On the interpretation of dark matter self-interactions in Abell 3827

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Felix Kahlhoefer
  • Kai Schmidt-Hoberg
  • Janis Kummer
  • Subir Sarkar
Self-interactions of dark matter (DM) particles can potentially lead to an observable separation between the DM halo and the stars of a galaxy moving through a region of large DM density. Such a separation has recently been observed in a galaxy falling into the core of the galaxy cluster Abell 3827.We estimated the DM self-interaction cross-section needed to reproduce the observed effects and find that the sensitivity of Abell 3827 has been significantly overestimated in a previous study.Our corrected estimate is σ˜/m_DM ∼ 3 cm^2 g^−1 when self-interactions result in an effective drag force and σ/m_DM ∼ 1.5 cm^2 g^−1 for the case of contact interactions, in
some tension with previous upper bounds.
Original languageEnglish
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume452
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)L54-L58
Number of pages5
ISSN0035-8711
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

ID: 142231174