Structure formation with scalar-field dark matter: The fluid approach

Abstract

The properties of nearby galaxies that can be observed in great detail suggest that a theory other than cold dark matter (CDM) would describe better the mechanism by which matter is rapidly gathered into large-scale structures such as galaxies and groups of galaxies. In this work we develop and simulate a hydrodynamical approach to the early formation of structure in the Universe. This approach is based on the fact that dark matter is in the form of some kind of scalar field (SF) with a potential of form μ2Φ2/2 +λΦ4/4. We expect that the fluctuations coming from the SF will give us some information about the matter distribution that we currently observe. © 2011 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2011 RAS.