Fuzzy cold dark matter is a hypothetical form of
cold dark matter proposed to solve the
cuspy halo problem
The cuspy halo problem (also known as the core-cusp problem) refers to a discrepancy between the inferred dark matter density profiles of low-mass galaxies and the density profiles predicted by cosmological N-body simulations. Nearly all simulation ...
. It would consist of extremely light
scalar particles with masses on the order of
eV; so a
Compton wavelength
The Compton wavelength is a quantum mechanical property of a particle. The Compton wavelength of a particle is equal to the wavelength of a photon whose energy is the same as the rest energy of that particle (see mass–energy equivalence). It was ...
on the order of 1
light year. Fuzzy cold dark matter halos in dwarf galaxies would manifest wave behavior on astrophysical scales, and the cusps would be avoided through the
Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
The wave behavior leads to interference patterns, spherical
soliton
In mathematics and physics, a soliton or solitary wave is a self-reinforcing wave packet that maintains its shape while it propagates at a constant velocity. Solitons are caused by a cancellation of nonlinear and dispersive effects in the medi ...
cores in
dark matter halo centers,
and cylindrical soliton-like cores in dark matter cosmic web filaments.
Fuzzy cold dark matter is a limit of
scalar field dark matter
In astrophysics and cosmology scalar field dark matter is a classical, minimally coupled, scalar field postulated to account for the inferred dark matter.
Background
The universe may be accelerating, fueled perhaps by a cosmological constant o ...
without self-interaction.
It is governed by the
Schrödinger–Poisson equation.
Notes
Physical cosmology
Dark matter
Hypothetical objects
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