Gravitational Lensing as a Probe of Cold Dark Matter Subhalos

In the cold dark matter scenario, dark matter halos are assembled hierarchically from smaller subunits. Some of these subunits are disrupted during the merging process, whereas others survive temporarily in the form of subhalos. A long-standing problem with this picture is that the number of subhalo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advances in astronomy 2010-01, Vol.2010 (2010), p.1-14
Main Authors: Zackrisson, Erik, Riehm, Teresa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
Dark matter
Satellites
Star & galaxy formation
Stars & galaxies
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Summary:In the cold dark matter scenario, dark matter halos are assembled hierarchically from smaller subunits. Some of these subunits are disrupted during the merging process, whereas others survive temporarily in the form of subhalos. A long-standing problem with this picture is that the number of subhalos predicted by simulations exceeds the number of luminous dwarf galaxies seen in the vicinity of large galaxies like the Milky Way. Many of the subhalos must therefore have remained dark or very faint. If cold dark matter subhalos are as common as predicted, gravitational lensing may in principle offer a promising route to detection. In this paper, we describe the many ways through which lensing by subhalos can manifest itself, and summarize the results from current efforts to constrain the properties of cold dark matter subhalos using such effects.
ISSN:1687-7969
1687-7977
DOI:10.1155/2010/478910