Constraining the Collisional Nature of the Dark Matter through Observations of Gravitational Wakes

Steven R. Furlanetto, Abraham Loeb
2002 Astrophysical Journal  
We propose to use gravitational wakes as a direct observational probe of the collisional nature of the dark matter. We calculate analytically the structure of a wake generated by the motion of a galaxy in the core of an X-ray cluster for dark matter in the highly-collisional and collisionless limits. We show that the difference between these limits can be recovered from detailed X-ray or weak lensing observations. We also discuss the sizes of sub-halos in these limits. Preliminary X-ray data on
more » ... the motion of NGC 1404 through the Fornax group disfavors fluid-like dark matter but does not exclude scenarios in which the dark matter is weakly collisional.
doi:10.1086/324693 fatcat:pjnqwt2qkjas5eequtnyfp4qda