Prompt cusps and the dark matter annihilation signal

Understand

As the first dark matter objects gravitationally condense, a density cusp forms immediately at every initial density maximum.

• Numerical simulations and theoretical arguments suggest that these prompt cusps can survive until the present day.
• We show that if dark matter is a thermally produced weakly interacting massive particle, many thousands of prompt cusps with individual masses similar to that of the Earth may be present in every solar mass of dark matter.
• This radically alters predictions for the amount and spatial distribution of dark matter annihilation radiation.