Mapping the allowed parameter space for decaying dark matter models

Abstract

I consider constraints on a phenomenological decaying-dark-matter model, in which two weakly-interacting massive particle (WIMP) species have a small mass splitting, and in which the heavier particle decays to the lighter particle and a massless particle on cosmological timescales. The decay parameter space is parameterized by $v_k$, the speed of the lighter particle in the center-of-mass frame of the heavier particle prior to decay, and the decay time $\tau$. Since I consider the case in which dark-matter halos have formed before there has been significant decay, I focus on the effects of decay in already-formed halos. I show that the $v_k-\tau$ parameter space may be constrained by observed properties of dark-matter halos. I highlight which set of observations is likely to yield the cleanest constraints on $v_k-\tau$ parameter space, and calculate the constraints in those cases in which the effect of decay on the observables can be calculated without N-body simulations of decaying dark matter. I show that for $v_k\gtrsim 5\times 10^3$ km s${}^{-1}$, the z=0 galaxy cluster mass function and halo mass-concentration relation constrain $\tau \gtrsim$ 40 Gyr, and that precise constraints on $\tau$ for smaller $v_k$ will require N-body simulations.

14 pages, 5 figures, references added, replaced to match version published in Phys. Rev. D

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• Energy Injection And Absorption In The Cosmic Dark Ages
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• Converting non-relativistic dark matter to radiation
• Strongest model-independent bound on the lifetime of Dark Matter
• Dark-matter bound states from Feynman diagrams
• Decaying dark matter and the tension in ${\sigma }_8$
• Self-Scattering for Dark Matter with an Excited State
• Cosmological Simulations of Decaying Dark Matter: Implications for Small-scale Structure of Dark Matter Halos
• Flavored Dark Matter in Direct Detection Experiments and at LHC
• Dark-Matter Decays and Self-Gravitating Halos
• Super heavy thermal dark matter
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• Dark-matter decays and Milky Way satellite galaxies
• Self-interacting dark matter from late decays and the $H_0$ tension
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• Lifetime Constraints for Late Dark Matter Decay
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• Milky Way Satellite Census. IV. Constraints on Decaying Dark Matter from Observations of Milky Way Satellite Galaxies