Collaborative Research: Constraining Fuzzy Dark Matter with Cosmological Simulations

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This research team will carry out an extensive theoretical and computational investigation into the nature of dark matter. Using computer simulations to understand galaxy formation within this Fuzzy Dark Matter (FDM) model, they will predict observational signatures and large-scale statistics, and constrain the value for the mass of the FDM particle. This will allow FDM to be verified, constrained, or excluded with existing or new observations. This study directly affects other research, including the design of next-generation experiments searching for direct evidence of a possible dark matter particle. The work will connect women and under-represented minority students to mentorship and research projects, helping to develop a diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce, and provide curricular tools to high school teachers, to engage a large audience of potential STEM students. FDM is a physically motivated model that could solve the small-scale astrophysical challenges faced by the prevailing cold dark matter interpretation. It predicts many small-scale effects that might be observable. This project will dramatically improve our theoretical understanding of the nonlinear behavior of ultra-light scalar fields in the Universe. Because analytic theory does not capture all the important physical processes, these state-of-the-art numerical simulations will establish new ways for observations to constrain the FDM model. They will probe the small-scale dynamics of dark matter, distinguish between models, and possibly establish the nature of dark matter. The work will generate open-source tools and products which can be used to interpret observations of high-redshift galaxies or the astrometry of Milky Way stars.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.