Ultra-Light Dark Matter
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Noname manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) Ultra-light dark matter Elisa G. M. Ferreira the date of receipt and acceptance should be inserted later Abstract Ultra-light dark matter is a class of dark matter models (DM) where DM is composed by bosons with masses ranging from 10−24 eV < m < eV. These models have been receiving a lot of attention in the past few years given their interesting property of forming a Bose{Einstein condensate (BEC) or a superfluid on galactic scales. BEC and superfluidity are some of the most striking quantum mechanical phenomena manifest on macroscopic scales, and upon condensation the particles behave as a single coherent state, described by the wavefunction of the condensate. The idea is that condensation takes place inside galaxies while outside, on large scales, it recovers the successes of ΛCDM. This wave nature of DM on galactic scales that arise upon condensation can address some of the curiosities of the behaviour of DM on small scales. There are many models in the literature that describe a DM component that condenses in galaxies. In this review, we are going to describe those models, and classify them into three classes, according to the different non-linear evolution and structures they form in galaxies: the fuzzy dark matter (FDM), the self-interacting fuzzy dark matter (SIFDM), and the DM superfluid. Each of these classes comprises many models, each presenting a similar phenomenology in galaxies. They also include some microscopic models like the axions and axion-like particles. To understand and describe this phenomenology in galaxies, we are going to review the phenomena of BEC and superfluidity that arise in condensed matter physics, and apply this knowledge to DM. We describe how ULDM can potentially reconcile the cold DM picture with the small scale behaviour. These models present a rich phenomenology that is manifest in different astrophysical consequences. We review here the astrophysical and cosmological tests used to constrain those models, together with new and future observations that promise to test these models in different regimes. For the case of the FDM class, the mass where this model has an interesting phenomenology on small scales 10−22 eV, is strongly challenged by current observations. The parameter space for the other two classes remains∼ weakly constrained. We finalize by showing some predictions that are a consequence of the wave nature of this component, like the creation of vortices and interference patterns, that could represent a smoking gun in the search of these rich and interesting alternative class of DM models. Keywords Ultra-light dark matter Fuzzy dark matter Superfluid dark matter Bose{Einstein condensate Superfluid · · · · Contents arXiv:2005.03254v2 [astro-ph.CO] 3 Feb 2021 1 Introduction and motivation . .2 2 Small-scale challenges of cold dark matter . .6 2.1 Dark matter halos and substructures . .8 2.2 Discrepancies in comparison with observations . .9 2.2.1 Cusp-core . .9 2.2.2 Missing satellites . 10 2.2.3 Diversity vs. regularity: scaling relations . 12 2.2.4 What the small scales tell us . 14 3 Bose-Einstein Condensation and Superfluidity . 15 3.1 Non-interacting ideal gas . 16 3.2 Landau's superfluid model and criteria for superfluidity . 19 Elisa G. M. Ferreira Max-Planck-Institut f¨urAstrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany E-mail: [email protected] 2 Elisa G. M. Ferreira 3.3 Weakly interacting Bose gas - superfluid . 20 3.3.1 Field theory description . 26 3.4 Effective field theory of a superfluid . 31 3.5 Rotating superfluid - quantum vortices . 33 3.6 BEC in wave turbulence - kinetic theory . 35 3.7 Summary and discussion: what is a condensate? . 38 4 Ultra-light dark matter . 39 4.1 FDM and SIFDM . 44 4.1.1 Formation: ALPs . 45 4.1.2 Cosmological evolution . 45 4.1.3 Evolution on small scales . 48 4.1.4 Description of the condensate . 50 4.1.5 Discussion . 58 4.1.6 Cosmological and astrophysical consequences of the FDM . 60 4.1.7 Addressing the small scale challenges . 70 4.2 DM Superfluid . 71 4.2.1 Conditions for DM condensation . 72 4.2.2 Superfluid dynamics . 74 4.2.3 Halo profile . 75 4.2.4 Observational consequences . 77 4.2.5 Validity of the EFT . 82 4.2.6 Relativistic completion . 84 4.2.7 Cosmology . 85 4.3 Simulating ULDM models . 86 4.4 ULDM as dark energy . 89 4.4.1 Fuzzy DM . 89 4.4.2 Superfluid DM - Unified superfluid dark sector . 90 5 Cosmological and astrophysical constraints, and new windows of observation . 91 5.1 Cosmological constraints: CMB and LSS . 92 5.1.1 CMB and LSS . 92 5.1.2 Lyman-α .......................................................... 94 5.1.3 21-cm cosmology . 95 5.2 Astrophysical constraints and new windows of observation . 96 5.2.1 Local Milky Way observables and stellar streams . 97 5.2.2 Substructure - strong lensing . 101 5.3 UV luminosity function . 102 5.4 Black hole superradiance . 102 5.5 Probing the wave nature of ULDM . 103 5.5.1 Vortices . 104 5.5.2 Interference fringes . 105 6 Summary ................................................................. 106 1 Introduction and motivation An overwhelming amount of observational data provides clear and compelling evidence for the presence of dark matter (DM) on a wide range of scales. This component, which is believed to be responsible for the \missing" mass in our universe, is the main ingredient for all the structures we have in our universe. This is one of the oldest unsolved problems in cosmology, being traced back to the 1930s (Zwicky 1933; Bertone and Hooper 2018), and also one of the best measured ones. The evidence for dark matter first emerged from the study of the rotation curves of galaxies. From pioneering studies (Rubin and Ford 1970), it was already evident that the amount of matter necessary to fit the flat observed rotation curves did not match the theoretical curves predicted, assuming Newtonian mechanics and taking into account only the visible matter present in those galaxies. Dark matter was proposed as an additional (non-luminous) component to explain this discrepancy. Nowadays, the evidence for dark matter comes from precise measurements on a wide range of scales. From sub-galactic and galactic scales, to clusters, going up to the large scale structure (LSS). On cosmological scales, the observed anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) (Ade et al. 2018), together with data from Type Ia Supernovae, determine the total energy density of matter with high precision. This together with the bounds on the abundance of the light chemical elements from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, which constrains the amount of baryonic matter in the universe, strongly shows the need for a clustering component of non-baryonic1 origin, that does not interact (strongly) with photons, and that dominates the matter content of the universe, accounting for approximately 85% of all matter. The same non-luminous and clustering component is necessary to explain the 1 We are going to see later that there are some \baryonic" candidates for DM. Ultra-light dark matter 3 Fig. 1 Sketch (not to scale) of the huge range of possible DM models that have been conceived. They span many orders of magnitude in mass, with DM represented by very distinct phenomena, ranging from new elementary particles to black holes. structures we see in our universe today, as is evident in observations of the large scale structure of our universe (Anderson et al. 2014; Tegmark et al. 2004). With all this evidence coming from precise astrophysical and cosmological observations, cosmologists have con-.