JWST lensed quasar dark matter survey V: Hints of self-interacting dark matter from 29 quadruply imaged quasars
Abstract
Theories of self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) predict the eventual core collapse of dark matter halos, a process that transforms these structures into extremely efficient gravitational lenses. We present a population-level inference on the abundance of core collapsed halos and subhalos in the mass range 106 − 1010.7 M⊙ using 29 quadruply imaged quasars, drawing on the collective lensing signal of many low-mass perturbers. Our structure formation model predicts the abundance of collapsed (sub)halos as a function of halo mass and redshift. We quantify how our results are affected by systematic uncertainties, including the abundance of globular clusters (GCs) and subhalos, and the internal structure of deeply collapsed halos. Our data exhibits a strong preference for core collapsed halos in the lens model, with Bayes factors disfavoring CDM relative to SIDM ranging from 8:1 to 24:1, depending on the assumed SIDM subhalo abundance and the internal structure of collapsed halos. Explaining our data without core collapse requires both a GC abundance well above expectations and more subhalos than predicted by N-body simulations. These results pose a challenge to the CDM paradigm. We present a particle physics interpretation of these results in a companion paper.
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BibTeX
@misc{gilman2026jwst,
title = {{JWST lensed quasar dark matter survey V: Hints of self-interacting dark matter from 29 quadruply imaged quasars}},
author = {D. Gilman and A. M. Nierenberg and J. Gurian and H. Paugnat and C. Gannon and M. N. Martinez and T. Treu and K. N. Abazajian and T. Anguita and V. N. Bennert and A. J. Benson and S. Birrer and S. G. Djorgovski and S. F. Hoenig and R. E. Keeley and A. Kusenko and M. Millon and T. Morishita and L. A. Moustakas and P. Mozumdar and D. Paris and W. Sheu and D. Sluse and K. C. Wong},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.35974},
eprint = {2609.35974},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.35974},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - JWST lensed quasar dark matter survey V: Hints of self-interacting dark matter from 29 quadruply imaged quasars
AU - D. Gilman
AU - A. M. Nierenberg
AU - J. Gurian
AU - H. Paugnat
AU - C. Gannon
AU - M. N. Martinez
AU - T. Treu
AU - K. N. Abazajian
AU - T. Anguita
AU - V. N. Bennert
AU - A. J. Benson
AU - S. Birrer
AU - S. G. Djorgovski
AU - S. F. Hoenig
AU - R. E. Keeley
AU - A. Kusenko
AU - M. Millon
AU - T. Morishita
AU - L. A. Moustakas
AU - P. Mozumdar
AU - D. Paris
AU - W. Sheu
AU - D. Sluse
AU - K. C. Wong
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.35974
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.35974
AB - Theories of self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) predict the eventual core collapse of dark matter halos, a process that transforms these structures into extremely efficient gravitational lenses. We present a population-level inference on the abundance of core collapsed halos and subhalos in the mass range 10^6 − 10^10.7 M_⊙ using 29 quadruply imaged quasars, drawing on the collective lensing signal of many low-mass perturbers. Our structure formation model predicts the abundance of collapsed (sub)halos as a function of halo mass and redshift. We quantify how our results are affected by systematic uncertainties, including the abundance of globular clusters (GCs) and subhalos, and the internal structure of deeply collapsed halos. Our data exhibits a strong preference for core collapsed halos in the lens model, with Bayes factors disfavoring CDM relative to SIDM ranging from 8:1 to 24:1, depending on the assumed SIDM subhalo abundance and the internal structure of collapsed halos. Explaining our data without core collapse requires both a GC abundance well above expectations and more subhalos than predicted by N-body simulations. These results pose a challenge to the CDM paradigm. We present a particle physics interpretation of these results in a companion paper.
ER -