Dark Secrets of Baryons: Illuminating Dark Matter-Baryon Interactions with JWST

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Hauptverfasser: Das, Souradeep, Mondol, Ranjini, Singh, Abhijeet, Laha, Ranjan
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Das, Souradeep
Mondol, Ranjini
Singh, Abhijeet
Laha, Ranjan
author_facet Das, Souradeep
Mondol, Ranjini
Singh, Abhijeet
Laha, Ranjan
contents The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered numerous bright galaxies at high redshifts ($z\approx$ 10 -- 14). Many astrophysical models and beyond the Standard Model physics scenarios have been proposed to explain these observations. We investigate, for the first time, the implications of dark matter (DM) scattering with baryons (protons and electrons) in light of the JWST UV luminosity function (UVLF) observations. These interactions suppress structure formation on galactic scales, which may have an observable effect on the UVLF measurements at high redshifts. Using a recent galaxy formation model designed to explain high-redshift observations, we obtain strong upper limits on DM-baryon scattering cross-sections and explore new regions of the parameter space. For DM-proton scattering with cross-section $\propto v^{-2}$ velocity dependence, we obtain the strongest limit for DM masses of $\sim$ 1 -- 500 MeV. For other cases that we study (DM-proton scattering cross-section $\propto v^{0},\,v^{-4}$, and DM-electron scattering cross-section $\propto v^{0},\,v^{-2},\,v^{-4}$), our limits are competitive with those obtained from other cosmological observables. Our study highlights the potential of JWST observations as a novel and powerful probe of non-gravitational interactions of DM.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_02906
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dark Secrets of Baryons: Illuminating Dark Matter-Baryon Interactions with JWST
Das, Souradeep
Mondol, Ranjini
Singh, Abhijeet
Laha, Ranjan
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
High Energy Physics - Experiment
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered numerous bright galaxies at high redshifts ($z\approx$ 10 -- 14). Many astrophysical models and beyond the Standard Model physics scenarios have been proposed to explain these observations. We investigate, for the first time, the implications of dark matter (DM) scattering with baryons (protons and electrons) in light of the JWST UV luminosity function (UVLF) observations. These interactions suppress structure formation on galactic scales, which may have an observable effect on the UVLF measurements at high redshifts. Using a recent galaxy formation model designed to explain high-redshift observations, we obtain strong upper limits on DM-baryon scattering cross-sections and explore new regions of the parameter space. For DM-proton scattering with cross-section $\propto v^{-2}$ velocity dependence, we obtain the strongest limit for DM masses of $\sim$ 1 -- 500 MeV. For other cases that we study (DM-proton scattering cross-section $\propto v^{0},\,v^{-4}$, and DM-electron scattering cross-section $\propto v^{0},\,v^{-2},\,v^{-4}$), our limits are competitive with those obtained from other cosmological observables. Our study highlights the potential of JWST observations as a novel and powerful probe of non-gravitational interactions of DM.
title Dark Secrets of Baryons: Illuminating Dark Matter-Baryon Interactions with JWST
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
High Energy Physics - Experiment
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.02906