REIONIZATION IN THE WARM DARK MATTER MODEL
- National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20A Datun Road, Chaoyang, Beijing 100012 (China)
Compared with the cold dark matter (CDM) model, the formation of the small-scale structure of the universe is suppressed in the warm dark matter (WDM) model. It is often thought that this would delay the reionization of the intergalactic medium (IGM) because the star formation rate during the epoch of reionization (EOR) would be lowered. However, during the later stage of the EOR, a large portion of the ionizing photons is consumed by recombination inside the minihalos, which is where the gas has higher density and recombination rates than that in the IGM. The suppression of the small-scale structure would therefore reduce the recombination rate and could potentially shorten the reionization process. This effect is investigated here by using the analytical 'bubble model' of reionization. We find that, in some cases, although the initiation of the EOR is delayed in the WDM model, its completion could be even earlier than the CDM case, but the effect is generally small. We obtain limits on the mass of WDM particles for different reionization redshifts.
- OSTI ID:
- 22016238
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 747, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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