The effects of self-interacting dark matter on dark matter stripping, as galaxies fall into clusters.

Self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) has been proposed as a solution to some of the tension at small scales between observations and simulations run with a cold dark matter (CDM) model. In the SIDM model, the DM is not collisionless but can interact with itself. The scattering rate is proportional to the local DM density, and so high-density systems like galaxy clusters are an ideal environment to study SIDM. As galaxies move in cluster scale haloes, their DM haloes are subject to tidal stripping, and consequently, they lose a fraction of their DM. In the case of SIDM, the interactions between the galaxy DM and cluster DM particles cause DM to be scattered out of the galaxy, thus further increasing the mass loss. In this project, we investigate the differences in mass loss of galaxies in galaxy clusters between simulations run with CDM and SIDM physics, and to what extent these differences would be observable.

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