General Constraints on Dark Matter Decay from the Cosmic Microwave Background

Abstract

Precise measurements of the temperature and polarization anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background can be used to constrain the annihilation and decay of dark matter. In this work, we demonstrate via principal component analysis that the imprint of dark matter decay on the cosmic microwave background can be approximately parameterized by a single number for any given dark matter model. We develop a simple prescription for computing this model-dependent detectability factor, and demonstrate how this approach can be used to set model-independent bounds on a large class of decaying dark matter scenarios. We repeat our analysis for decay lifetimes shorter than the age of the universe, allowing us to set constraints on metastable species other than the dark matter decaying at early times, and decays that only liberate a tiny fraction of the dark matter mass energy. We set precise bounds and validate our principal component analysis using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach and Planck 2015 data.

15 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables. Added references, corrected typos and supplemental data available at http://nebel.rc.fas.harvard.edu/epsilon/ This version to be submitted to Phys Rev D

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• CMB anisotropy and BBN constraints on pre-recombination decay of dark matter to visible particles
• Varying fundamental constants principal component analysis: additional hints about the Hubble tension
• Constraining the dark matter contribution of $\gamma$ rays in Cluster of galaxies using Fermi-LAT data
• Tripling down on the $W$ boson mass
• Cosmological Constraints on Dark Scalar
• New CMB spectral distortion constraints on decaying dark matter with full evolution of electromagnetic cascades before recombination
• The DAMPE excess and gamma-ray constraints
• Off-Diagonal Dark-Matter Phenomenology: Exploring Enhanced Complementarity Relations in Non-Minimal Dark Sectors
• Cosmological Bounds on sub-GeV Dark Vector Bosons from Electromagnetic Energy Injection
• Pico-charged intermediate particles rescue dark matter interpretation of 511 keV signal
• Gauge Baryon Number and Dibaryonic Dark Matter
• Conformal Portal to Dark Matter
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• Dark Matter in Very Supersymmetric Dark Sectors
• Sharp spectral features from light dark matter decay via gravity portals
• Laboratory limits on the annihilation or decay of dark matter particles
• Cosmological constraints on the decay of heavy relics into neutrinos
• Sensitivities on non-spinning and spinning primordial black hole dark matter with global 21 cm troughs