Bounds on Dark-Matter Annihilations from 21-cm Data

2018/03/31 by Guido D'Amico, Guido D’Amico, Paolo Panci +2 · 109 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Absorption (acoustics) #Annihilation #Astrophysics #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Feature (linguistics) #Galaxy #Intergalactic medium #Intergalactic travel #Observable #Optics #Particle physics #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #Range (aeronautics) #Redshift #Scientific Research and Discoveries #astro-ph.CO #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.121.011103

published in Physical Review Letters 121(1), 011103 (American Physical Society) · 8 pages. v2: improved treatment of energy deposition

openalex created_date 2018/03/29 · arxiv created 2018/04/24 · openalex publication_date 2018/07/02 · arxiv updated 2018/07/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

The observation of an absorption feature in the 21-cm spectrum at redshift z≈17 implies bounds on dark-matter (DM) annihilations for a broad range of masses, given that significant heating of the intergalactic medium would have erased such a feature. The resulting bounds on the DM annihilation cross sections are comparable to the strongest ones from all other observables.

Citations

• Cosmology at Low Frequencies: The 21 cm Transition and the High-Redshift Universe
• Possible interaction between baryons and dark-matter particles revealed by the first stars
• An absorption profile centred at 78 megahertz in the sky-averaged spectrum
• Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters

Cited by

• Imprints of energy injection by compact dark stars in the 21-cm signal