Sterile neutrinos as subdominant warm dark matter

Journal Article · Thu Nov 15 04:00:00 EST 2007 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.76.103511· OSTI ID:21027804

Palazzo, A ^[1]; Cumberbatch, D; Slosar, A; Silk, J ^[1]

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1. Astrophysics Department, University of Oxford, Keble Road, OX1 3RH, Oxford (United Kingdom)

In light of recent findings which seem to disfavor a scenario with (warm) dark matter entirely constituted of sterile neutrinos produced via the Dodelson-Widrow mechanism, we investigate the constraints attainable for this mechanism by relaxing the usual hypothesis that the relic neutrino abundance must necessarily account for all of the dark matter. We first study how to reinterpret the limits attainable from x-ray nondetection and Lyman-{alpha} forest measurements in the case that sterile neutrinos constitute only a fraction f{sub s} of the total amount of dark matter. Then, assuming that sterile neutrinos are generated in the early universe solely through the Dodelson-Widrow mechanism, we show how the x-ray and Lyman-{alpha} results jointly constrain the mass-mixing parameters governing their production. Furthermore, we show how the same data allow us to set a robust upper limit f{sub s} < or approx. 0.7 at the 2{sigma} level, rejecting the case of dominant dark matter (f{sub s}=1) at the {approx}3{sigma} level.

• OSTI ID: 21027804
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 76; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
COSMOLOGY
HYPOTHESIS
MASS
MIXING
NEUTRINOS
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
STANDARD MODEL
UNIVERSE
X RADIATION