The dark matter profile of the Milky Way: a non-parametric reconstruction

Understand

We present the results of a new, non-parametric method to reconstruct the Galactic dark matter profile directly from observations.

• Using the latest kinematic data to track the total gravitational potential and the observed distribution of stars and gas to set the baryonic component, we infer the dark matter contribution to the circular velocity across the Galaxy.
• The radial derivative of this dynamical contribution is then estimated to extract the dark matter profile.
• The innovative feature of our approach is that it makes no assumption on the functional form nor shape of the profile, thus allowing for a clean determination with no theoretical bias.