Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

GALAXIES

Is dark matter self-interacting?

Nature Astronomy volume 2, pages 856–857 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Contrary to usual assumptions, new astronomical observations suggest that dark matter may be self-interacting. If true this would rule out most popular dark matter particle candidates, including supersymmetric neutralinos, axions and sterile neutrinos, as well as black holes.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Observational constraints on the cross-section of self-interacting dark matter.

References

  1. Valli, M. & Yu, H.-B. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0560-7 (2018).

  2. Ellis, J. Phys. Scr. T85, 221–230 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Frenk, C. S. & White, S. D. M. Ann. Phys. 524, 507–534 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Weinberg, D. H., Bullock, J. S., Governato, F., Kuzio de Naray, R. & Peter, A. H. G. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 112, 12249–12255 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Carlson, E. D., Machacek, M. E. & Hall, L. J. Astrophys. J. 398, 43–52 (1992).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Randall, S. W. et al. Astrophys. J. 679, 1173–1180 (2008).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Kahlhoefer, F., Schmidt-Hoberg, K., Frandsen, M. T. & Sarkar, S. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. Lett. 452, L54–L58 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Robertson, A., Massey, R. & Eke, V. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 467, 4719–4730 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Subir Sarkar

  2. Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Subir Sarkar

Authors
  1. Subir Sarkar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Subir Sarkar.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sarkar, S. Is dark matter self-interacting?. Nat Astron 2, 856–857 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0598-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0598-6

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing