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Ultracompact Minihalos as Probes of Inflationary Cosmology

Grigor Aslanyan, Layne C. Price, Jenni Adams, Torsten Bringmann, Hamish A. Clark, Richard Easther, Geraint F. Lewis, and Pat Scott
Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 141102 – Published 28 September 2016
Physics logo See Viewpoint: Cosmic Clues from Mini Clumps of Dark Matter

Abstract

Cosmological inflation generates primordial density perturbations on all scales, including those far too small to contribute to the cosmic microwave background. At these scales, isolated ultracompact minihalos of dark matter can form well before standard structure formation, if the perturbations have sufficient amplitude. Minihalos affect pulsar timing data and are potentially bright sources of gamma rays. The resulting constraints significantly extend the observable window of inflation in the presence of cold dark matter, coupling two of the key problems in modern cosmology.

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  • Received 29 December 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.141102

© 2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

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Cosmic Clues from Mini Clumps of Dark Matter

Published 28 September 2016

Searches for ultracompact clumps of cold dark matter have come up empty, but these nondetections place new limits on the early expansion history of the Universe.

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Authors & Affiliations

Grigor Aslanyan1,2,*, Layne C. Price1,3,†, Jenni Adams4,‡, Torsten Bringmann5,§, Hamish A. Clark6,∥, Richard Easther1,¶, Geraint F. Lewis7,**, and Pat Scott8,††

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019 Auckland, New Zealand
  • 2Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 3McWilliams Center for Cosmology, Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA
  • 4Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
  • 5Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Box 1048 NO-0316 Oslo, Norway
  • 6Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics A28, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia
  • 7Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics A28, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia
  • 8Department of Physics, Imperial College London, Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom

  • *aslanyan@berkeley.edu
  • laynep@andrew.cmu.edu
  • jenni.adams@canterbury.ac.nz
  • §torsten.bringmann@fys.uio.no
  • hamish.clark@sydney.edu.au
  • r.easther@auckland.ac.nz
  • **geraint.lewis@sydney.edu.au
  • ††p.scott@imperial.ac.uk

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Issue

Vol. 117, Iss. 14 — 30 September 2016

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