Capture of dark matter by the Solar System

I. B. Khriplovich, D. L. Shepelyansky

Published 2009-06-13, updated 2009-07-01Version 3

We study the capture of galactic dark matter by the Solar System. The effect is due to the gravitational three-body interaction between the Sun, one of the planets, and a dark matter particle. The analytical estimate for the capture cross-section is derived and the upper and lower bounds for the total mass of the captured dark matter particles are found. The estimates for their density are less reliable. The most optimistic of them give an enhancement of dark matter density by about three orders of magnitudes compared to its value in our Galaxy. However, even this optimistic value remains below the best present observational upper limits by about two orders of magnitude.