Predicting the dark matter velocity distribution in galactic structures: tests against hydrodynamic cosmological simulations

Understand

Reducing theoretical uncertainties in Galactic dark matter (DM) searches is an important challenge as several experiments are now delving into the parameter space relevant to popular (particle or not) candidates.

• Since many DM signal predictions rely on the knowledge of the DM velocity distribution---direct searches, capture by stars, p-wave-suppressed or Sommerfeld-enhanced annihilation rate, microlensing of primordial black holes, etc.---it is necessary to assess the accuracy of our current theoretical handle.
• Beyond Maxwellian approximations or ad-hoc extrapolations of fits on cosmological simulations, approaches have been proposed to self-consistently derive the DM phase-space distribution only from the detailed mass content of the Galaxy and some symmetry assumptions (e.g.
• the Eddington inversion and its anisotropic extensions).