Natural explanation for 21cm absorption signals via axion-induced cooling

Abstract

The EDGES Collaboration has reported an anomalously strong 21cm absorption feature corresponding to the era of first star formation, which may indirectly betray the influence of dark matter during this epoch. We demonstrate that, by virtue of the ability to mediate cooling processes whilst in the condensed phase, a small amount of axion dark matter can explain these observations within the context of standard models of axions and axion-like-particles. The EDGES best-fit result favours an axion-like-particles mass in the (10, 450) meV range, which can be compressed for the QCD axion to (100, 450) meV in the absence of fine tuning. Future experiments and large scale surveys, particularly the International Axion Observatory (IAXO) and EUCLID, should have the capability to directly test this scenario.

arXiv comment5 pages, 2 figures. v3: updated to match version appearing in Phys. Rev. Lett

References in corpus (22)

• An absorption profile centred at 78 megahertz in the sky-averaged spectrum
• Experimental Searches for the Axion and Axion-like Particles
• A New Calculation of the Recombination Epoch
• Possible interaction between baryons and dark-matter particles revealed by the first stars
• Bose-Einstein Condensation of Dark Matter Axions
• Conceptual Design of the International Axion Observatory (IAXO)
• Insights on Dark Matter from Hydrogen during Cosmic Dawn
• Do Dark Matter Axions Form a Condensate with Long-Range Correlation?
• Severely Constraining Dark Matter Interpretations of the 21-cm Anomaly
• Redefining the Axion Window
• Cosmic axion thermalization
• Axion hot dark matter bounds after Planck
• Astrophobic Axions
• Axions: Bose Einstein Condensate or Classical Field?
• Axion-Photon Conversion and Effects on 21cm Observation
• Can Early Dark Energy Explain EDGES?
• Axion Dark Matter and Cosmological Parameters
• Bose Einstein condensation of the classical axion field in cosmology?
• Future cosmological sensitivity for hot dark matter axions
• Evolution and thermalization of dark matter axions in the condensed regime
• Constraints on Variant Axion Models
• Gravitational self-interactions of a degenerate quantum scalar field

Cited by in corpus (22)

• Dawn of the dark: unified dark sectors and the EDGES Cosmic Dawn 21-cm signal
• Results from EDGES High-Band: III. New Constraints on Parameters of the Early Universe
• Inflation and Early Dark Energy with a Stage II Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment
• Implications of the possible 21-cm line excess at cosmic dawn on dynamics of interacting dark energy
• On the contamination of the global 21~cm signal from polarized foregrounds
• Axion-photon mixing in quantum field theory and vacuum energy
• Viscous dark matter and 21 cm cosmology
• Lunar Orbit Measurement of Cosmic Dawn 21 cm Global Spectrum
• Probing axion mediated fermion--fermion interaction by means of entanglement
• Probing Interacting Dark Energy and Scattering of Baryons with Dark Matter in Light of EDGES 21cm Signal
• Constraints on ALPs and excited dark matter from the EDGES 21-cm absorption signal
• Constraints on the electron-to-proton mass ratio variation at the epoch of reionization
• Constraining structure formation using EDGES
• Two-component millicharged dark matter and the EDGES 21cm signal
• Constraining the non-gravitational scattering of baryons and dark matter with early cosmic structure formation
• A strong broadband 21 cm cosmological signal from dark matter spin-flip interactions
• Lightening the Dark Matter from its Viscosity and Explanation of EDGES Anomaly
• Searching for long-lived light neutralinos and axionlike particles at the SHiNESS experiment
• The Hydrogen Mixing Portal, Its Origins, and Its Cosmological Effects
• Sensitivities on non-spinning and spinning primordial black hole dark matter with global 21 cm troughs
• Constraining D-foam via the 21-cm Line
• Probing charged lepton flavor violation with axion-like particles at Belle II