A universal constant for dark matter-baryon interplay

Abstract

Recent studies point out that there exists some rough scaling relations for dark matter and some tight connections between dark matter and baryons. However, most of the relations and tight connections can only be found in galaxies, but not in galaxy clusters. In this article, we consider a new expression that can characterize the properties of dark matter-baryon interplay for both galactic and galaxy cluster scales. By using the archival observational data of galaxies and galaxy clusters, we show that the value K=n¯ D n¯ B r o V/v 4 is almost a constant and scale independent within the optical radius r o , where n¯ D is the average dark matter number density, n¯ B is the average baryon number density, v is the characteristic velocity and V is the interacting volume. This would be the first universal relation between dark matter and baryons on both galactic and galaxy cluster scales. We anticipate this result to be a starting point to explain the small-scale problem and the scaling relations for dark matter in galaxies. The constant K discovered may reveal some underlying global interaction between dark matter and baryons.