Overview
- Published February 5, 2026 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Crespi et al. paper models an ultra-dense fermionic dark-matter core embedded in a diffuse halo as a single continuous distribution.
- The unified core–halo scenario matches observed dynamics near the Galactic Center, with orbital predictions for S-stars and nearby G-sources differing from black-hole expectations by less than 1%.
- Gaia DR3’s measured Keplerian decline in the Milky Way’s outer rotation curve is reproduced by the model’s more compact fermionic halo when combined with the disk and bulge masses.
- Earlier work shows that a dense dark core illuminated by an accretion flow can generate an Event Horizon Telescope–like shadow, whereas photon rings remain a black-hole–specific signature.
- The authors stress that present observations cannot distinguish the two models and point to GRAVITY/VLT measurements, improved EHT imaging, and particle-physics limits on light fermions as critical upcoming tests.