# 1 How Cool is Cold Dark Matter?

## 1 How Cool is Cold Dark Matter?

The successful match of predictions for large scale structure and microwave anisotropy vindicates many assumptions of standard cosmology, in particular the hypothesis that the dark matter is composed of primordial particles which are cold and collisionless. At the same time, the CDM paradigm finds difficulty explaining the small-scale structure within galaxy haloes: CDM appears to predict excessive relic substructure in the form of many dwarf galaxies which are not seen and may disrupt disks, and also predicts a universal, monotonic increase of density towards the center of all halos which is not seen in close studies of dark-matter-dominated galaxies. The latter problem seems to arise as a generic result of low-entropy material sinking during halo formation, quite independently of initial conditions; the former effect seems to be a generic result of hierarchical clustering predicted by CDM power spectra, which produce fluctuations on small scales that collapse early and survive as substructure. Although these problems are still controversial from both a theoretical and observational point of view, it is not easy to dismiss these effects by various complicated baryonic devices.

It is possible that the problems with halo structure are giving specific quantitative clues about new properties of the dark matter particles. The existence of dwarf cores and smooth substructure are just what one would expect if the dark matter is not absolutely cold but has a small nonzero primordial velocity dispersion. Such a model produces two separate effects: a phase packing or Liouville limit which produces halo cores, and a filter in the primordial power spectrum which limits small-scale substructure. The estimated dispersion required for the two effects does not quite agree but is close enough to motivate a closer look. This discussion is meant to motivate more detailed comparison of models and theory aimed at using halo properties to test the hypothesis of primordial velocity dispersion and ultimately to measure particle properties.

The physics of the filtering by freely streaming particles closely parallels that of massive neutrinos, the standard form of “hot” dark matter. A thermal particle which is more weakly interacting and therefore separates out of equilibrium earlier than neutrinos, when there are more particle degrees of freedom, has a lower temperature than neutrinos and therefore both a lower density and lower velocity dispersion for a given mass. Such “thermal relics” constitute one class of warm dark matter candidate; there are other possibilities, including degenerate particles and products of decaying particles. In many respects their astrophysical effects are very similar to the thermal case since up to numerical factors the damping scale and phase packing limit are both fixed by the same quantity, the classical “phase density” of the particles. For particles which separate out when relativistic, the phase density depends only on the particle properties and not on any cosmological parameters. It is similar (though not identical) for bosons and fermions, and in thermal and degenerate limits.

The phase-packing constraint is also familiar from the context of massive neutrinos. Tremaine and Gunn showed that the phase density of dark matter in giant galaxies implies a large neutrino mass, therefore too large a mean cosmic density. However, their argument can be turned around to explain the lack of a cusp at the center of dwarf halos. An upper limit to the central density of an isothermal sphere can be derived for a given phase density; a very rough comparison with dwarf dynamics suggests a limit corresponding to that of a thermal relic with a mass of about 200 eV. This is lighter (that is, a larger dispersion) than the $``$1 keV currently guessed at from the filtering effect, but not by so much that the idea should be abandoned; the simulations and comparison with data may yet reconcile the two effects and could reveal correlations of core radius and velocity dispersion predicted by the phase-packing hypothesis. Comparison of the two effects may also reveal new dark matter physics: for example, if the particles scatter off each other by self-interactions (which may even be negligible today), free streaming is suppressed and the filtering occurs on a somewhat smaller scale.

Warm dark matter has most often been invoked as a solution to fixing apparent (and no longer problematic) difficulties with predictions of the CDM power spectrum for matching galaxy clustering data. A filtered spectrum may however solve several other classic problems of CDM on smaller scales, in galaxy formation itself. Baryons tend to cool and collapse early into lumps smaller and denser than observed galaxies. Although this may be prevented by stellar-feedback effects, recent studies suggest that CDM has fundamental difficulties explaining the basic properties of galaxies such as the Tully-Fisher relation; dynamical loss of angular momentum results in halos which are too concentrated. Some of these problems may be solved in warm dark matter models which suppress the early collapse of subgalactic structures. Modeling disk formation includes baryonic evolution so requires understanding the ionization history of gas; an important constraint comes from the observed structures of the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ forest. Simulations suggest that the optimal filtering scale corresponds to a thermal particle mass of about 1 keV.

For these relatively massive thermal relics to have the right mean density today, the particle must have separated out at least as early as the QCD era, when the number of degrees of freedom was significantly larger than at classical weak decoupling. Its interactions with normal Standard Model particles must be “weaker than weak,” ruling out not only neutrinos but many other particle candidates. The leading CDM particle candidates, such as WIMPs and axions, form in standard scenarios with extremely high phase densities, although more elaborate mechanisms are possible to endow these particles with the required velocities. It is therefore of considerable interest from a particle physics point of view to find evidence for the existence of finite primordial phase density from galaxy halo dynamics. Neither the theory or the observational side allow a definitive case to be made as yet, but the evidence is certainly suggestive. In principle, dynamics can provide detailed clues to the dark matter mass and interactions. Here I give a few examples of simple calculations which reveal the connections between the particle properties and the halo properties.

## 2 Phase Density of Relativistically-Decoupled Relics

Consider particles of mass $`m`$ originating in equilibrium and decoupling at a temperature $`T_D>>m`$ or chemical potential $`\mu >>m`$. The original distribution function is

$$f(\stackrel{}{p})=(e^{(E\mu )/T_D}\pm 1)^1(e^{(p\mu )/T_D}\pm 1)^1$$
(1)   
with $`E^2=p^2+m^2`$ and $`\pm `$ applies to fermions and bosons respectively. The density and pressure of the particles are

$$n=\frac{g}{(2\pi )^3}fd^3p$$
(2)   
$$P=\frac{g}{(2\pi )^3}\frac{p^2}{3E}fd^3p$$
(3)   
where $`g`$ is the number of spin degrees of freedom. Unless stated otherwise, we adopt units with $`\mathrm{}=c=1`$.

With adiabatic expansion this distribution is preserved with momenta of particles vary as $`pR^1`$, so the density and pressure can be calculated at any subsequent time. For thermal relics $`\mu =0`$, we can derive the density and pressure in the limit when the particles have cooled to be nonrelativistic:

$$n=\frac{gT_0^3}{(2\pi )^3}\frac{d^3p}{e^p\pm 1}$$
(4)   
$$P=\frac{gT_0^5}{(2\pi )^33m}\frac{p^2d^3p}{e^p\pm 1}$$
(5)   
where the pseudo-temperature $`T_0=T_D(R_D/R_0)`$ records the expansion of any fluid element.

It is useful to define a “phase density” $`Q\rho /v^2^{3/2}`$ proportional to the inverse specific entropy for nonrelativistic matter. This quantity is preserved under adiabatic expansion but for nondissipative particles cannot increase. Combining the above expressions for density and pressure and using $`v^2=3P/nm`$, we find

$$Q_X=q_Xg_Xm_X^4.$$
(6)   
The coefficient for the thermal case is

$$q_T=\frac{4\pi }{(2\pi )^3}\frac{[𝑑p(p^2/e^p\pm 1)]^{5/2}}{[𝑑p(p^4/e^p\pm 1)]^{3/2}}=0.0019625,$$
(7)   
where the last equality holds for thermal fermions. An analogous calculation for the degenerate fermion case ($`T=0,\mu _D>>m_X`$) yields the same expression for $`Q`$ but with a different coefficient,

$$q_d=\frac{4\pi }{(2\pi )^3}\frac{[_0^1p^2𝑑p]^{5/2}}{[_0^1p^4𝑑p]^{3/2}}=0.036335.$$
(8)   
The phase density depends on the particle properties but not at all on the cosmology; the decoupling temperature, the current temperature and density do not matter. Up to numerical factors (which depend on thermal or degenerate, boson or fermion cases), the phase density for relativistically decoupled or degenerate matter is set just by the particle mass $`m_X`$.

## 3 Phase Packing and the Core Radius of an Isothermal Halo

For a given velocity dispersion at any point in space, the primordial phase density of particles imposes an upper limit on their density $`\rho `$. Thus dark matter halos do not form the singular central cusps predicted by Cold Dark Matter but instead form cores with constant density at small radius. A lower limit to the size of the core can be estimated if we assume that the matter in the central parts of the halo lies close to the primordial adiabat defined by $`Q`$. This will be good model for cores which form quietly without too much dynamical heating. This seems to be the case in typical CDM halos, indicated by the cusp prediction; it could be that warm matter typically experiences more additional dynamical heating than cold matter, in which case the core could be larger.

The conventional definition of core size in an isothermal sphere is the “King radius”

$$r_0=\sqrt{9\sigma ^2/4\pi G\rho _0}$$
(9)   
where $`\sigma `$ denotes the one-dimensional velocity dispersion and $`\rho `$ denotes the central density. Making the adiabatic assumption, $`\rho _0=Q(3\sigma ^2)^{3/2}`$, we find

$$r_0=\sqrt{9\sqrt{2}/4\pi 3^{3/2}}(QGv_c\mathrm{})^{1/2}=0.44(QGv_c\mathrm{})^{1/2}$$
(10)   
(Note that aside from numerical factors this is the same as a degenerate dwarf star; the galaxy core is bigger than a Chandrasekhar dwarf of the same specific binding energy by a factor $`(m_{proton}/m_X)^2`$.) For comparison with observations we have expressed the core radius as a function of the asymptotic circular velocity $`v_c\mathrm{}=\sqrt{2}\sigma `$ of the halo’s flat rotation curve.

For the thermal and degenerate phase densities derived above,

$$r_{0,thermal}=5.5\mathrm{kpc}(m_X/100\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^2(v_c\mathrm{}/30\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1)^{1/2}$$
(11)   
$$r_{0,degenerate}=1.3\mathrm{kpc}(m_X/100\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^2(v_c\mathrm{}/30\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1)^{1/2},$$
(12)   
where we have set $`g=2`$. The circular velocity in the central core displays the harmonic behavior $`v_cr`$; it reaches half of its asymptotic value at a radius $`r_{1/2}0.4r_0`$.

The best venue for studying the effect is in the small, dark-matter-dominated disk galaxies where the cusp problem of CDM seems most clearly defined. Material on circular orbits gives a direct measure of the enclosed mass and therefore of the density profile. A rough guess from current observations of inner rotation curves of a few dwarf spiral galaxies suggests a halo core corresponding to a thermal particle mass of about 200 eV; for a larger mass, additional (nonprimordial) dynamical heating is required. This is also consistent with what is known about dark matter in dwarf elliptical galaxies from studies of stellar velocities.

The relationship of core radius with halo velocity dispersion is a simple prediction of the primordial phase density explanation of cores which will probably generalize in some form to a cosmic population of halos. In particular if phase packing is the explanation of dwarf galaxy cores, the dark matter cores of giant galaxies and galaxy clusters are predicted to be much smaller than for dwarfs, unobservably hidden in a central region dominated by baryons.

## 4 Filtering of Small-Scale Fluctuations

The transfer function of Warm Dark Matter is almost the same as Cold Dark Matter on large scales, but is filtered by free-streaming on small scales. The characteristic wavenumber for filtering at any time is given by $`k_XH/v^2^{1/2}`$, with a filter shape depending on the detailed form of the distribution function. In the current application, we are concerned with $`H`$ during the radiation-dominated era ($`z10^4`$), so that $`H^2=8\pi G\rho _{rel}/3(1+z)^2`$, where $`\rho _{rel}`$ includes all relativistic degrees of freedom. For constant $`Q`$, $`v^2^{1/2}=(\rho _X/Q)^{1/3}(1+z)`$ as long as the $`X`$ particle are nonrelativistic. The maximum comoving filtering scale is thus approximately independent of redshift and is given simply by

$$k_XH_0\mathrm{\Omega }_{rel}^{1/2}v_{X0}^1$$
(13)   
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{rel}=4.3\times 10^5h^2`$ and $`v_{X0}=(Q/\overline{\rho }_{X0})^{1/3}`$ is the rms velocity of the particles at their present mean cosmic density $`\overline{\rho }_{X0}`$:

$$k_X0.65\mathrm{Mpc}^1(v_{X0}/1\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1)^1,$$
(14)   
with no dependence on $`H_0`$. For the thermal and degenerate cases, in terms of particle mass we have

$$v_{X0,thermal}=0.93\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1h_{70}^{2/3}(m_X/100\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^{4/3}(\mathrm{\Omega }_X/0.3)^{1/3}g^{1/3}$$
(15)   
$$v_{X0,degenerate}=0.35\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1h_{70}^{2/3}(m_X/100\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^{4/3}(\mathrm{\Omega }_X/0.3)^{1/3}g^{1/3}$$
(16)   
In the case of free-streaming, relativistically-decoupled thermal particles, the transfer function has been computed precisely; the characteristic wavenumber where the square of the transfer function falls to half the CDM value is $`k_{1/2,stream}=k_X/5.5`$. The mass implied for this kind of candidate to preserve the success of CDM on galaxy scales and above is about 1 keV; if it is much smaller (in particular, as small as the 200 eV we require for phase packing alone to help the core problem), filtering occurs on too large a scale. (A filtering scale of roughly $`k3h_{70}\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$ preserves the successes of CDM on large scales and helps to solve the CDM predictions of excess dwarf galaxies, excessive substructure in halos, insufficient angular momentum, and excessive baryon concentration.) This problem might be fixed in other models with a different relationship of $`k_{1/2}`$ and $`k_X`$. For example, if the particles are self-interacting the free streaming is suppressed and the relevant scale is the standard Jeans scale for acoustic oscillations, $`k_J=\sqrt{3}H/c_S=\sqrt{27/5}k_X`$, which is significantly shorter than $`k_{1/2,stream}`$ at a fixed phase density. Alternatively it is possible that warm models might be more effective at producing smooth cores than we have guessed from the minimal phase-packing constraint above; an evaluation of this possibility requires simulations which include not just a filtered spectrum but a reasonably complete sampling of a warm distribution function in the particle velocities.

## 5 Density of Thermal Relics

A simple candidate for warm dark matter is a standard thermal relic— a particle that decouples from the thermal background very early, while it is still relativistic. In this case the mean density of the particles can be estimated from the number of particle degrees of freedom at the epoch $`T_D`$ of decoupling, $`g_D`$:

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_X=7.83h^2[g_{eff}/g_D](m/100\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})=0.24h_{70}^2(m_X/100\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})(g_{eff}/1.5)(g_D/100)^1$$
(17)   
where $`g_{eff}`$ is the number of effective photon degrees of freedom of the particle ($`=1.5`$ for a two-component fermion). For standard neutrinos which decouple at around 1MeV, $`g_D=10.75`$.

An acceptable mass density for a warm relic with $`m_X`$ 200 eV clearly requires a much larger $`g_D`$ than the standard value for neutrino decoupling. Above about 200 MeV, the activation of the extra gluon and quark degrees of freedom (24 and 15.75 respectively including $`uds`$ quarks) give $`g_D50`$; activation of heavier modes of the Standard Model above $`200`$GeV produces $`g_d100`$ which give a better match for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_X0.5`$, as suggested by current evidence. Masses of the order of 1 keV can be accomodated by adding extra, supersymmetric degrees of freedom. Alternatively a degenerate particle can be introduced via mixing of a sterile neutrino, combined with a primordial chemical potential adjusted to give the right density. Either way, the particle must interact with Standard Model particles much more weakly than normal weak interactions, which decouple at $`1`$ MeV.

Note that all warm dark matter particles have low densities compared with photons and other species at 1 MeV so they do not strongly affect nucleosynthesis. However, their effect is not entirely negligible. They add the equivalent of $`(T_X/T_\nu )^3=10.75/g_d`$ 0.1 to 0.2 of an effective extra neutrino species, which leads to a small increase in the predicted primordial helium abundance for a given $`\eta `$. Because the phase density fixes the mean density at which the particles become relativistic, this is a generic feature for any warm particle. This effect might become detectable with increasingly precise measurements of cosmic abundances.

###### Acknowledgements.

I am grateful for useful discussions of these issues with F. van den Bosch, J. Dalcanton, A. Dolgov, G. Fuller, B. Moore, J. Navarro, T. Quinn, J. Stadel, J. Wadsley, and S. White, and for the hospitality of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences and the Ettore Majorana Centre for Scientific Culture. This work was supported at the University of Washington by NSF and NASA, and at the Max-Planck-Institute für Astrophysik by a Humboldt Research Award.