Constraints on the Dark Matter Particle Mass from the Number of Milky Way Satellites
Abstract
We have conducted N-body simulations of the growth of Milky Way-sized halos in cold and warm dark matter cosmologies. The number of dark matter satellites in our simulated Milky Ways decreases with decreasing mass of the dark matter particle. Assuming that the number of dark matter satellites exceeds or equals the number of observed satellites of the Milky Way we derive lower limits on the dark matter particle mass. We find with 95% confidence ms > 11.8 keV for a sterile neutrino produced by the Dodelson & Widrow mechanism and mWDM > 2.1 keV for a thermal dark matter particle. The recent discovery of many new dark matter dominated satellites of the Milky Way in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey allows us to set lower limits comparable to constraints from the complementary methods of Lyman- forest modeling and the unresolved cosmic X-ray background. Future surveys like LSST, DES, PanSTARRS, and SkyMapper have the potential to discover many more satellites and further improve constraints on the dark matter particle mass.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 12, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA522777
Entities
People
- Emil Polisensky
- Massimo Ricotti
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory