TH Cosmo Coffee

Dark matter self interactions and colliding galaxy clusters - evidence for self interactions in Abell 3827?

Name: Dark matter self interactions and colliding galaxy clusters - evidence for self interactions in Abell 3827?
Start: 2015-08-26T11:30:00+02:00
End: 2015-08-26T12:30:00+02:00
Location: CERN

by Dr Kai Schmidt-Hoberg (DESY)

Wednesday 26 Aug 2015, 11:30 → 12:30 Europe/Zurich

4/2-011 - TH common room (CERN)

4/2-011 - TH common room

CERN

CERN TH division

Show room on map

Description

I will review motivations for the existence of self interacting dark matter and discuss possible astrophysical observables. Self-interactions of dark matter particles can potentially lead to an observable separation between the dark matter halo and the stars of a galaxy moving through a region of large dark matter density. Such a separation has recently been observed in a galaxy falling into the core of the galaxy cluster Abell 3827. I discuss the DM self-interaction cross section needed to reproduce the observed effects.