On the estimation of the local dark matter density using the rotation curve of the Milky Way
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The rotation curve of the Milky Way is commonly used to estimate the local dark matter density ρDM,⊙. However, the estimates are subject to the choice of the distribution of baryons needed in this type of studies. In this work we explore several Galactic mass models that differ in the distribution of baryons and dark matter, in order to determine ρDM,⊙. For this purpose we analyze the precise circular velocity curve measurement of the Milky Way up to ∼ 25 kpc from the Galactic centre obtained from Gaia DR2 [1]. We find that the estimated value of ρDM,⊙ stays robust to reasonable changes in the spherical dark matter halo. However, we show that ρDM,⊙ is affected by the choice of the model for the underlying baryonic components. In particular, we find that ρDM,⊙ is mostly sensitive to uncertainties in the disk components of the Galaxy. We also show that, when choosing one particular baryonic model, the estimate of ρDM,⊙ has an uncertainty of only about 10% of its best-fit value, but this uncertainty gets much bigger when we also consider the variation of the baryonic model. In particular, the rotation curve method does not allow to exclude the presence of an additional very thin component, that can increase ρDM,⊙ by more than a factor of 8 (the thin disk could even be made of dark matter). Therefore, we conclude that exclusively using the rotation curve of the Galaxy is not enough to provide a robust estimate of ρDM,⊙. For all the models that we study without the presence of an additional thin component, our resulting estimates of the local dark matter density take values in the range ρDM,⊙ ≃ 0.3−0.4 GeV/cm 3 , consistent with many of the estimates in the literature.
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This result supports previous studies that have found that the poorly known baryonic distribution in the MW is the main systematic uncertainty in the determination of the local DM density.
“This result supports previous studies that have found that the poorly known baryonic distribution in the MW is the main systematic uncertainty in the determination of the local DM density”
From The milky way total mass profile as inferred from Gaia DR2 (2020) · cites this paper as de Salas et al. 2019
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“8 kpc (Pouliasis et al., 2017; de Salas et al., 2019).”
- Authors
- de Salas, P. F., Malhan, K., Freese, K., Hattori, K., & Valluri, M.
- Affiliations
- Stockholm University (SE)
- University of Michigan (US)
- ORCID
- Malhan, K.
- Venue
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing
- Published
- 2019-10-14
- Volume
- 2019
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 037-037
- ISSN
- 1475-7508 (ISSN-L)
- 1475-7516
- OpenAlex
- W2950271187
- Cited by
- 176
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 35 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 5
- FWCI
- 9.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy (DESC0007859)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNX15AK79G)
- University of Michigan
- Vetenskapsrådet (638- 2013-8993)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Nuclear and High Energy Physics › Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Keywords
- local dark matter density, Milky Way rotation curve, dark matter halos, thin disk, disk mass distribution, Gaia DR2, circular velocity curves
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