arXiv subjects

Carlos R. Argüelles

Publications and source records attributed to Carlos R. Argüelles.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

The dynamics of S-stars and G-sources orbiting a supermassive compact object made of fermionic dark matter

Surrounding Sgr A*, a cluster of young and massive stars coexist with a population of dust-enshrouded objects, whose astrometric data can be used to scrutinize the nature of Sgr A*. An alternative to the black hole (BH) scenario has been recently proposed in terms of a supermassive compact object composed of self-gravitating fermionic dark matter (DM). Such horizon-less configurations can reproduce the relativistic effects measured for S2 orbit, while being part of a single continuous configuration whose extended halo reproduces the latest GAIA-DR3 rotation curve. In this work, we statistically compare different fermionic DM configurations aimed to fit the astrometric data of S2, and five G-sources, and compare with the BH potential when appropriate. We sample the parameter spaces via Markov Chain Monte Carlo statistics and perform a quantitative comparison estimating Bayes factors for models that share the same likelihood function. We extend previous results of the S2 and G2 orbital fits for 56 keV fermions (low core-compactness) and show the results for 300 keV fermions (high core-compactness). For the selected S2 dataset, the former model is slightly favoured over the latter. However, more precise S2 datasets, as obtained by the GRAVITY instrument, remain to be analysed in light of the fermionic models. For the G-objects, no conclusive preference emerges between models. For all stellar objects tested, the BH and fermionic models predict orbital parameters that differ by less than 1%. More accurate data, particularly from stars closer to Sgr A*, is necessary to statistically distinguish between the models considered.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

Fermionic Dark Matter spikes: origin and growth of Black Hole seeds

We characterize the overdensity (spike) of fermionic dark matter (DM) particles around a supermassive black hole (SMBH) within a general relativistic analysis. The initial DM halo distribution is obtained by solving the equilibrium equations of a self-gravitating system of massive fermions at a finite temperature, according to the Ruffini-Argüelles-Rueda (RAR) model. The final fermionic DM spike is calculated around a Schwarzschild SMBH. We explore two possible interpretations for the origin and evolution of the SMBH seed. One corresponds to the traditional scenario proposed by Gondolo & Silk (1999), where a small BH mass of baryonic origin sits at the halo's center and grows adiabatically. The other one, from DM origin, where the dense and degenerate fermion core predicted by the RAR model grows adiabatically by capturing baryons until its gravitational collapse, providing a heavy SMBH seed, whose specific value depends on the fermion mass. We study different initial fermionic DM profiles that the theory allows. We show that overall dilute (i.e., Boltzmannian) fermionic DM develops the well-known spike with density profile $ρ\sim r^{-3/2}$. Instead, for semi-degenerate fermions with a dense and compact core surrounded by a diluted halo, we find novel spike profiles that depend on the particle mass and nature. In the more general case, fermionic spikes do not develop a simple power-law profile. Furthermore, the SMBH does not always imply an enhancement of the surrounding DM density; it might also deplete it. Thus, the self-consistent inclusion of the DM candidate nature and mass in determining the structure and distribution of DM in galaxies, including the DM spikes around SMBHs, is essential for the specification of DM astrophysical probes such as BH mergers, gravitational waves, or stellar orbits.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

The Sagittarius stellar stream embedded in a fermionic dark matter halo

Stellar streams are essential tracers of the gravitational potential of the Milky Way, with key implications to the problem of dark matter (DM) model distributions, either within or beyond phenomenological $Λ$CDM halos. For the first time in the literature, a DM halo model based on first physical principles such as quantum statistical mechanics and thermodynamics is used to try to reproduce the 6D observations of the Sagittarius (Sgr) stream. We model both DM haloes, the one of Sgr dwarf and the one of its host with a spherical self-gravitating system of neutral fermions which accounts for the effects of particles escape and fermion degeneracy, the latter causing a high-density core at the center of the halo. Full baryonic components for each galaxy are also considered. We use a spray algorithm with $\sim 10^{5}$ particles to generate the Sgr tidal debris, which evolves in the gravitational potential of the host-progenitor system, to compare with the full phase-space data of the stream. We repeat this kind of simulations for different parameter setups of the fermionic model including the particle mass, with special attention to test different DM halo morphologies allowed by the physics. We find that across the different families of fermionic halo models, they can only reproduce the trailing arm of the Sgr stream. Within the observationally allowed span of enclosed masses where the stream moves, neither the power-law like, nor the polytropic behaviour of the fermionic halo models can answer for the observed trend of the leading tail. A conclusion which is shared by former analysis using other type of spherically symmetric haloes. We conclude that further model sophistications such as abandoning spherical symmetry and including the Large Magellanic Cloud perturber are needed for a proper modelisation of the overall Milky Way potential within this kind of first principle halo models.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

Imaging fermionic dark matter cores at the center of galaxies

Current images of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) candidates at the center of our Galaxy and M87 have opened an unprecedented era for studying strong gravity and the nature of relativistic sources. Very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) data show images consistent with a central SMBH within General Relativity (GR). However, it is essential to consider whether other well-motivated dark compact objects within GR could produce similar images. Recent studies have shown that dark matter (DM) halos modeled as self-gravitating systems of neutral fermions can harbor very dense fermionic cores at their centers, which can mimic the spacetime features of a black hole (BH). Such dense, horizonless DM cores can satisfy the observational constraints: they can be supermassive and compact and lack a hard surface. We investigate whether such cores can produce similar observational signatures to those of BHs when illuminated by an accretion disk. We compute images and spectra of the fermion cores with a general-relativistic ray tracing technique, assuming the radiation originates from standard $α$ disks, which are self-consistently solved within the current DM framework. Our simulated images possess a central brightness depression surrounded by a ring-like feature, resembling what is expected in the BH scenario. For Milky Way-like halos, the central brightness depressions have diameters down to $\sim 35\, μ$as as measured from a distance of approximately $8\,$kpc. Finally, we show that the DM cores do not possess photon rings, a key difference from the BH paradigm, which could help discriminate between the models.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

Modelling the Track of the GD-1 Stellar Stream Inside a Host with a Fermionic Dark Matter Core-Halo Distribution

Traditional studies on stellar streams typically involve phenomenological $Λ$CDM halos or ad hoc dark matter (DM) profiles with different degrees of triaxiality, which preclude to gain insights into the nature and mass of the DM particles. Recently, a Maximum Entropy Principle of halo formation has been applied to provide a DM halo model which incorporates the fermionic (quantum) nature of the particles, while leading to DM profiles which depend on the fermion mass. Such profiles develop a more general dense core - diluted halo morphology able to explain the Galactic rotation curve, while the degenerate fermion core can mimic the central massive black hole (BH). We attempt to model the GD-1 stellar stream using a spherical core-halo DM distribution for the host, which, at the same time, explains the dynamics of the S-cluster stars through its degenerate fermion-core with no central BH. We used two optimization algorithms in order to fit both the initial conditions of the stream orbit and the fermionic model. The stream observables are 5D phase-space data from the Gaia DR2 survey. We were able to find good fits for both the GD-1 stream and the S-stars for a family of fermionic core-halo profiles parameterized by the fermion mass. This work provides evidence that the fermionic profile is a reliable model for both the massive central object and the DM of the Galaxy. Remarkably, this model predicts a total MW mass of $2.3\times 10^{11}M_{\odot}$ which is in agreement with recent mass estimates obtained from Gaia DR3 rotation curves (Gaia RC). In summary, with one single fermionic model for the DM distribution of the MW, we obtain a good fit in three totally different distance scales of the Galaxy: $\sim 10^{-6}$ kpc (central, S-stars), $\sim14$ kpc (mid, GD-1) and $\sim 30$ kpc (boundary, Gaia RC mass estimate).

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

Galaxy Rotation Curve Fitting Using Machine Learning Tools

Galaxy rotation curve (RC) fitting is an important technique which allows the placement of constraints on different kinds of dark matter (DM) halo models. In the case of non-phenomenological DM profiles with no analytic expressions, the art of finding RC best-fits including the full baryonic $+$ DM free parameters can be difficult and time-consuming. In the present work, we use a gradient descent method used in the backpropagation process of training a neural network, to fit the so-called Grand Rotation Curve of the Milky Way (MW) ranging from $\sim$1 pc all the way to $\sim$$10^5$ pc. We model the mass distribution of our Galaxy including a bulge (inner $+$ main), a disk, and a fermionic dark matter (DM) halo known as the Ruffini-Argüelles-Rueda (RAR) model. This is a semi-analytical model built from first-principle physics such as (quantum) statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, whose more general density profile has a dense core -- diluted halo morphology with no analytic expression. As shown recently and further verified here, the dark and compact fermion-core can work as an alternative to the central black hole in SgrA* when including data at milliparsec scales from the S-cluster stars. Thus, we show the ability of this state-of-the-art machine learning tool in providing the best-fit parameters to the overall MW RC in the $10^{-2}$--$10^5$ pc range, in a few hours of CPU time.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

Self-Interacting Dark Matter in Cosmology: accurate numerical implementation and observational constraints

This paper presents a systematic and accurate treatment of the evolution of cosmological perturbations in self-interacting dark matter models, for particles which decoupled from the primordial plasma while relativistic. We provide a numerical implementation of the Boltzmann hierarchies developed in a previous paper [JCAP, 09 (2020) 041] in a publicly available Boltzmann code and show how it can be applied to realistic DM candidates such as sterile neutrinos either under resonant or non-resonant production mechanisms, and for different field mediators. At difference with traditional fluid approximations -- also known as a $c_{\rm eff}-c_{\rm vis}$ parametrizations -- our approach follows the evolution of phase-space perturbations under elastic DM interactions for a wide range of interaction models, including the effects of late kinetic decoupling. Finally, we analyze the imprints left by different self interacting models on linear structure formation, which can be constrained using Lyman-$α$ forest and satellite counts. We find new lower bounds on the particle mass that are less restrictive than previous constraints.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

The Role of Self Interactions in the Cosmological Evolution of Warm Dark Matter

In this work we present a summary of recent studies on the effects of elastic self interactions in the evolution of Warm Dark Matter models (WDM), focusing on structure formation and the evolution of cosmological perturbations. We pay special attention to a particular class of sterile neutrino WDM known as $ν$MSM and provide examples for the case of vector field self interactions. We calculate the effects of assuming self interacting dark matter in X-Ray astrophysical observations, in the formation of fermionic DM halos in (quasi) equilibrium states and in the evolution of DM perturbations in the early universe, assuming particle masses between $\mathcal{O}(1-100)$ keV. In the latter topic, we perform simulations using a modification to the public Boltzmann solver CLASS and compare our results with observations. We find self interactions to be an interesting addition to WDM models, which can alleviate tensions both present in standard CDM cosmology and regarding WDM itself, as well as provide an interesting avenue for DM halo formation.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

Reshaping our understanding on structure formation with the quantum nature of the dark matter

We study the non-linear structure formation in cosmology accounting for the quantum nature of the dark matter (DM) particles in the initial conditions at decoupling, as well as in the relaxation and stability of the DM halos. Differently from cosmological N-body simulations, we use a thermodynamic approach for collisionless systems of self-gravitating fermions in General Relativity, in which the halos reach the steady state by maximizing a coarse-grained entropy. We show the ability of this approach to provide answers to crucial open problems in cosmology, among others: the mass and nature of the DM particle, the formation and nature of supermassive black holes in the early Universe, the nature of the intermediate mass black holes in small halos, and the core-cusp problem.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

On the formation and stability of fermionic dark matter halos in a cosmological framework

The formation and stability of collisionless self-gravitating systems are long standing problems, which date back to the work of D. Lynden-Bell on violent relaxation and extends to the issue of virialization of dark matter (DM) halos. An important prediction of such a relaxation process is that spherical equilibrium states can be described by a Fermi-Dirac phase-space distribution, when the extremization of a coarse-grained entropy is reached. In the case of DM fermions, the most general solution develops a degenerate compact core surrounded by a diluted halo. As shown recently, the latter is able to explain the galaxy rotation curves while the DM core can mimic the central black hole. A yet open problem is whether this kind of astrophysical core-halo configurations can form at all, and if they remain stable within cosmological timescales. We assess these issues by performing a thermodynamic stability analysis in the microcanonical ensemble for solutions with given particle number at halo virialization in a cosmological framework. For the first time we demonstrate that the above core-halo DM profiles are stable (i.e. maxima of entropy) and extremely long lived. We find the existence of a critical point at the onset of instability of the core-halo solutions, where the fermion-core collapses towards a supermassive black hole. For particle masses in the keV range, the core-collapse can only occur for $M_{\rm vir} \gtrsim 10^9 M_\odot$ starting at $z_{\rm vir}\approx 10$ in the given cosmological framework. Our results prove that DM halos with a core-halo morphology are a very plausible outcome within nonlinear stages of structure formation.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

Thermodynamic instabilities in holographic neutron stars at finite temperature

We study the thermodynamics of a self-gravitating system of neutral fermions at finite temperature and analyze its backreaction in an asymptotically AdS space. We evaluate numerically the free entropy as a function of temperature, and perform a stability analysis applying the simple and powerful graphical method referred as the Katz criterion. We found that for highly-enough degenerate fermionic solutions, the onset of thermodynamic instability arises, though prior to the turning point on the mass as a function of the central density. Our results for finite temperature fermions provide a novel and more general way to study the confinement to deconfinement phase transition in the holographic field theory, generalizing former conclusions developed for systems at zero temperature.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

Boltzmann hierarchies for self-interacting warm dark matter scenarios

We provide a general framework for self-interacting warm dark matter (WDM) in cosmological perturbations, by deriving from first principles a Boltzmann hierarchy which retains certain independence from a particular interaction Lagrangian. We consider elastic interactions among the massive particles, and obtain a hierarchy which is more general than the ones usually obtained for non-relativistic (as for cold DM) or for ultra-relativistic (as for neutrinos) approximations. The more general momentum-dependent kernel integrals in the Boltzmann collision terms, are explicitly calculated for different field-mediator models, including examples of a scalar field (either massive or massless) or a massive vector field. As an application, we study the evolution of the interaction rate per particle under the relaxation time approximation, and assess when a given self-interaction is relevant in comparison with the Hubble expansion rate. Our framework aims to be a useful starting point to evaluate DM self-interaction effects in the linear power spectrum, necessary to then study its evolution all the way to non-linear stages of structure formation, where certain DM interactions were proven to be relevant.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

Fermionic Halos at Finite Temperature in AdS/CFT

We explore the gravitational backreaction of a system consisting in a very large number of elementary fermions at finite temperature, in asymptotically AdS space. We work in the hydrodynamic approximation, and solve the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equations with a perfect fluid whose equation of state takes into account both the relativistic effects of the fermionic constituents, as well as its finite temperature effects. We find a novel 'dense core-diluted halo' structure for the density profiles in the AdS bulk, similarly as recently reported in flat space, for the case of astrophysical dark matter halos in galaxies. We further study the critical equilibrium configurations above which the core undergoes gravitational collapse towards a massive black hole, and calculate the corresponding critical central temperatures, for two qualitatively different central regimes of the fermions: the diluted-Fermi case, and the degenerate case. As a probe for the dual CFT, we construct the holographic two-point correlator of a scalar operator with large conformal dimension in the worldline limit, and briefly discuss on the boundary CFT effects at the critical points.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Are the most super-massive dark compact objects harbored at the center of dark matter halos?

Essay selected for Honorable mention 2014 by the Gravity Research Foundation. We study an isothermal system of semi-degenerate self-gravitating fermions in General Relativity (GR). The most general solutions present mass density profiles with a central degenerate compact core governed by quantum statistics followed by an extended plateau, and ending in a power law behaviour $r^{-2}$. By fixing the fermion mass $m$ in the keV regime, the different solutions depending on the free parameters of the model: the degeneracy and temperature parameters at the center, are systematically constructed along the one-parameter sequences of equilibrium configurations up to the critical point, which is represented by the maximum in a central density ($ρ_0$) Vs. core mass ($M_c$) diagram. We show that for fully degenerate cores, the Oppenheimer-Volkoff (OV) mass limit $M_{c}^{cr}\propto M_{pl}^3/m^2$ is obtained, while instead for low degenerate cores, the critical core mass increases showing the temperature effects in a non linear way. The main result of this work is that when applying this theory to model the distribution of dark matter in big elliptical galaxies from miliparsec distance-scales up to $10^2$ Kpc, we do not find any critical core-halo configuration of self-gravitating fermions, able to explain both the most super-massive dark object at their center together with the DM halo simultaneously.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

Critical configurations for a system of semidegenerate fermions

We study an isothermal system of semi-degenerate self-gravitating fermions in general relativity. Such systems present mass density solutions with a central degenerate core, a plateau and a tail which follows a power law behaviour $r^{-2}$. The different solutions are governed by the free parameters of the model: the degeneracy and temperature parameters at the center, and the particle mass $m$. We then analyze in detail the free parameter space for a fixed $m$ in the keV regime, by studying the one-parameter sequences of equilibrium configurations up to the critical point, which is represented by the maximum in a central density ($ρ_0$) Vs. core mass ($M_c$) diagram. We show that for fully degenerate cores, the known expression for the critical core mass $M_c^{cr}\propto m_{pl}^3/m^2$ is obtained, while instead for low degenerate cores, the critical core mass increases showing the temperature effects in a non linear way. The main result of this work is that when applying this theory to model the distribution of dark matter in galaxies from the very center up to the outer halos, we do not find any critical core-halo configuration of self-gravitating fermions, which be able to explain the super massive dark object in their centers together with an outer halo simultaneously.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

On the distribution of dark matter in galaxies: quantum treatments

The problem of modeling the distribution of dark matter in galaxies in terms of equilibrium configurations of collisionless self-gravitating quantum particles is considered. We first summarize the pioneering model of a Newtonian self-gravitating Fermi gas in thermodynamic equilibrium developed by Ruffini and Stella (1983), which is shown to be the generalization of the King model for fermions. We further review the extension of the former model developed by Gao, Merafina and Ruffini (1990), done for any degree of fermion degeneracy at the center ($θ_0$), within general relativity. Finally, we present here for the first time the solutions of the density profiles and rotation curves corresponding to the Gao et. al. model, which have a definite mass $M_h$ and circular velocity $v_h$, at the halo radius $r_h$ of the configurations, typical of spiral galaxies. This treatment allow us to determine a novel core-halo morphology for the dark matter profiles, as well as a novel particle mass bound associated with them.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2012

Domain Wall solutions to Horava gravity

We investigated purely gravitational domain wall solutions to Horava nonrelativistic theory of gravity with detailed balance in 3 + 1 dimensions. We find that for arbitrary values of the running parameter λ > 1/3 two branches of membrane solutions exist. For positive values of the cosmo-logical constant, the solution represents a space that is bounded in the transverse direction, with singularities sitting at each of the boundaries. For negative values of the cosmological constant, the solution contains a single membrane sitting at the center of a space, which extends infinitely in the transverse direction approaching a Lifshitz metric. In that case there is one additional degenerate branch, for which the lapse function is undetermined.

hep-th↗