Dark matter may consist of weakly interacting elementary particles or of macroscopic compact objects. We show that the statistics of the gravitational lensing of high-redshift supernovae strongly discriminate between these two classes of dark matter candidates. We develop a method of calculating the magnification distribution of supernovae, which can be interpreted in terms of the properties of the lensing objects. With simulated data, we show that ≳50 well-measured Type Ia supernovae (Δm ∼ 0.2 mag) at redshifts ∼1 can clearly distinguish macroscopic from microscopic dark matter if Ω0 ≳ 0.2 and all dark matter is in one form or the other.
Metcalf R.B., Silk J. (1999). A fundamental test of the nature of dark matter. THE ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, 519(1), L1-L4 [10.1086/312086].
A fundamental test of the nature of dark matter
Metcalf R. B.;
1999
Abstract
Dark matter may consist of weakly interacting elementary particles or of macroscopic compact objects. We show that the statistics of the gravitational lensing of high-redshift supernovae strongly discriminate between these two classes of dark matter candidates. We develop a method of calculating the magnification distribution of supernovae, which can be interpreted in terms of the properties of the lensing objects. With simulated data, we show that ≳50 well-measured Type Ia supernovae (Δm ∼ 0.2 mag) at redshifts ∼1 can clearly distinguish macroscopic from microscopic dark matter if Ω0 ≳ 0.2 and all dark matter is in one form or the other.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
