Probing dark matter substructure with pulsar timing

Abstract

We demonstrate that pulsar timing measurements may potentially be able to detect the presence of dark matter substructure within our own Galaxy. As dark matter substructure transits near the line of sight between a pulsar and an observer, the change in the gravitational field will result in a delay of the light travel-time of photons. We calculate the effect of this delay due to transiting dark matter substructure and find that the effect on pulsar timing ought to be observable over decadal time-scales for a wide range of substructure masses and density profiles. We find that transiting dark matter substructure with masses above 10−2 M⊙ ought to be detectable at present by these means. With improved measurements, this method may be able to distinguish between baryonic, thermal non-baryonic, and non-thermal non-baryonic types of dark matter. Additionally, information about structure formation on small scales and the density profiles of Galactic dark matter substructure can be extracted via this method.