Boosting hierarchical structure formation with scalar-interacting dark matter

Abstract

We investigate the effect of long-range scalar interactions in dark matter (DM) models of cosmic structure formation with a particular focus on the formation times of haloes. Utilising $N$-body simulations with $512^3$ DM particles we show that in our models dark matter haloes form substantially earlier: tracing objects up to redshift $z\sim 6$ we find that the formation time, as characterised by the redshift $z_{1/2}$ at which the halo has assembled half of its final mass, is gradually shifted from $z_{1/2}\approx 1.83$ in the fiducial LCDM model to $z_{1/2}\approx 2.54$ in the most extreme self-interaction model. This is accompanied by a shift of the redshift that marks the transition between merger and steady accretion epochs from $z_{\ast }\approx 4.32$ in the \lcdm\ halos to $z_{\ast }\approx 6.39$ in our strongest interaction model. In other words, the scalar-interacting model employed in this work produces more structures at high redshifts, prolonging at the same time the steady accretion phases. These effects taken together can help the LCDM model to account for a high redshift reionisation as indicated by the WMAP data and can alleviate issues related to the survival of the thin-disk dominated galaxies at low redshifts.

5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Final version to be printed in MNRAS Letters. 4 new references added

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Cited by in corpus (16)

• Cosmological Evolution With Interaction Between Dark Energy And Dark Matter
• Modified Gravity N-body Code Comparison Project
• The nonlinear matter and velocity power spectra in f(R) gravity
• Time dependent couplings in the dark sector: from background evolution to nonlinear structure formation
• An Extended Excursion Set Approach to Structure Formation in Chameleon Models
• Nonlinear structure formation in Nonlocal Gravity
• Halo model and halo properties in Galileon gravity cosmologies
• N-body Simulations for Extended Quintessence Models
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• On the Effects of Coupled Scalar Fields on Structure Formation
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• Constraints on a decomposed dark fluid with constant adiabatic sound speed by jointing the geometry test and growth rate after Planck data
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• Dark Energy Simulations