Determining properties of dark matter halos from Einstein rings data

• Grant number: 11/13237-3
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): May 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): January 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Astronomy - Extragalactic Astrophysics
• Principal researcher: Laerte Sodré Junior
• Grantee: Leandro José Beraldo e Silva
• Home Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

There are different models for the density profiles and velocity fields of galactic dark matter halos. Some of them were proposed to adjust the profiles obtained in numerical simulations of structure formation, specially the NFW profile, although without theoretical justification. Recently, some explanations for these profiles from first principles have been proposed, taking in account some mechanical statistics aspects of gravitational systems. These proposals, besides trying to explain some asymptotic behaviors of the models cited above, make different previsions about the profiles.We pretend to investigate the compatibility of these models with the data obtained in the combined analysis of gravitational lenses and the stellar dynamics, using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and from the Sloan Lens ACS Survey (SLACS), this last being a project dedicated to the discovery and catalog of Einstein Rings.These studies will permit us to analyze the viability of the theoretical proposals implicit in each model, as well as investigate some general properties of the dark matter.The density profile of our Galaxy is an important ingredient in the analyses of direct detection of dark matter particles. So, at the end of the project, we pretend to evaluate the impact of these different models in that experiences.