Decaying warm dark matter and structure formation

Abstract

We examine the cosmology of warm dark matter (WDM), both stable and decaying, from the point of view of structure formation. We compare the matter power spectrum associated to WDM masses of 1.5 keV and 0.158 keV, with that expected for the stable cold dark matter $\Lambda$CDM$\equiv$SCDM paradigm, taken as our reference model. We scrutinize the effects associated to the warm nature of dark matter, as well as the fact that it decays. The decaying warm dark matter (DWDM) scenario is well-motivated, emerging in a broad class of particle physics theories where neutrino masses arise from the spontaneous breaking of a continuous global lepton number symmetry. The majoron arises as a Nambu-Goldstone boson, and picks up a mass from gravitational effects, that explicitly violate global symmetries. The majoron necessarily decays to neutrinos, with an amplitude proportional to their tiny mass, which typically gives it cosmologically long lifetimes. Using N-body simulations we show that our DWDM picture leads to a viable alternative to the $\Lambda$CDM scenario, with predictions that can differ substantially on small scales.

arXiv commentV2: 28 pages, 11 figures. Replaced to match published version

References in corpus (43)

• The cosmological simulation code GADGET-2
• Particle Dark Matter: Evidence, Candidates and Constraints
• Toward a halo mass function for precision cosmology: the limits of universality
• Ultralight scalars as cosmological dark matter
• Small-Scale Challenges to the $\Lambda$CDM Paradigm
• Verifiable Radiative Seesaw Mechanism of Neutrino Mass and Dark Matter
• Halo Formation in Warm Dark Matter Models
• Power Spectra for Cold Dark Matter and its Variants
• Ahf: Amiga's Halo Finder
• Transients from Initial Conditions in Cosmological Simulations
• New Constraints on the free-streaming of warm dark matter from intermediate and small scale Lyman-$\alpha$ forest data
• Cold dark matter: controversies on small scales
• The properties of warm dark matter haloes
• The effects of galaxy formation on the matter power spectrum: A challenge for precision cosmology
• Effects of Baryons and Dissipation on the Matter Power Spectrum
• The Impact of Baryonic Physics on the Structure of Dark Matter Halos: the View from the FIRE Cosmological Simulations
• Nonlinear Evolution of Cosmological Structures in Warm Dark Matter Models
• Halo mass function: Baryon impact, fitting formulae and implications for cluster cosmology
• Discreteness effects in simulations of Hot/Warm dark matter
• Lyman-alpha Forests cool Warm Dark Matter
• Lyman-alpha Forest Constraints on the Mass of Warm Dark Matter and the Shape of the Linear Power Spectrum
• The KeV Majoron as Dark Matter Particle
• Decaying warm dark matter and neutrino masses
• Strongest model-independent bound on the lifetime of Dark Matter
• The effects of baryons on the halo mass function
• Discrete dark matter
• Decaying dark matter and the tension in ${\sigma }_8$
• The impact of baryonic physics on the subhalo mass function and implications for gravitational lensing
• WIMP dark matter as radiative neutrino mass messenger
• Two-loop Dirac neutrino mass and WIMP dark matter
• Dirac Neutrinos and Dark Matter Stability from Lepton Quarticity
• Accurate estimators of power spectra in N-body simulations
• Gamma-ray detection from gravitino dark matter decay in the $\mu \nu$SSM
• The Effect of Gas Physics on the Halo Mass Function
• Updated CMB, X- and gamma-ray constraints on majoron dark matter
• X-ray photons from late-decaying majoron dark matter
• The Importance of Quantum Pressure of Fuzzy Dark Matter on Lyman-Alpha Forest
• Consistency of WIMP Dark Matter as radiative neutrino mass messenger
• Connecting neutrino physics with dark matter
• Gravitino dark matter and neutrino masses with bilinear R-parity violation
• Top-Down Fragmentation of a Warm Dark Matter Filament
• Predictive Discrete Dark Matter Model
• The Effect of Thermal Velocities on Structure Formation in N-body Simulations of Warm Dark Matter

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Large-scale dark matter simulations
• NuSTAR Tests of Sterile-Neutrino Dark Matter: New Galactic Bulge Observations and Combined Impact
• The symmetry approach to quark and lepton masses and mixing
• Gravitational footprints of massive neutrinos and lepton number breaking
• Light majoron cold dark matter from topological defects and the formation of boson stars
• Scotogenic Dark Symmetry as a residual subgroup of Standard Model Symmetries
• Probing multi-step electroweak phase transition with multi-peaked primordial gravitational waves spectra
• Spontaneous Breaking of Lepton Number and Cosmological Domain Wall Problem
• Consistency of the dynamical high-scale type-I seesaw mechanism
• Dynamical inverse seesaw mechanism as a simple benchmark for electroweak breaking and Higgs boson studies
• Electroweak Breaking and Higgs Boson Profile in the Simplest Linear Seesaw Model
• Dark matter as the source of neutrino mass: theory overview and experimental prospects
• FIMP Dark Matter in bulk viscous non-standard cosmologies