Black Dwarf Stars as Missing Mass in Clusters of Galaxies

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Abstract
The missing mass in clusters of galaxies may be largely in the form of degenerate low-mass stars (black dwarfs) with masses down to ∼10−2M⊙. Such stars may have formed in large numbers in globular clusters assembled as protogalaxies. The globular clusters became partially relaxed and developed halos of low-mass stars. The halo stars were removed by tidal shocks and escaped preferentially from the protogalaxies during collapse. Protogalaxies may have lost nearly half their mass in this way. The resulting elliptical galaxies have massive halos of black dwarfs which may be removed later by tidal interaction with other galaxies. Clusters of galaxies retain most of their black dwarfs, so that the virial mass-to-light ratios of clusters are much higher than the mass-to-light ratios of the nuclear regions of individual elliptical galaxies.

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