Ultra Dense Dark Matter Halos

• Ultra Dense Dark Matter Halos (UDMH) are extremely compact dark matter structures with central densities orders of magnitude above the cosmic mean.
• UDMH formation arises from enhanced primordial fluctuations, SIDM-driven core collapse, and rare gas accretion events that seed black hole formation.
• These halos impact observational signatures such as strong lensing, microlensing, and gamma-ray annihilation, offering a unique probe of cosmic structure formation.

Ultra Dense Dark Matter Halos (UDMH) are a class of extremely compact, high-density dark matter structures, predicted to arise from moderate to large primordial fluctuations during the early Universe, or through non-standard dark matter physics and rare evolutionary pathways in the low-redshift Universe. UDMH are characterized by their central densities far exceeding the mean cosmological matter density, their early formation epochs—often prior to or around the epoch of recombination—and, in many scenarios, their survival against tidal disruption to the present day. Their study connects small-scale primordial cosmology, dark matter microphysics, galaxy formation, and astrophysical observables including microlensing, strong lensing, and gamma-ray annihilation signatures.

1. Physical Definition and Origins

UDMH are defined by their extremely high characteristic densities, which can reach up to 12 orders of magnitude above the mean cosmological density at formation. Typical criteria include:

• Densities $\rho \gg 10^{12}\,M_\odot\,\mathrm{pc}^{-3}$ for minihalos formed in the radiation-dominated epoch (Delos et al., 2022).
• Central densities $\bar\rho \sim 10^{-26}$ to $10^{-24}\,\mathrm{g\,cm}^{-3}$ for galactic and subgalactic halos formed from macroscopic dark matter constituents (Merafina et al., 2020).
• Local WIMP densities $\rho_\chi \gtrsim 10^{10}\,\mathrm{GeV\,cm}^{-3}$ in certain astrophysical environments (Casanellas et al., 2010).

Formation pathways include:

• Collapse of enhanced primordial density fluctuations that are below the threshold for primordial black hole (PBH) formation, typically $\delta \sim 10^{-3}$–$10^{-1}$ (Fakhry et al., 2023, Delos et al., 2022, Fakhry, 2 Feb 2025, Subramanian et al., 5 Jan 2026).
• Gravitational collapse of strange quark matter (SQM) conglomerates or particle dark matter seeds (Merafina et al., 2020).
• Gravothermal core collapse driven by strong dark matter self-interactions (SIDM) in classical cold dark matter halos (Nadler et al., 2023).
• Extreme star formation inefficiency or feedback in "failed galaxy" halos at low redshift (Toloba et al., 2023).

2. Analytical Framework for Abundance and Structure

Formation of UDMH from primordial cosmological perturbations is captured within the excursion set formalism, generalizing the classic Press–Schechter approach to early radiation-dominated collapse:

• The collapse barrier is set by ellipsoidal dynamics:

$\delta_c = \frac{3}{1 - 3e + p}$

where $e$ and $p$ parametrize initial ellipticity and prolateness. The effective barrier is $B(S) = 3(1 + \sqrt{S/5})$ with $S = \sigma^2$ the variance (Fakhry et al., 2023, Delos et al., 2022, Fakhry, 2 Feb 2025).

• The mass function,

$$\frac{dn}{d\log M} = \frac{\bar\rho_0}{M}\left|\frac{d\ln\nu}{d\ln M}\right| \nu f(\nu)$$

with $\nu = B(S)/\sqrt{S}$ and $f(\nu)$ capturing corrections for ellipsoidal collapse, angular momentum (DP1), and dynamical friction (DP2) (Fakhry et al., 2023, Fakhry, 2 Feb 2025).

• Single-component and multi-component dark matter scenarios both predict prominent UDMH populations. Inclusion of power spectrum features from inflation or PBH-induced Poisson noise can sharply boost small-scale variance, with heavy PBHs enabling a strong enhancement in UDMH abundance (Fakhry, 2 Feb 2025).

Internal structure is typically modeled by isothermal or Navarro–Frenk–White (NFW)-like profiles:

• For very early UDMH, the central density is $\rho_\mathrm{int}\sim 10^3\rho_m(a_c)$, with $a_c$ the scale factor at collapse (Delos et al., 2022).
• Isothermal solutions for collisionless conglomerates yield nearly flat cores inside a radius $a\sim0.1R$ and $\rho(r) \propto r^{-2}$ at large $r$ (Merafina et al., 2020).

3. Microphysical and Astrophysical Formation Mechanisms

Primordial Fluctuations and PBH-Adjacent UDMH

Primordial UDMH arise from $\delta\sim 10^{-3}$–$10^{-1}$ fluctuations imprinted during inflation and re-entering the horizon during radiation domination. Crucially, these are below the PBH collapse threshold but sufficient to induce local matter-domination:

• Peak amplitude and width of primordial power spectrum features directly control the UDMH mass range, with broad steps or extended bumps producing a wide mass spectrum, and narrow features yielding sharp mass functions (Fakhry et al., 2023).
• Collapse occurs at redshifts $z\gtrsim 10^4$–$10^6$, leading to densities $\sim 10^{12}$ times the mean at formation (Delos et al., 2022).
• Even for scenarios where PBHs make up only a small fraction of dark matter, the formation of UDMH is robust and can comprise a substantial fraction of the total dark matter (Delos et al., 2022).

Strange Quark Matter and Macroscopic Dark Constituents

A distinct scenario considers UDMH as gravitationally-bound halos of macroscopic SQM lumps:

• The equilibrium is set by Newtonian gravity with isothermal velocity dispersion $\sigma$ (Merafina et al., 2020).
• Halo parameters for Milky Way-type galaxies ($\sigma \sim 400$ km/s, $\rho_c \sim 10^{-24}$ g/cm$^3$) are recovered without invoking new physics beyond SQM dark matter conglomerates with $m_* \gtrsim 8$ GeV (Merafina et al., 2020).

Self-Interacting DM and Core Collapse

Strong SIDM cross-sections ($\sigma_\mathrm{eff}/m \sim 20$–$100$ cm$^2$ g$^{-1}$ at $V_\mathrm{max}=30$–$100$ km/s) can drive gravothermal core collapse, producing UDMH in both subhalos and isolated halos:

• Collapse timescales are $$t_c \propto (\sigma_\mathrm{eff}/m)^{-1}c_{200}^{-7/2}M_{200}^{-1/3}$$, so only the most concentrated, stripped, or massive subhalos core-collapse to ultra-dense states (Nadler et al., 2023).
• Cosmological zoom-in simulations show such subhalos match the mass and density of strong lensing perturbers (e.g., SDSSJ0946+1006) (Nadler et al., 2023).
• The scenario predicts a population of isolated, very dense UDMH with high central densities $0.03$–$0.3\,M_\odot\,\mathrm{pc}^{-3}$.

Gas Accretion and IMBH Seed Formation

Rare, high-$\sigma$ primordial UDMH ($M\sim 10^5\,M_\odot$, forming at $z\sim 600$–$1100$) can seed the direct collapse of $10^3\,M_\odot$ intermediate-mass black holes (IMBH):

• Bondi–Hoyle–Lyttleton accretion delivers $\sim 10^3\,M_\odot$ of gas, cooled efficiently by atomic hydrogen to $T\sim 8000$ K, and prevented from fragmenting by CMB-suppressed H$_2$ cooling (Subramanian et al., 5 Jan 2026).
• Resulting Keplerian disks become Toomre-unstable ($Q<1$), rapidly channeling gas into the core on $\lesssim 10^5$ yr timescales, ultimately forming either a supermassive star or directly a $10^3\,M_\odot$ black hole, with a comoving abundance sufficient to seed observed high-z quasars (Subramanian et al., 5 Jan 2026).

4. Observational Manifestations and Astrophysical Consequences

UDMH influence a wide spectrum of observational phenomena:

Signature	Expected Manifestation	Cited Work
Strong lensing perturbations	Subhalo-induced flux ratio anomalies; excess lensing mass in sub-kpc regions	(Nadler et al., 2023, Toloba et al., 2023)
Rotation curves of dwarfs/UDGs	Rapidly rising, centrally dominated velocity fields; anomalously high $M/L$	(Toloba et al., 2023, Nadler et al., 2023)
Microlensing & pulsar timing	Shapiro delays O$(\mu$s) for UDMH crossovers; short time-scale lensing signatures	(Delos et al., 2022, Fakhry et al., 2023)
Dynamical heating of star clusters	Enhanced disruption rates, especially for binaries	(Delos et al., 2022)
Gamma-ray annihilation	Extreme boost factors in mixed DM scenarios, boosting indirect detection rates	(Delos et al., 2022)
Formation of IMBH seeds	Abundance and spatial distribution of high-z IMBHs	(Subramanian et al., 5 Jan 2026)

A key result is that in survey-grade samples of ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs), up to half may be embedded in halos with $M_{200}\gtrsim10^{12} M_\odot$ and central densities exceeding predictions of standard CDM, directly breaking canonical scaling relations and indicating a population of "ultra-dense" dark galaxies (Toloba et al., 2023).

5. Interplay With Dark Matter Models and Structure Formation

UDMH abundance and properties provide stringent tests of small-scale primordial fluctuations and dark matter microphysics:

• The shape and amplitude of the small-scale primordial power spectrum directly determine UDMH mass functions; both broad and narrow features have been shown to produce abundant UDMH, with the mass range spanning from planetary to globular cluster and dwarf galaxy scales (Fakhry et al., 2023).
• PBH-induced shot noise in the matter power spectrum boosts $\sigma^2(M)$, with heavier PBHs causing a more pronounced small-scale power excess and raising UDMH formation efficiency (Fakhry, 2 Feb 2025).
• In scenarios where only a small fraction of DM is PBHs, UDMH can dominate the compact-structure abundance over a wide mass range. Regions of PBH parameter space excluded by microlensing or LIGO do not preclude the existence of corresponding UDMHs (Fakhry, 2 Feb 2025, Delos et al., 2022).
• SIDM-driven core collapse depends sensitively on cross-section, halo concentration, and environmental stripping. The diversity and abundance of observed UDMH can constrain SIDM parameter space well beyond that accessible via larger scale phenomena (Nadler et al., 2023).

6. Challenges and Prospects for Observational and Theoretical Investigation

Several lines of evidence now point to the existence or necessity of UDMH-like objects, but challenges remain:

• No hydrodynamical cosmological simulation robustly produces the quantity and density of "failed galaxies" (low-stellar-mass, ultra-dense halos) observed in the Virgo UDG sample (Toloba et al., 2023).
• Accurate measurement of dispersion in low-luminosity systems, separating effects of interloper contamination, tidal disruption, or non-equilibrium dynamics, is critical (Toloba et al., 2023).
• Upcoming advances in gravitational imaging (e.g., JWST, ALMA, ELT), deep wide-field surveys (LSST/VRO), and pulsar timing arrays will enable more sensitive probes of UDMH, especially via strong lensing, microlensing, or indirect detection (Fakhry et al., 2023, Nadler et al., 2023).
• Non-detection of certain predicted UDMH signatures (e.g., anomalously cool pre-main-sequence stars in dense halos) already limits dark matter properties and annihilation rates (Casanellas et al., 2010).
• The universal scaling of mean densities across six orders of magnitude in halo mass suggests a common origin for UDMHs, providing a rare window onto fundamental cosmic structure formation processes (Merafina et al., 2020).

7. Summary Table: Theoretical and Observational Properties

Genesis Pathway	Collapse Epoch	Central Density	Mass Scale	Key Observational Implication
Primordial fluctuation collapse	$z \gtrsim 10^4$	$\sim 10^{12} M_\odot$ pc$^{-3}$	$10^{-9}$–$10^5 M_\odot$	Compact objects, lensing, gamma-ray boosts
Macroscopic DM conglomerates (SQM)	$z \sim$ galactic era	$10^{-24}$–$10^{-26}$ g/cm$^3$	$10^8$–$10^{12} M_\odot$	Flat rotation curves, lower-mass dSphs
SIDM-driven gravothermal collapse	$z<1$ (core-collapse)	$2 \times 10^{-23}$–$2 \times 10^{-22}$ g/cm$^3$	$10^8$–$10^{11} M_\odot$	Strong-lens perturbers, UDGs
Gas accretion onto rare UDMH	$z \sim 400$–$1100$	$n_H \sim 10^3$–$10^4$ cm$^{-3}$	$10^3$–$10^5 M_\odot$	IMBH seeds/early SMBH assembly

The study of UDMH thus forms a nexus between inflationary cosmology, dark matter microphysics, nonlinear structure formation, and small-scale observational astrophysics, providing unique opportunities to probe fundamental physics inaccessible by conventional large-scale structure surveys.