Searching for signatures of self-interacting dark matter in halos from full physics simulations: From 3D structure to projected observables
Abstract
In this work we explore the imprints of self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) on the structure of simulated galaxy groups and clusters in view of future optical surveys. We find that both baryonic and projection effects lead to a significant alleviation of the SIDM core-forming behavior on the mass and density profiles, resulting in very small (≲ 5%) deviations from standard collisionless dark matter. The opposite trend emerges for our most massive halos, where SIDM tends to significantly enhance the central density instead; we compare those halos with the observed dark matter profiles of two galaxy clusters, MACS J1206 and Abell S1063, finding that SIDM may leave potentially detectable imprints on cluster cores when considering the small observational uncertainty of current kinematic mass measurements. Finally, we find that weak lensing observations provide a promising tool for testing SIDM on cluster scales: in an idealized scenario where systematics are under control, weak lensing shear profiles exhibit up to ∼ 20% level deviations for M200 ≳ 1013 M⊙ halos. Conversely, the projected concentration-mass relation is only slightly modified by our SIDM models. We also discuss the limitiations of our analysis and the impact of the simulation resolution, as well as possible extension of this work. Overall, our results provide a baseline for future SIDM studies: although line-of-sight projection and baryonic effects significantly reduce SIDM imprints on halo mass profiles, weak lensing and kinematic analyses in galaxy clusters may potentially allow for robust detection and constraining of dark matter self-interactions in massive structures from megaparsec down to kiloparsec scales.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{ferron2026searching,
title = {{Searching for signatures of self-interacting dark matter in halos from full physics simulations: From 3D structure to projected observables}},
author = {Giovanni Y. Ferron and Antonio Ragagnin and Lorenzo Pizzuti and Moritz S. Fischer},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.21963},
eprint = {2608.21963},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.21963},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Searching for signatures of self-interacting dark matter in halos from full physics simulations: From 3D structure to projected observables
AU - Giovanni Y. Ferron
AU - Antonio Ragagnin
AU - Lorenzo Pizzuti
AU - Moritz S. Fischer
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.21963
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.21963
AB - In this work we explore the imprints of self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) on the structure of simulated galaxy groups and clusters in view of future optical surveys. We find that both baryonic and projection effects lead to a significant alleviation of the SIDM core-forming behavior on the mass and density profiles, resulting in very small (≲ 5%) deviations from standard collisionless dark matter. The opposite trend emerges for our most massive halos, where SIDM tends to significantly enhance the central density instead; we compare those halos with the observed dark matter profiles of two galaxy clusters, MACS J1206 and Abell S1063, finding that SIDM may leave potentially detectable imprints on cluster cores when considering the small observational uncertainty of current kinematic mass measurements. Finally, we find that weak lensing observations provide a promising tool for testing SIDM on cluster scales: in an idealized scenario where systematics are under control, weak lensing shear profiles exhibit up to ∼ 20% level deviations for M_200 ≳ 10^13 M_⊙ halos. Conversely, the projected concentration-mass relation is only slightly modified by our SIDM models. We also discuss the limitiations of our analysis and the impact of the simulation resolution, as well as possible extension of this work. Overall, our results provide a baseline for future SIDM studies: although line-of-sight projection and baryonic effects significantly reduce SIDM imprints on halo mass profiles, weak lensing and kinematic analyses in galaxy clusters may potentially allow for robust detection and constraining of dark matter self-interactions in massive structures from megaparsec down to kiloparsec scales.
ER -