Abstract
We show that dark matter emerging from late decays () produces a linear power spectrum identical to that of cold dark matter (CDM) on all observationally relevant scales (), and simultaneously generates observable constant-density cores in small dark matter halos. We refer to this class of models as meta-cold dark matter (), because it is born with nonrelativistic velocities from the decays of cold thermal relics. The constant-density cores are a result of the low phase-space density of at birth. Warm dark matter cannot produce similar size phase-space limited cores without saturating the power spectrum bounds. Dark matter-dominated galaxy rotation curves and stellar velocity dispersion profiles may provide the best means to discriminate between and CDM. candidates are motivated by the particle spectrum of supersymmetric and extra dimensional extensions to the standard model of particle physics.
- Received 17 June 2006
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.75.061303
©2007 American Physical Society