Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2005-08-19
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.364:2-12,2005
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
13 pages, 9 figures, replaced with revised version, accepted for publication in MNRAS
Scientific paper
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09507.x
Sterile neutrinos are one of the most promising Warm Dark Matter candidates. By considering their radiative- and pion-decay channels, we derive the allowed contribution of sterile neutrinos to the X-ray, optical and near-infrared cosmic backgrounds. The X-ray background puts a strong constraint on the mass of radiatively decaying neutrinos (m <= 14 keV), whereas the allowed mass range for pion-decay neutrinos (for a particle lifetime > 4 X 10^17 s) is 150 <= m/MeV <= 500. Taking into account these constraints, we find that sterile neutrinos do not significantly contribute to the optical and near-infrared background. We further consider the impact of sterile neutrinos on reionization. We find that the Thomson optical depth due to sterile neutrinos is tau_e = (0.4-3) X 10^-2 in the case of radiative decays, and it is ~10^-3 for the pion-decay channel. We conclude that these particles must have played only a minor role in cosmic reionization history.
Ferrara Andrea
Mapelli Michela
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