2018/03/31 by Mohammadtaher Safarzadeh, Evan Scannapieco, Arif Babul · 46 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Ages #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Halo #Limit (mathematics) #Lyman limit #Redshift #Reionization #Star formation #Stars #Warm dark matter #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aac5e0
published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters 859(2), L18 (IOP Publishing) · Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters
openalex created_date 2018/03/29 · arxiv created 2018/05/16 · openalex publication_date 2018/05/29 · arxiv updated 2018/06/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract The recent Experiment to Detect the Global Epoch of Reionization Signature (EDGES) collaboration detection of an absorption signal at a central frequency of ν = 78 ± 1 MHz points to the presence of a significant Ly α background by a redshift of z = 18. The timing of this signal constrains the dark matter particle mass ( m χ ) in the warm dark matter (WDM) cosmological model. WDM delays the formation of small-scale structures, and therefore a stringent lower limit can be placed on m χ based on the presence of a sufficiently strong Ly α background due to star formation at z = 18. Our results show that coupling the spin temperature to the gas through Ly α pumping requires a minimum mass of m χ > 3 keV if atomic cooling halos dominate the star formation rate at z = 18, and m χ > 2 keV if cooling halos also form stars efficiently at this redshift. These limits match or exceed the most stringent limits cited to date in the literature, even in the face of the many uncertainties regarding star formation at high redshift.