Ascertain local dark versus baryonic matter contributions to tidal acceleration near the Sun

Ascertain the relative contributions of dark matter and baryonic matter to the tidal acceleration experienced by spacecraft near the Sun due to the Milky Way’s gravitational field, to enable robust detection of dark matter via trajectory deviations.

Background

When discussing detection of the Milky Way’s resultant gravitational force via spacecraft trajectory deviations, the authors note that near the Sun the acceleration field includes contributions from both dark and baryonic matter.

They explicitly state that determining the relative makeup of these components is necessary for interpreting measurements and indicate this will require future study.

References

This implies that for detecting dark matter by measuring the deviation of a trajectory of a spacecraft near the Sun, the relative makeup of dark to baryonic matter needs to be more precisely understood. This is a topic for future study.

— When Leaving the Solar System: Dark Matter Makes a Difference  (2201.06575 - Belbruno et al., 2022) in Section 3 Detection of the Force F_G Due to Dark and Baryonic Matter by a Spacecraft