Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 471, Issue 4, Pages 4559-4570Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stx1887
Keywords
methods: numerical; galaxies: haloes; dark matter
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship [DGE-1144152]
- NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship [NNX12AB23C]
- UC MEXUS-CONACYT fellowship
- FAS Division of Science, Research Computing Group at Harvard University
- MIT RSC award
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- NASA ATP grant [NNX17AG29G]
- NSF [AST-1517226]
- NASA through ATP grant [NNX17AG29G]
- HST theory grants [AR-12836, AR-13888, AR-13896, AR-14282, AR-14554]
- Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)
- Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc., under NASA [NAS5-26555]
- Grant of Excellence from the Icelandic Research Fund [173929-051]
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1517226] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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We present a theoretical analysis of some unexplored aspects of relaxed Bose-Einstein condensate dark matter (BECDM) haloes. This type of ultralight bosonic scalar field dark matter is a viable alternative to the standard cold dark matter (CDM) paradigm, as it makes the same large-scale predictions as CDM and potentially overcomes CDM's small-scale problems via a galaxy-scale de Broglie wavelength. We simulate BECDM halo formation through mergers, evolved under the Schrodinger-Poisson equations. The formed haloes consist of a soliton core supported against gravitational collapse by the quantum pressure tensor and an asymptotic r(-3) NFW-like profile. We find a fundamental relation of the core-to-halo mass with the dimensionless invariant Xi vertical bar E vertical bar/M-3/(Gm/(sic))(2) or M-c/M similar or equal to 2.6 Xi(1/3), linking the soliton to global halo properties. For r >= 3.5 r(c) core radii, we find equipartition between potential, classical kinetic and quantum gradient energies. The haloes also exhibit a conspicuous turbulent behaviour driven by the continuous reconnection of vortex lines due to wave interference. We analyse the turbulence 1D velocity power spectrum and find a k(-1.1) power law. This suggests that the vorticity in BECDM haloes is homogeneous, similar to thermally-driven counterflow BEC systems from condensed matter physics, in contrast to a k(-5/3) Kolmogorov power law seen in mechanically-driven quantum systems. The mode where the power spectrum peaks is approximately the soliton width, implying that the soliton-sized granules carry most of the turbulent energy in BECDM haloes.
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