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Keeley RE, Nierenberg AM, Gilman D, Birrer S, Benson A, Treu T. Pushing the limits of detectability: mixed dark matter from strong gravitational lenses. MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 2023; 524:6159-6166. [PMID: 37559879 PMCID: PMC10408735 DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stad2251] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Revised: 07/19/2023] [Accepted: 07/19/2023] [Indexed: 08/11/2023]
Abstract
One of the frontiers for advancing what is known about dark matter lies in using strong gravitational lenses to characterize the population of the smallest dark matter haloes. There is a large volume of information in strong gravitational lens images - the question we seek to answer is to what extent we can refine this information. To this end, we forecast the detectability of a mixed warm and cold dark matter scenario using the anomalous flux ratio method from strong gravitational lensed images. The halo mass function of the mixed dark matter scenario is suppressed relative to cold dark matter but still predicts numerous low-mass dark matter haloes relative to warm dark matter. Since the strong lensing signal receives a contribution from a range of dark matter halo masses and since the signal is sensitive to the specific configuration of dark matter haloes, not just the halo mass function, degeneracies between different forms of suppression in the halo mass function, relative to cold dark matter, can arise. We find that, with a set of lenses with different configurations of the main deflector and hence different sensitivities to different mass ranges of the halo mass function, the different forms of suppression of the halo mass function between the warm dark matter model and the mixed dark matter model can be distinguished with 40 lenses with Bayesian odds of 30:1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan E Keeley
- Department of Physics, University of California Merced, 5200 North Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343, USA
| | - Anna M Nierenberg
- Department of Physics, University of California Merced, 5200 North Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343, USA
| | - Daniel Gilman
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada
| | - Simon Birrer
- Department of Physics, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
| | - Andrew Benson
- Carnegie Institution for Science, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA
| | - Tommaso Treu
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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Zelko IA, Treu T, Abazajian KN, Gilman D, Benson AJ, Birrer S, Nierenberg AM, Kusenko A. Constraints on Sterile Neutrino Models from Strong Gravitational Lensing, Milky Way Satellites, and the Lyman-α Forest. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2022; 129:191301. [PMID: 36399727 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.129.191301] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2022] [Revised: 08/03/2022] [Accepted: 09/20/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
The nature of dark matter is one of the most important unsolved questions in science. Some darkf matter candidates do not have sufficient nongravitational interactions to be probed in laboratory or accelerator experiments. It is thus important to develop astrophysical probes which can constrain or lead to a discovery of such candidates. We illustrate this using state-of-the-art measurements of strong gravitationally lensed quasars to constrain four of the most popular sterile neutrino models, and also report the constraints for other independent methods that are comparable in procedure. First, we derive effective relations to describe the correspondence between the mass of a thermal relic warm dark matter particle and the mass of sterile neutrinos produced via Higgs decay and grand unified theory (GUT)-scale scenarios, in terms of large-scale structure and galaxy formation astrophysical effects. Second, we show that sterile neutrinos produced through the Higgs decay mechanism are allowed only for mass >26 keV, and GUT-scale scenario >5.3 keV. Third, we show that the single sterile neutrino model produced through active neutrino oscillations is allowed for mass >92 keV, and the three sterile neutrino minimal standard model (νMSM) for mass >16 keV. These are the most stringent experimental limits on these models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ioana A Zelko
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, 475 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - Tommaso Treu
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, 475 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - Kevork N Abazajian
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA
| | - Daniel Gilman
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3H4, Canada
| | - Andrew J Benson
- Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, California 91101, USA
| | - Simon Birrer
- Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
| | - Anna M Nierenberg
- University of California Merced, Department of Physics 5200 North Lake Road, Merced, California 95343, USA
| | - Alexander Kusenko
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, 475 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
- Kavli IPMU (WPI), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan
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Abstract
Extending the standard model with three right-handed neutrinos and a simple QCD axion sector can account for neutrino oscillations, dark matter and baryon asymmetry; at the same time, it solves the strong CP problem, stabilizes the electroweak vacuum and can implement critical Higgs inflation (satisfying all current observational bounds). We perform here a general analysis of dark matter (DM) in such a model, which we call the aνMSM. Although critical Higgs inflation features a (quasi) inflection point of the inflaton potential, we show that DM cannot receive a contribution from primordial black holes in the aνMSM. This leads to a multicomponent axion–sterile neutrino DM and allows us to relate the axion parameters, such as the axion decay constant, to the neutrino parameters. We include several DM production mechanisms: the axion production via misalignment and decay of topological defects as well as the sterile neutrino production through the resonant and non-resonant mechanisms and in the recently proposed CPT-symmetric universe.
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Foster JW, Kongsore M, Dessert C, Park Y, Rodd NL, Cranmer K, Safdi BR. Deep Search for Decaying Dark Matter with XMM-Newton Blank-Sky Observations. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2021; 127:051101. [PMID: 34397235 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.127.051101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Revised: 04/30/2021] [Accepted: 07/09/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Sterile neutrinos with masses in the keV range are well-motivated extensions to the Standard Model that could explain the observed neutrino masses while also making up the dark matter (DM) of the universe. If sterile neutrinos are DM then they may slowly decay into active neutrinos and photons, giving rise to the possibility of their detection through narrow spectral features in astrophysical x-ray data sets. In this Letter, we perform the most sensitive search to date for this and other decaying DM scenarios across the mass range from 5 to 16 keV using archival XMM-Newton data. We reduce 547 Ms of data from both the MOS and PN instruments using observations taken across the full sky and then use this data to search for evidence of DM decay in the ambient halo of the Milky Way. We determine the instrumental and astrophysical baselines with data taken far away from the Galactic Center, and use Gaussian process modeling to capture additional continuum background contributions. No evidence is found for unassociated x-ray lines, leading us to produce the strongest constraints to date on decaying DM in this mass range.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua W Foster
- Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
- Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
| | - Marius Kongsore
- Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
| | - Christopher Dessert
- Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
- Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
| | - Yujin Park
- Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
- Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
| | - Nicholas L Rodd
- Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
| | - Kyle Cranmer
- Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Benjamin R Safdi
- Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
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