The central densities of dark matter (DM) halos are much lower than predicted
in cold DM models of structure formation. Confirmation that they have cores
with a finite central density would allow us to rule out many popular types of
collisionless particle as candidates for DM. Any model that leads to cusped
halos (such as cold DM) is already facing serious difficulties on small scales
and hot DM models have been excluded. Here I show that fermionic warm DM is
inconsistent with the wide range of phase space densities in the DM halos of
well-observed nearby galaxies.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX uses emulateapj.sty, revised version to
appear in ApJ Letters. Argument clarified and strengthened in response to
criticism, conclusions little change