Can sterile neutrinos be the dark matter?

Details Can sterile neutrinos be the dark matter? Can sterile neutrinos be the dark matter?

2006-02-20

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0602430v1

Phys.Rev.Lett.97:191303,2006

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PRL

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.191303

We use the Ly-alpha forest power spectrum measured by the SDSS and high-resolution spectroscopy observations in combination with cosmic microwave background and galaxy clustering constraints to place limits on a sterile neutrino as a dark matter candidate in the warm dark matter (WDM) scenario. Such a neutrino would be created in the early universe through mixing with an active neutrino and would suppress structure on scales smaller than its free streaming scale. We ran a series of high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations with varying neutrino mass to describe the effect of a sterile neutrino on the Ly-alpha forest power spectrum. We find that the mass limit is m_s >14 keV at 95% c.l. (10keV at 99.9%), which is nearly an order of magnitude tighter constraint than previously published limits and is above the upper limit allowed by X-ray constraints, excluding this candidate as dark matter in this model. The corresponding limit for a neutrino that decoupled early while in thermal equilibrium is 2.5keV (95% c.l.).

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