Cuspy halo problem

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The cuspy halo problem arises from cosmological simulations that seem to indicate cold dark matter would form cuspy distributions — that is, increasing sharply to a high value at a central point — in the most dense areas of the universe. This would imply that the center of our galaxy, for example, should exhibit a higher dark-matter density than other areas. However, it seems rather that the centers of these galaxies likely have no cusp in the dark-matter distribution at all.

This is not an intractable problem, however, because the relationships between the baryonic matter's distribution and the dark matter's distribution in areas of high baryonic-matter concentration have not been adequately explored. In particular, a high density of baryonic matter would have a different distribution due to the effects of forces other than gravity. The distribution of baryonic matter, in turn, might affect the cuspy nature of the density profile for dark matter.