Hints of dark photon dark matter from observations and hydrodynamical simulations of the low-redshift Lyman-$\alpha$ forest

Abstract

Recent work has suggested that an additional $\lesssim 6.9\mathrm{eV}$ per baryon of heating in the intergalactic medium is needed to reconcile hydrodynamical simulations with Lyman-$\alpha$ forest absorption line widths at redshift $z\simeq 0.1$. Resonant conversion of dark photon dark matter into low frequency photons is a viable source of such heating. We perform the first hydrodynamical simulations including dark photon heating and show that dark photons with mass $m_{A^{\prime }}\sim 8\times 10^{-14}\mathrm{eV}{\mathrm{c}}^{-2}$ and kinetic mixing $\epsilon \sim 5\times 10^{-15}$ can alleviate the heating excess. A prediction of this model is a non-standard thermal history for underdense gas at $z\gtrsim 3$.

arXiv comment5+1 pages, 2+1 figures

References in corpus (80)

• Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters
• The cosmological simulation code GADGET-2
• Efficient Computation of CMB anisotropies in closed FRW models
• Constraining Warm Dark Matter candidates including sterile neutrinos and light gravitinos with WMAP and the Lyman-alpha forest
• WISPy Cold Dark Matter
• Warm Dark Matter as a solution to the small scale crisis: new constraints from high redshift Lyman-alpha forest data
• First constraints on fuzzy dark matter from Lyman-$\alpha$ forest data and hydrodynamical simulations
• Vector Dark Matter from Inflationary Fluctuations
• Lyman-alpha constraints on warm and on warm-plus-cold dark matter models
• The thermal history of the intergalactic medium
• Non-adiabatic Level Crossing in Resonant Neutrino Oscillations
• Dark Light, Dark Matter and the Misalignment Mechanism
• The Evolution of the Intergalactic Medium
• Detection of Extended He II Reionization in the Temperature Evolution of the Intergalactic Medium
• Naturally Light Hidden Photons in LARGE Volume String Compactifications
• Strong bound on canonical ultra-light axion dark matter from the Lyman-alpha forest
• Kinetic Mixing of the Photon with Hidden U(1)s in String Phenomenology
• Black Hole Superradiance Signatures of Ultralight Vectors
• Constraining the mass of light bosonic dark matter using SDSS Lyman-$\alpha$ forest
• Dark photon limits: a handbook
• Direct Detection Constraints on Dark Photon Dark Matter
• Relic Abundance of Dark Photon Dark Matter
• Constraining the mass of dark photons and axion-like particles through black-hole superradiance
• The Evolution of the Effective Equation of State of the IGM
• Lyman-alpha Constraints on Ultralight Scalar Dark Matter: Implications for the Early and Late Universe
• Dark Photon Dark Matter Produced by Axion Oscillations
• Massive hidden photons as lukewarm dark matter
• Lyman-alpha Forest Constraints on the Mass of Warm Dark Matter and the Shape of the Linear Power Spectrum
• Parametric Resonance Production of Ultralight Vector Dark Matter
• An HST/COS Survey of the Low-Redshift IGM. I. Survey, Methodology, & Overall Results
• Consistent modelling of the meta-galactic UV background and the thermal/ionization history of the intergalactic medium
• Vector dark matter production at the end of inflation
• The Sherwood simulation suite: overview and data comparisons with the Lyman-alpha forest at redshifts 2 < z < 5
• New Constraints on IGM Thermal Evolution from the Lyα Forest Power Spectrum
• Brane-Antibrane Kinetic Mixing, Millicharged Particles and SUSY Breaking
• The Darkest Hour Before Dawn: Contributions to Cosmic Reionization from Dark Matter Annihilation and Decay
• A Measurement of Small Scale Structure in the 2.2 < z < 4.2 Lyman-alpha Forest
• Possible evidence for an inverted temperature-density relation in the intergalactic medium from the flux distribution of the Lyman-alpha forest
• Microwave Background Constraints on Mixing of Photons with Hidden Photons
• 21cm Limits on Decaying Dark Matter and Primordial Black Holes
• Illuminating the Hidden Sector of String Theory by Shining Light through a Magnetic Field
• Dark Photon Dark Matter from a Network of Cosmic Strings
• Cosmological Constraints on Very Dark Photons
• Constraints on Dark Matter annihilations from reionization and heating of the intergalactic gas
• Too Hot, Too Cold or Just Right? Implications of a 21-cm Signal for Dark Matter Annihilation and Decay
• Lyman-$\alpha$ forest constraints on Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter
• The Cosmological Evolution of Light Dark Photon Dark Matter
• Dark Photon Oscillations in Our Inhomogeneous Universe
• Bounds on Dark Matter annihilations from 21 cm data
• The thermal history of the intergalactic medium down to redshift z=1.5: a new curvature measurement
• A consistent and robust measurement of the thermal state of the IGM at $2\le z\le 4$ from a large sample of Ly$\alpha$ forest spectra: Evidence for late and rapid HeII reionization
• Constraining dark matter late-time energy injection: decays and p-wave annihilations
• Green's function of the cosmological thermalization problem II: effect of photon injection and constraints
• Bounds on Dark Matter decay from 21 cm line
• A New Measurement of the Temperature Density Relation of the IGM From Voigt Profile Fitting
• Unveiling the nature of dark matter with high redshift 21 cm line experiments
• Aspects of Nonlinear Effect on Black Hole Superradiance
• The 21 cm signal and the interplay between dark matter annihilations and astrophysical processes
• The impact of EDGES 21-cm data on dark matter interactions
• VoIgt profile Parameter Estimation Routine (VIPER): H I photoionization rate at z<0.5
• Dark Photon Dark Matter in the Presence of Inhomogeneous Structure
• Late-time decaying dark matter: constraints and implications for the $H_0$-tension
• Lyman-$\alpha$ Constraints on Cosmic Heating from Dark Matter Annihilation and Decay
• Electromagnetic Signatures of Dark Photon Superradiance
• Diagnosing galactic feedback with the line broadening in the low redshift Lyman-alpha forest
• Light hidden-sector U(1)s in string compactifications
• Modeling Dark Photon Oscillations in Our Inhomogeneous Universe
• Exploring the Thermal State of the Low-Density Intergalactic Medium at z=3 with an Ultra-High Signal-to-Noise QSO Spectrum
• Inferring the Thermal History of the Intergalactic Medium from the Properties of the Hydrogen and Helium Lyman-alpha Forest
• Constraints on hidden photons from current and future observations of CMB spectral distortions
• Turbulence in the Intergalactic Medium
• Turbulence driven by structure formation in the circum-galactic medium
• Constraints on Dark Matter-Baryon Scattering from the Temperature Evolution of the Intergalactic Medium
• Limits on non-canonical heating and turbulence in the intergalactic medium from the low redshift Lyman-alpha forest
• Thermal state of the intergalactic medium at $z\sim 2-4$
• The low redshift Lyman-$\alpha$ Forest as a constraint for models of AGN feedback
• The evolution of the low-density HI intergalactic medium from z=3.6 to 0: Data, transmitted flux and HI column density
• Dark photon superradiance quenched by dark matter
• Constraining Light Dark Photons from GW190517 and GW190426_152155
• The End of the Rainbow: What Can We Say About the Extragalactic Sub-Megahertz Radio Sky?

Cited by in corpus (8)

• The CosmoVerse White Paper: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics
• Structure Formation Paradigm and Axion Quark Nugget dark matter model
• Dark Matter in Fractional Gravity I: Astrophysical Tests on Galactic Scales
• Stronger Constraints on Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter Derived from the Thermal Evolution of the Intergalactic Medium over the Last Twelve Billion Years
• Hunting Primordial Black Hole Dark Matter in Lyman-$\alpha$ Forest
• Probing new fundamental fields with Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals
• Scalar-Magnetometer Search for Ultralight Dark Photon Dark Matter with a Single-Site, Two-Sensor Array: A 6-Channel DTFT Likelihood Analysis with Scalar Optically Pumped Magnetometers
• The Dark Photon: a 2026 Perspective