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Title:
Quadruply-imaged quasars as testbeds for self-interacting dark matter
Speaker:
Abstract:
Dark matter halos with masses down to 10^7 solar masses impart measurable perturbations to the relative magnifications among images in quadruple-image strong lens systems. The image magnifications provide a highly sensitive, purely gravitational probe of dark matter structure, including the internal structure of dark matter halos. The sensitivity to halo concentration and internal structure makes quadruple-image lenses ideal testbeds for detecting populations of core-collapsed halos predicted to form in models with self-interacting dark matter. I will explain how current observations of strong lenses with data from HST constrain the self-interaction cross, and how forthcoming data from JWST will enable new bounds on velocity-dependent self-interaction cross sections that reach large (> 100 cm^2 g^-1) amplitudes at relative velocities below 20 km/sec.
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