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Title: Warm Dark Matter and Cosmic Reionization

Abstract

In models with dark matter made of particles with keV masses, such as a sterile neutrino, small-scale density perturbations are suppressed, delaying the period at which the lowest mass galaxies are formed and therefore shifting the reionization processes to later epochs. In this study, focusing on Warm Dark Matter (WDM) with masses close to its present lower bound, i.e., around the 3 keV region, we derive constraints from galaxy luminosity functions, the ionization history and the Gunn–Peterson effect. We show that even if star formation efficiency in the simulations is adjusted to match the observed UV galaxy luminosity functions in both CDM and WDM models, the full distribution of Gunn–Peterson optical depth retains the strong signature of delayed reionization in the WDM model. Furthermore, until the star formation and stellar feedback model used in modern galaxy formation simulations is constrained better, any conclusions on the nature of dark matter derived from reionization observables remain model-dependent.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. CSIC-Univ. de Valencia, Apartado de Correos (Spain)
  2. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); The Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
OSTI Identifier:
1439284
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB-17-394-A; arXiv:1708.08277
Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4357; 1620173; TRN: US1900592
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-07CH11359
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 852; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; cosmology: theory; galaxies: formation; intergalactic medium; large-scale structure of universe; methods: numerical

Citation Formats

Villanueva-Domingo, Pablo, Gnedin, Nickolay Y., and Mena, Olga. Warm Dark Matter and Cosmic Reionization. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa9ff5.
Villanueva-Domingo, Pablo, Gnedin, Nickolay Y., & Mena, Olga. Warm Dark Matter and Cosmic Reionization. United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa9ff5
Villanueva-Domingo, Pablo, Gnedin, Nickolay Y., and Mena, Olga. 2018. "Warm Dark Matter and Cosmic Reionization". United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa9ff5. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1439284.
@article{osti_1439284,
title = {Warm Dark Matter and Cosmic Reionization},
author = {Villanueva-Domingo, Pablo and Gnedin, Nickolay Y. and Mena, Olga},
abstractNote = {In models with dark matter made of particles with keV masses, such as a sterile neutrino, small-scale density perturbations are suppressed, delaying the period at which the lowest mass galaxies are formed and therefore shifting the reionization processes to later epochs. In this study, focusing on Warm Dark Matter (WDM) with masses close to its present lower bound, i.e., around the 3 keV region, we derive constraints from galaxy luminosity functions, the ionization history and the Gunn–Peterson effect. We show that even if star formation efficiency in the simulations is adjusted to match the observed UV galaxy luminosity functions in both CDM and WDM models, the full distribution of Gunn–Peterson optical depth retains the strong signature of delayed reionization in the WDM model. Furthermore, until the star formation and stellar feedback model used in modern galaxy formation simulations is constrained better, any conclusions on the nature of dark matter derived from reionization observables remain model-dependent.},
doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aa9ff5},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1439284}, journal = {The Astrophysical Journal (Online)},
issn = {1538-4357},
number = 2,
volume = 852,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jan 10 00:00:00 EST 2018},
month = {Wed Jan 10 00:00:00 EST 2018}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 21 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Dimensionless linear power spectrum Δ2 (k) = $$\frac{1}{2π^2}$$ k3P (k) for several values of the WDM particle mass mX, together with the ΛCDM case.

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Non-linear evolution of cosmological structures in warm dark matter models
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Planck intermediate results : XXIV. Constraints on variations in fundamental constants⋆
journal, July 2015


Planck 2015 results : X. Diffuse component separation: Foreground maps
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Warm dark matter as a solution to the small scale crisis: New constraints from high redshift Lyman-α forest data
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Planck 2015 results : XXVI. The Second
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Lyman-alpha constraints on warm and on warm-plus-cold dark matter models
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Cores and Cusps in Warm Dark Matter Halos
text, January 2010


Halo Mass Function and the Free Streaming Scale
text, January 2013


The properties of warm dark matter haloes
text, January 2013


Reionization and Beyond: detecting the peaks of the cosmological 21cm signal
text, January 2013


Multi-redshift limits on the 21cm power spectrum from PAPER
text, January 2014


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text, January 2015


PAPER-64 Constraints on Reionization: The 21cm Power Spectrum at z=8.4
text, January 2015


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text, January 2015


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text, January 2016


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text, January 2016


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text, January 2017


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text, January 2000


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text, January 2001


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text, January 2006


Can sterile neutrinos be ruled out as warm dark matter candidates?
text, January 2006


The James Webb Space Telescope
text, January 2006


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text, January 2007


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text, January 1998


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text, January 1999


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text, January 2004


Works referencing / citing this record:

Clues to the nature of dark matter from first galaxies
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Was there an early reionization component in our universe?
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Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.