On dark matter - dark radiation interaction and cosmic reionization

Abstract

An intriguing possibility for the dark sector of our universe is that the dark matter particle could interact with a dark radiation component. If the non-gravitational interactions of the dark matter and dark radiation species with Standard Model particles are highly suppressed, then astrophysics and cosmology could be our only windows into probing the dynamics of such a dark sector. It is well known that such dark sectors would lead to suppression of small scale structure, which would be constrained by measurements of the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest. In this work we consider the cosmological signatures of such dark sectors on the reionization history of our universe. Working within the "ETHOS" (effective theory of structure formation) framework, we show that if such a dark sector exists in our universe, the suppression of low mass dark matter halos would also reduce the total number of ionizing photons, thus affecting the reionization history of our universe. We place constraints on the interaction strengths within such dark sectors by using the measured value of the optical depth from the Planck satellite, as well as from demanding a successful reionization history. We compare and contrast such scenarios with warm dark matter scenarios which also suppress structure formation on small scales. In a model where dark matter interacts with a sterile neutrino, we find a bound on the ETHOS parameter $a_4\lesssim 1.2\times 10^6{\text{ Mpc}}^{-1}$. For warm dark matter models, we constrain the mass $m_{\text{WDM}}\gtrsim 0.7\text{ keV}$, which is comparable to bounds obtained from Lyman-$\alpha$ measurements. Future 21-cm experiments will measure the global history of reionization and the neutral hydrogen power spectrum, which could either lead to stronger constraints or discovery of secret dark sector interactions.

28 pages, 8 figures, v3 - Journal version

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Cited by in corpus (21)

• Alleviating the $H_0$ and ${\sigma }_8$ anomalies with a decaying dark matter model
• Constraining Dark Matter -- Dark Radiation interactions with CMB, BAO, and Lyman-$\alpha$
• Probing the Small-Scale Matter Power Spectrum with Large-Scale 21-cm Data
• The full Boltzmann hierarchy for dark matter-massive neutrino interactions
• Dark Matter microphysics and 21 cm observations
• ETHOS - an Effective Theory of Structure Formation: detecting dark matter interactions through the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest
• Constraints on the epoch of dark matter formation from Milky Way satellites
• Astrophysical Tests of Dark Matter Self-Interactions
• The Epoch of Reionization 21-cm Bispectrum: The impact of light-cone effects and detectability
• Dark acoustic oscillations: Imprints on the matter power spectrum and the halo mass function
• Impact of dark matter models on the EoR 21-cm signal bispectrum
• Probing dark matter interactions with 21cm observations
• Non-thermal neutrino-like hot dark matter in light of the $S_8$ tension
• Early-time thermalization of cosmic components? A hint for solving cosmic tensions
• Gravitational-wave event rates as a new probe for dark matter microphysics
• Is it Mixed dark matter or neutrino masses?
• Clues to the nature of dark matter from first galaxies
• DESI forecast for Dark Matter-Neutrino interactions using EFTofLSS
• What can we learn about Reionization astrophysical parameters using Gaussian Process Regression?
• 21 cm Cosmology Sensitivity to Small-Scale Structure: Warm vs Neutrino-Interacting Dark Matter
• Dark Matter Self Interactions and its Impact on Large Scale Structures