The Galactic potential and dark matter density from angular stellar
  accelerations
  We present an approach to measure the Milky Way (MW) potential using the
angular accelerations of stars in aggregate as measured by astrometric surveys
like Gaia. Accelerations directly probe the gradient of the MW potential, as
opposed to indirect methods using e.g. stellar velocities. We show that
end-of-mission Gaia stellar acceleration data may be used to measure the
potential of the MW disk at approximately 3$\sigma$ significance and, if recent
measurements of the solar acceleration are included, the local dark matter
density at ~2$\sigma$ significance. Since the significance of detection scales
steeply as $t^{5/2}$ for observing time $t$, future surveys that include
angular accelerations in the astrometric solutions may be combined with Gaia to
precisely measure the local dark matter density and shape of the density
profile.
