Using CMB spectral distortions to distinguish between dark matter solutions to the small-scale crisis

Abstract

The dissipation of small-scale perturbations in the early universe produces a distortion in the blackbody spectrum of cosmic microwave background photons. In this work, we propose to use these distortions as a probe of the microphysics of dark matter on scales $1{\text{Mpc}}^{-1}\lesssim k\lesssim 10^4{\text{Mpc}}^{-1}$. We consider in particular models in which the dark matter is kinetically coupled to either neutrinos or photons until shortly before recombination, and compute the photon heating rate and the resultant $\mu$-distortion in both cases. We show that the $\mu$-parameter is generally enhanced relative to $\Lambda$CDM for interactions with neutrinos, and may be either enhanced or suppressed in the case of interactions with photons. The deviations from the $\Lambda$CDM signal are potentially within the sensitivity reach of a PRISM-like experiment if ${\sigma }_{\text{DM}-\gamma }\gtrsim 1.1\times 10^{-30}\left(m_{\text{DM}}/\text{GeV}\right){\text{cm}}^2$ and ${\sigma }_{\text{DM}-\nu }\gtrsim 4.8\times 10^{-32}\left(m_{\text{DM}}/\text{GeV}\right){\text{cm}}^2$ for time-independent cross sections, and ${\sigma }_{\text{DM}-\gamma }^0\gtrsim 1.8\times 10^{-40}\left(m_{\text{DM}}/\text{GeV}\right){\text{cm}}^2$ and ${\sigma }_{\text{DM}-\nu }^0\gtrsim 2.5\times 10^{-47}\left(m_{\text{DM}}/\text{GeV}\right){\text{cm}}^2$ for cross sections scaling as temperature squared, coinciding with the parameter regions in which late kinetic decoupling may serve as a solution to the small-scale crisis. Furthermore, these $\mu$-distortion signals differ from those of warm dark matter (no deviation from $\Lambda$CDM) and a suppressed primordial power spectrum (strongly suppressed or a negative $\mu$-parameter), demonstrating that CMB spectral distortion can potentially be used to distinguish between solutions to the small-scale crisis.

arXiv commentV2: added references, minor edits, matches published version

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