The Detectability of Self-Interacting Dark Matter in Cosmological Structure: The View from Numerical Simulations

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The nature of dark matter is one of the great questions of modern physics. Constraints on candidate particles would be made if it were found that dark matter interacted non-gravitationally, even if weakly. Observations compared to simple models and simulations generally give upper limits but some have claimed a small but non-zero cross section. But the results are strongly dependent on what form the self-interaction takes, a point lost in many of the analyses and reported results. What is required is an review of the various interaction forms, their suitability for simulation, and simulation with all other aspects held constant.The student will conduct simulations of self-interacting dark matter as implemented by the various previously-published works, but in a single code for direct comparison. The observations to be compared with are maps of the substructure in galaxy halos.