Simulating Nonlinear Dynamics of Vector Dark Matter with Self-Interactions

Ultralight Dark Matter is a popular model of dark matter since it leads to observationally accessible, nonlinear wave dynamics on astrophysical scales. While spin-0 Ultralight DM, with and without non-gravitational self-interactions (SI), has been explored in detail before; studying the nonlinear dynamics of gravitationally interacting spin-1 ultralight DM (VDM — vector dark matter) has been initiated very recently. In this talk, I will discuss ongoing work on simulating VDM including non-gravitational self-interaction, which has not been done before. I will provide a new algorithm to simulate SI VDM accurately and efficiently, overcoming some of the numerical challenges unique to SI VDM. Using our new code, I will demonstrate how SI introduces novel dynamics of dark matter solitons — specifically in regard to their polarizations. Time permitting, I will discuss the observational implications of these dynamics.