-analytic prescription based on our numerical results for halo evolution deep in the core-collapsed regime. Our results are essential for estimating the masses of the black holes that are likely to be left in the core of SIDM halos.

Cited by

• A possible challenge for cold and warm dark matter
• Gravothermal collapse of self-interacting dark-matter halos with anisotropic velocity distributions
• Ultra-Strongly Self-Interacting Dark Matter: From Phenomenology to Astrophysical Observables

Discussions

• Exciting news, friends! Today marks the release of my first first-author paper, and it's about the rapid late-stage gravothermal evolution of Self-Interacting Dark Matter (SIDM) halos: arxiv.org/abs/2 [bsky, 23 points, 1 comments]

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