The Dark Disk of the Milky Way

Understand

Massive satellite accretions onto early galactic disks can lead to the deposition of dark matter in disk-like configurations that co-rotate with the galaxy.

• This phenomenon has potentially dramatic consequences for dark matter detection experiments.
• We utilize focused, high-resolution simulations of accretion events onto disks designed to be Galaxy analogues, and compare the resultant disks to the morphological and kinematic properties of the Milky Way's thick disk in order to bracket the range of co-rotating accreted dark matter.
• We find that the Milky Way's merger history must have been unusually quiescent compared to median LCDM expectations and therefore its dark disk must be relatively small: the fraction of accreted dark disk material near the Sun is about 20% of the host halo density or smaller and the co-rotating dark matter fraction near the Sun, defined as particles moving with a rotational velocity lag less than 50 km/s, is enhanced by about 30% or less compared to a standard halo model.