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arXiv · 2312.07684

Dynamical friction in self-interacting ultralight dark matter

Noah Glennon·Nathan Musoke·Ethan O. Nadler·Chanda Prescod-Weinstein·Risa H. Wechsler
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Abstract

We explore how dynamical friction in an ultralight dark matter (ULDM) background is affected by dark matter self-interactions. We calculate the force of dynamical friction on a point mass moving through a uniform ULDM background with self-interactions, finding that the force of dynamical friction vanishes for sufficiently strong repulsive self-interactions. Using the pseudospectral solver $\texttt{UltraDark.jl}$, we show with simulations that reasonable values of the ULDM self-interaction strength and particle mass cause $\mathcal{O}(1)$ differences in the acceleration of an object like a supermassive black hole (SMBH) traveling near the center of a soliton, relative to the case with no self-interactions. For example, repulsive self-interactions with $\lambda = 10^{-90}$ yield a deceleration due to dynamical friction $\approx70\%$ smaller than a model with no self-interactions. We discuss the observational implications of our results for SMBHs near soliton centers and for massive satellite galaxies falling into ultralight axion halos and show that outcomes are dependent on whether a self-interaction is present or not.

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Noah Glennon, Nathan Musoke, Ethan O. Nadler, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Risa H. Wechsler. 2023-12-12. Dynamical friction in self-interacting ultralight dark matter. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.109.063501

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