Limits on the local dark matter density

S. Garbari^1a, J.I. Read^2,3 and G. Lake¹

¹ Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Zürich
² Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Leicester
³ Institute for Astronomy, Department of Physics, ETH Zürich

^a e-mail: silvia@physik.uzh.ch

Published online: 07 February 2012

Abstract

We study the systematic problems in determining the local dark matter density ρ_dm(R_☉) from kinematics of stars in the Solar Neighbourhood, using a simulated Milky Way-like galaxy. We introduce a new unbiased method for recovering ρ_dm(R_☉) based on the moments of the Jeans equations, combined with a Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) technique and apply it to real data [1].