Submitted by taracus t3_ygfptx in askscience
littleboymark t1_iuae5b9 wrote
Reply to comment by Aseyhe in Is dark matter orbiting galaxies with the same speed as normal matter? by taracus
So dark matter doesn't collide with itself?
Aseyhe t1_iuafr56 wrote
It could -- that's the self-interacting dark matter idea -- but not at a level that is important in large galactic halos. In fact, I've seen recent suggestions that in the context of self-interacting dark matter, observations favor a velocity-dependent interaction strength that scales as v^(-4), i.e. decreases very strongly with velocity. This would make interactions irrelevant in clusters and large galaxies (which have very high velocity dispersions) and most relevant toward the centers of the smallest galaxies.
Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments