Using the CMB angular power spectrum to study Dark Matter-photon interactions

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the impact of Dark Matter-photon interactions on the CMB angular power spectrum. Using the one-year data release of the Planck satellite, we derive an upper bound on the Dark Matter-photon elastic scattering cross section of sigma_{DM-photon} < 8 x 10^{-31} (m_DM/GeV) cm^2 (68% CL) if the cross section is constant and a present-day value of sigma_{DM-photon} < 6 x 10^{-40} (m_DM/GeV) cm^2 (68% CL) if it scales as the temperature squared. For such a limiting cross section, both the B-modes and the TT angular power spectrum are suppressed with respect to LCDM predictions for l > 500 and l > 3000 respectively, indicating that forthcoming data from CMB polarisation experiments and Planck could help to constrain and characterise the physics of the dark sector. This essentially initiates a new type of dark matter search that is independent of whether dark matter is annihilating, decaying or asymmetric. Thus, any CMB experiment with the ability to measure the temperature and/or polarisation power spectra at high l should be able to investigate the potential interactions of dark matter and contribute to our fundamental understanding of its nature.

9 pages, 5 figures. V2: References added, minor clarifications. V3: Matches version in JCAP

References in corpus (16)

• Observation of an anomalous positron abundance in the cosmic radiation
• Improved Cosmological Constraints from New, Old and Combined Supernova Datasets
• Dark Matter Results from 225 Live Days of XENON100 Data
• Massive neutrinos and cosmology
• Warm Dark Matter as a solution to the small scale crisis: new constraints from high redshift Lyman-alpha forest data
• New determination of the fine structure constant and test of the quantum electrodynamics
• Results from a Low-Energy Analysis of the CDMS II Germanium Data
• The Cosmic Linear Anisotropy Solving System (CLASS) I: Overview
• Detection of B-mode Polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background with Data from the South Pole Telescope
• Turning off the Lights: How Dark is Dark Matter?
• Magnetic Inelastic Dark Matter
• Direct X-ray Constraints on Sterile Neutrino Warm Dark Matter
• Limits on the Radiative Decay of Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter from the Unresolved Cosmic and Soft X-ray Backgrounds
• SPIDER: A Balloon-borne Large-scale CMB Polarimeter
• Supersymmetry with Light Dark Matter confronting the recent CDMS and LHC Results
• A new test of the light dark matter hypothesis

Cited by in corpus (83)

• In the Realm of the Hubble tension $-$ a Review of Solutions
• Beyond $\Lambda$CDM: Problems, solutions, and the road ahead
• Seven hints that early-time new physics alone is not sufficient to solve the Hubble tension
• ETHOS - An Effective Theory of Structure Formation: From dark particle physics to the matter distribution of the Universe
• Reducing the $H_0$ and ${\sigma }_8$ tensions with Dark Matter-neutrino interactions
• Composite strongly interacting dark matter
• Using the Full Power of the Cosmic Microwave Background to Probe Axion Dark Matter
• Evidence for dark matter interactions in cosmological precision data?
• Macro Dark Matter
• Using the Milky Way satellites to study interactions between cold dark matter and radiation
• Constraints on dark matter interactions with standard model particles from CMB spectral distortions
• Scattering, Damping, and Acoustic Oscillations: Simulating the Structure of Dark Matter Halos with Relativistic Force Carriers
• Do we have any hope of detecting scattering between dark energy and baryons through cosmology?
• Exotic energy injection with ExoCLASS: Application to the Higgs portal model and evaporating black holes
• Dark matter-radiation interactions: the impact on dark matter haloes
• Rotating Drops of Axion Dark Matter
• The Dark Matter equation of state through cosmic history
• Matter Power Spectrum in Hidden Neutrino Interacting Dark Matter Models: A Closer Look at the Collision Term
• Dark matter-radiation interactions: the structure of Milky Way satellite galaxies
• A fresh look into the interacting dark matter scenario
• Cosmological direct detection of dark energy: non-linear structure formation signatures of dark energy scattering with visible matter
• Cosmological bounds on dark matter-photon coupling
• The Cosmology of Sub-MeV Dark Matter
• Constraining dark matter properties with Cosmic Microwave Background observations
• Reannihilation of self-interacting dark matter
• An extensive investigation of the Generalised Dark Matter model
• The full Boltzmann hierarchy for dark matter-massive neutrino interactions
• Hints of dark matter-neutrino interactions in Lyman-$\alpha$ data
• New constraints on the dark matter-neutrino and dark matter-photon scattering cross sections from TXS 0506+056
• Robust cosmic-ray constraints on $p$-wave annihilating MeV dark matter
• Dark Matter microphysics and 21 cm observations
• CMB Lensing Bispectrum from Nonlinear Growth of the Large Scale Structure
• Microwave Spectro-Polarimetry of Matter and Radiation across Space and Time
• Testing dark matter interactions with CMB spectral distortions
• Bias-Hardened CMB Lensing with Polarization
• Constraints on $\gamma$-CDM interactions matching the Planck data precision
• Using CMB spectral distortions to distinguish between dark matter solutions to the small-scale crisis
• Comprehensive Study of Neutrino-Dark Matter Mixed Damping
• Dark matter velocity dispersion effects on CMB and matter power spectra
• Constraints on dark matter-neutrino scattering from the Milky-Way satellites and subhalo modeling for dark acoustic oscillations
• Point Sources from Dissipative Dark Matter
• Macroscopic Dark Matter Constraints from Bolide Camera Networks
• Boltzmann-Fokker-Planck formalism for dark-matter--baryon scattering
• Effects of electrically charged dark matter on cosmic microwave background anisotropies
• Death and Serious Injury by Dark Matter
• Reconsidering astrophysical constraints on macroscopic dark matter
• Astrophysical Tests of Dark Matter Self-Interactions
• Prior dependence of cosmological constraints on dark matter-radiation interactions
• Antimatter as Macroscopic Dark Matter
• Resonant bar detector constraints on macro dark matter
• Small scale clustering of late forming dark matter
• Extended Analysis of Neutrino-Dark Matter Interactions with Small-Scale CMB Experiments
• Ballistic Dark Matter oscillates above $\Lambda$CDM
• Probing dark matter interactions with 21cm observations
• Hints of Neutrino Dark Matter scattering in the CMB? Constraints from the Marginalized and Profile Distributions
• A counter-top search for macroscopic dark matter
• Investigation of CMB constraints for dark matter-helium scattering
• Isotropic extragalactic flux from dark matter annihilations: lessons from interacting dark matter scenarios
• Dark matter coupled to radiation: Limits from the Milky Way satellites
• On dark atoms, massive dark photons and millicharged sub-components
• Charge Constraints of Macroscopic Dark Matter
• Analysis of branon dark matter and extra-dimensional models with AMS-02
• New insights on $\nu$-DM Interactions
• Gravitational-wave event rates as a new probe for dark matter microphysics
• Constraints on Dark Matter-Photon Coupling in the Presence of Time-Varying Dark Energy
• New Horizons in Cosmology with Spectral Distortions of the Cosmic Microwave Background
• Dark matter kinetic decoupling with a light particle
• Straight Lightning as a Signature of Macroscopic Dark Matter
• Is it Mixed dark matter or neutrino masses?
• Cosmic Birefringence from Neutrino and Dark Matter Asymmetries
• Trading kinetic energy: How late kinetic decoupling of dark matter changes $N_{\text{eff}}$
• Interacting dark matter and cosmic acceleration
• Limit on the dark matter mass from its interaction with photons
• On Evidence for Elastic Interactions in the Dark Sector
• Glow in the Dark Matter: Observing galactic halos with scattered light
• Properties of subhalos in the interacting dark matter scenario
• DESI forecast for Dark Matter-Neutrino interactions using EFTofLSS
• Tritium beta decay with modified neutrino dispersion relations: KATRIN in the dark sea
• On the correspondence between energy conservation and energy-momentum tensor conservation in cosmology
• Cosmology from weak lensing of CMB
• 21 cm Cosmology Sensitivity to Small-Scale Structure: Warm vs Neutrino-Interacting Dark Matter
• Primordial ${}^4\text{He}$ constraints on inelastic macro dark matter revisited
• The Glow of Axion Quark Nugget Dark Matter: (IV) CMB Spectral and Anisotropy Signatures