skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Search for: All records

Creators/Authors contains: "Staudt, Patrick G"

Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

  1. We use FIRE-2 zoom simulations of Milky Way size disk galaxies to derive easy-to-use relationships between the observed circular speed of the Galaxy at the Solar location,vc, and dark matter properties of relevance for direct detection experiments: the dark matter density, the dark matter velocity dispersion, and the speed distribution of dark matter particles near the Solar location. We find that both the local dark matter density and 3D velocity dispersion follow tight power laws withvc. Using this relation together with the observed circular speed of the Milky Way at the Solar radius, we infer the local dark matter density and velocity dispersion near the Sun to beρ= 0.42±0.06 GeV cm-3andσ3D= 280+19-18km s-1. We also find that the distribution of dark matter particle speeds is well-described by a modified Maxwellian with two shape parameters, both of which correlate with the observedvc. We use that modified Maxwellian to predict the speed distribution of dark matter near the Sun and find that it peaks at a most probable speed of 257 km s-1and begins to truncate sharply above 470 km s-1. This peak speed is somewhat higher than expected from the standard halo model, and the truncation occurs well below the formal escape speed to infinity, with fewer very-high-speed particles than assumed in the standard halo model. 
    more » « less
    Free, publicly-accessible full text available August 1, 2025