Cosmological accretion shocks created during the formation of galaxy clusters are a ubiquitous phenomenon all around the universe. These shocks and their features are intimately related with the gravitational energy at stake during galaxy cluster formation. Studying a sample of simulated galaxy clusters and their associated accretion shocks, we show that objects in our sample sit in a plane within the three-dimensional space of cluster total mass, shock radius and Mach number (a measure of shock intensity). Using this relation, and considering that forthcoming new observations will be able to measure shock radii and intensities, we put forward the idea that the dark matter content of galaxy clusters could be indirectly measured with an error up to around 30% at the 1σ confidence level. This procedure would be a new and independent method to measure the dark matter mass in cosmic structures and a novel constraint to the accepted Lambda cold dark matter paradigm.

星系团形成过程中产生的宇宙吸积激波是宇宙中普遍存在的现象。这些冲击及其特征与星系团形成过程中所面临的引力能密切相关。通过研究模拟星系团的样本及其相关的吸积激波，我们发现样本中的物体位于星系团总质量、激波半径和马赫数（激波强度的度量）的三维空间内的一个平面上。利用这种关系，并考虑到即将到来的新观测将能够测量激波半径和强度，我们提出了可以间接测量星系团暗物质含量的想法，在1σ置信水平下误差高达30%左右。该程序将是一种测量宇宙结构中暗物质质量的新的独立方法，也是对公认的 Lambda 冷暗物质范式的新约束。