Can Sterile Neutrinos Be Ruled Out as Warm Dark Matter Candidates?
- Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA (United Kingdom)
- Laboratoire d'Annecy-le-vieux de Physique Theorique LAPTH, BP110, F-74941 Annecy-le-vieux Cedex (France)
- Dipartimento di Fisica 'G. Galilei', Universita di Padova, Via Marzolo 8, I-35131 Padova (Italy)
- Theory Division, CERN, CH 1211, Geneva 23 (Switzerland)
We present constraints on the mass of warm dark matter (WDM) particles from a combined analysis of the matter power spectrum inferred from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Lyman-{alpha} flux power spectrum at 2.2<z<4.2, cosmic microwave background data, and the galaxy power spectrum. We obtain a lower limit of m{sub WDM}(greater-or-similar sign)10 keV (2{sigma}) if the WDM consists of sterile neutrinos and m{sub WDM}(greater-or-similar sign)2 keV (2{sigma}) for early decoupled thermal relics. If we combine this bound with the constraint derived from x-ray flux observations of the Coma cluster, we find that the allowed sterile neutrino mass is {approx}10 keV (in the standard production scenario). Adding constraints based on x-ray fluxes from the Andromeda galaxy, we find that dark matter particles cannot be sterile neutrinos, unless they are produced by a nonstandard mechanism (resonant oscillations, coupling with the inflaton) or get diluted by a large entropy release.
- OSTI ID:
- 20860685
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 97, Issue 7; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.071301; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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