Dark ages, a window on the dark sector. Hunting for ultra-light axions

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Vanzan, Eleonora, Raccanelli, Alvise, Bartolo, Nicola
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866909127506132992
author Vanzan, Eleonora
Raccanelli, Alvise
Bartolo, Nicola
author_facet Vanzan, Eleonora
Raccanelli, Alvise
Bartolo, Nicola
contents Measurements of 21cm intensity mapping (IM) during the dark ages can potentially provide us with an unprecedented window on high redshifts and small scales. One of the main advantages this can bring involves the possibility to probe the nature of dark matter. Tests of dark matter models with the large-scale structure of the Universe are limited by non-linearities and astrophysical effects, which are not present for IM measurements during the dark ages. In this paper we focus on constraining the model in which dark matter is comprised, totally or in part, by ultra-light axion-like particles around the $10^{-18}-10^{-22}$ eV mass scale. For this model, the angular power spectrum of 21cm brightness temperature fluctuations will exhibit a small-scale suppression. However, this effect is intertwined with the imprint of baryon-dark matter relative velocity at recombination, causing at the same time an enhancement at large-scales, which is affected by the mass and abundance of axion dark matter. In this work we forecast how future radio arrays will be able to constrain ultra-light axion mass through both these effects on the angular power spectrum.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2306_09252
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dark ages, a window on the dark sector. Hunting for ultra-light axions
Vanzan, Eleonora
Raccanelli, Alvise
Bartolo, Nicola
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Measurements of 21cm intensity mapping (IM) during the dark ages can potentially provide us with an unprecedented window on high redshifts and small scales. One of the main advantages this can bring involves the possibility to probe the nature of dark matter. Tests of dark matter models with the large-scale structure of the Universe are limited by non-linearities and astrophysical effects, which are not present for IM measurements during the dark ages. In this paper we focus on constraining the model in which dark matter is comprised, totally or in part, by ultra-light axion-like particles around the $10^{-18}-10^{-22}$ eV mass scale. For this model, the angular power spectrum of 21cm brightness temperature fluctuations will exhibit a small-scale suppression. However, this effect is intertwined with the imprint of baryon-dark matter relative velocity at recombination, causing at the same time an enhancement at large-scales, which is affected by the mass and abundance of axion dark matter. In this work we forecast how future radio arrays will be able to constrain ultra-light axion mass through both these effects on the angular power spectrum.
title Dark ages, a window on the dark sector. Hunting for ultra-light axions
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.09252