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Comparison of Low-Redshift Lyman-α Forest Observations to Hydrodynamical Simulations with Dark Photon Dark Matter

James S. Bolton, Andrea Caputo, Hongwan Liu, and Matteo Viel
Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 211102 – Published 18 November 2022
Physics logo See Focus story: Dark Matter as an Intergalactic Heat Source

Abstract

Recent work has suggested that an additional 6.9eV per baryon of heating in the intergalactic medium is needed to reconcile hydrodynamical simulations with Lyman-α forest absorption line widths at redshift z0.1. Resonant conversion of dark photon dark matter into low frequency photons is a viable source of such heating. We perform the first hydrodynamical simulations including dark photon heating and show that dark photons with mass mA8×1014eVc2 and kinetic mixing ε5×1015 can alleviate the heating excess. A prediction of this model is a nonstandard thermal history for underdense gas at z3.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 6 July 2022
  • Revised 13 September 2022
  • Accepted 13 October 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.211102

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Particles & FieldsGravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Focus

Key Image

Dark Matter as an Intergalactic Heat Source

Published 18 November 2022

Spectra from quasars suggest that intergalactic gas may have been heated by a form of dark matter called dark photons.

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Authors & Affiliations

James S. Bolton1,*, Andrea Caputo2,3,†, Hongwan Liu4,5,‡, and Matteo Viel6,7,8,9,§

  • 1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
  • 2School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel
  • 3Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
  • 4Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, Department of Physics, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
  • 5Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 08544, USA
  • 6SISSA—International School for Advanced Studies, Via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, Italy
  • 7IFPU, Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe, Via Beirut 2, I-34151 Trieste, Italy
  • 8INFN, Sezione di Trieste, Via Valerio 2, I-34127 Trieste, Italy
  • 9INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Via G. B. Tiepolo 11, I-34143 Trieste, Italy

  • *james.bolton@nottingham.ac.uk
  • andreacaputo@mail.tau.ac.il
  • hongwanl@princeton.edu
  • §viel@sissa.it

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Issue

Vol. 129, Iss. 21 — 18 November 2022

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