Detecting Dark Matter in High Velocity Clouds
Astrophysics
2009-10-31 v1
Abstract
Many high velocity HI clouds (HVCs) are now believed to be scattered throughout the Galactic halo on scales of tens of kiloparsecs. Some of these clouds appear to contain substantial HI masses (>10^6 Msun). It has been suggested that these structures may be associated with dark matter `mini halos' accreting onto the Galactic halo. For a compact HVC along the sight line to a more distant galaxy, we demonstrate that `pixel gravitational lensing' provides a crucial test for the presence of a dark halo in the form of massive compact objects. The detection of pixel lensing will provide an independent means to map the mass distribution within HVCs.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0007045,
title = {Detecting Dark Matter in High Velocity Clouds},
author = {Geraint F. Lewis and Joss Bland-Hawthorn and Brad C. Gibson and Mary E. Putman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0007045},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
6 page, to appear in P.A.S.P. Research Notes (Oct 2000)