Distinguishing standard reionization from dark matter models

Abstract

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) experiment has detected reionization at the $5.5\sigma$ level and has reported a mean optical depth of $0.088\pm 0.015$. A powerful probe of reionization is the large-angle $EE$ polarization power spectrum, which is now (since the first five years of data from WMAP) cosmic variance limited for $2\le l\le 6$. Here we consider partial reionization caused by WIMP dark matter annihilation, and calculate the expected polarization power spectrum. We compare the dark matter models with a standard 2-step reionization theory, and examine whether the models may be distinguished using current, and future CMB observations. We consider dark matter annihilation at intermediate redshifts ($z<60$) due to halos, as well as annihilation at higher redshifts due to free particles. In order to study the effect of high redshift dark matter annihilation on CMB power spectra, it is essential to include the contribution of residual electrons (left over from recombination) to the ionization history. Dark matter halos at redshifts $z<60$ influence the low multipoles $l<20$ in the $EE$ power spectrum, while the annihilation of free particle dark matter at high redshifts $z>100$ mainly affects multipoles $l>10$.

Minor corrections. Published in Phys. Rev. Replaced to reflect the published version

References in corpus (17)

• Observation of an anomalous positron abundance in the cosmic radiation
• Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Likelihoods and Parameters from the WMAP data
• Three Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Polarization Analysis
• Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Angular Power Spectra
• Dark matter and the first stars: a new phase of stellar evolution
• Impact of dark matter decays and annihilations on reionization
• Constraints on Dark Matter annihilations from reionization and heating of the intergalactic gas
• The impacts of dark matter particle annihilation on recombination and the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background
• Constraints on leptonically annihilating Dark Matter from reionization and extragalactic gamma background
• The impact of dark matter decays and annihilations on the formation of the first structures
• Dark Matter Capture in the First Stars: a Power Source and Limit on Stellar Mass
• How Dark Matter Reionized The Universe
• Intergalactic medium heating by dark matter
• Optimal Trispectrum Estimators and WMAP Constraints
• Constraints on First-Light Ionizing Sources from Optical Depth of the Cosmic Microwave Background
• Impact of Dark Matter Annihilation on the High-Redshift Intergalactic Medium
• Electron and Photon Energy Deposition in Universe

Cited by in corpus (25)

• Cosmic microwave background limits on accreting primordial black holes
• Cosmological bounds on pseudo Nambu-Goldstone bosons
• Energy Injection And Absorption In The Cosmic Dark Ages
• Dark matter-neutrino interactions through the lens of their cosmological implications
• Exotic energy injection with ExoCLASS: Application to the Higgs portal model and evaporating black holes
• Constraints on dark matter annihilation from CMB observations before Planck
• Constraining dark matter late-time energy injection: decays and p-wave annihilations
• Where do the AMS-02 anti-helium events come from?
• CMB photons shedding light on dark matter
• Implications of the Fermi-LAT diffuse gamma-ray measurements on annihilating or decaying Dark Matter
• Impact of Primordial Ultracompact Minihaloes on the Intergalactic Medium and First Structure Formation
• Primordial black holes with mass $10^{16}-10^{17}$ g and reionization of the Universe
• Systematic errors in the measurement of neutrino masses due to baryonic feedback processes: Prospects for stage IV lensing surveys
• A closer look at CMB constraints on WIMP dark matter
• Reionization and dark matter decay
• Perturbed Recombination from Dark Matter Annihilation
• The Dark Ages of the Universe and Hydrogen Reionization
• Was there an early reionization component in our universe?
• Heating of galactic gas by dark matter annihilation in ultracompact minihalos
• Cosmological limits on axions and axion-like particles
• The Hydrogen Mixing Portal, Its Origins, and Its Cosmological Effects
• Signatures of inhomogeneous dark matter annihilation on 21-cm
• Constraints on Dark Matter annihilation and Its Equation of State after Planck Data
• DAMA and the self similar infall halo model
• Dark Matter Energy Deposition and Production from the Table-Top to the Cosmos