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

暗物质的本质是现代物理学的重大问题之一。如果发现暗物质的相互作用是非引力的，即使很弱，也会对候选粒子进行限制。与简单的模型和模拟相比，观察结果通常给出上限，但有些人声称截面很小但非零。但结果在很大程度上取决于自我互动的形式，这一点在许多分析和报告的结果中都被忽略了。我们需要回顾各种相互作用形式，它们对模拟的适用性，以及在其他方面保持不变的情况下进行模拟。学生将模拟自相互作用的暗物质，就像以前发表的各种作品所实现的那样，但是在一个单独的代码中进行直接比较。要比较的观测结果是星系晕中的子结构图。

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.