First constraints on fuzzy dark matter from Lyman-alpha forest data and hydrodynamical simulations
We present constraints on the masses of extremely light bosons dubbed fuzzy dark matter from Lyman- α forest data. Extremely light bosons with a De Broglie wavelength of ~ 1 kpc have been suggested as dark matter candidates that may resolve some of the current small scale problems of the cold dark m...
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| Format: | Article |
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American Physical Society
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44069/ |
| _version_ | 1848796829877010432 |
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| author | Irsic, Vid Viel, Matteo Haehnelt, Martin G. Bolton, James S. Becker, George D. |
| author_facet | Irsic, Vid Viel, Matteo Haehnelt, Martin G. Bolton, James S. Becker, George D. |
| author_sort | Irsic, Vid |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | We present constraints on the masses of extremely light bosons dubbed fuzzy dark matter from Lyman- α forest data. Extremely light bosons with a De Broglie wavelength of ~ 1 kpc have been suggested as dark matter candidates that may resolve some of the current small scale problems of the cold dark matter model. For the first time we use hydrodynamical simulations to model the Lyman- α flux power spectrum in these models and compare with the observed flux power spectrum from two different data sets: the XQ-100 and HIRES/MIKE quasar spectra samples. After marginalization over nuisance and physical parameters and with conservative assumptions for the thermal history of the IGM that allow for jumps in the temperature of up to 5000 K, XQ-100 provides a lower limit of 7.1 x 10 -22 eV, HIRES/MIKE returns a stronger limit of 14.3 x 10 -22 eV, while the combination of both data sets results in a limit of 20 x 10 -22 eV (2σ C.L.). The limits for the analysis of the combined data sets increases to 37.5 x 10 -22 eV (2σ C.L.) when a smoother thermal history is assumed where the temperature of the IGM evolves as a power-law in redshift. Light boson masses in the range 1 - 10 x 10 -22 eV are ruled out at high significance by our analysis, casting strong doubts on suggestions of significant strophysical implications of FDM, in particular for solving the "small scale crisis" of cold dark matter models |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:54:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-44069 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:54:12Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-440692020-05-04T18:56:26Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44069/ First constraints on fuzzy dark matter from Lyman-alpha forest data and hydrodynamical simulations Irsic, Vid Viel, Matteo Haehnelt, Martin G. Bolton, James S. Becker, George D. We present constraints on the masses of extremely light bosons dubbed fuzzy dark matter from Lyman- α forest data. Extremely light bosons with a De Broglie wavelength of ~ 1 kpc have been suggested as dark matter candidates that may resolve some of the current small scale problems of the cold dark matter model. For the first time we use hydrodynamical simulations to model the Lyman- α flux power spectrum in these models and compare with the observed flux power spectrum from two different data sets: the XQ-100 and HIRES/MIKE quasar spectra samples. After marginalization over nuisance and physical parameters and with conservative assumptions for the thermal history of the IGM that allow for jumps in the temperature of up to 5000 K, XQ-100 provides a lower limit of 7.1 x 10 -22 eV, HIRES/MIKE returns a stronger limit of 14.3 x 10 -22 eV, while the combination of both data sets results in a limit of 20 x 10 -22 eV (2σ C.L.). The limits for the analysis of the combined data sets increases to 37.5 x 10 -22 eV (2σ C.L.) when a smoother thermal history is assumed where the temperature of the IGM evolves as a power-law in redshift. Light boson masses in the range 1 - 10 x 10 -22 eV are ruled out at high significance by our analysis, casting strong doubts on suggestions of significant strophysical implications of FDM, in particular for solving the "small scale crisis" of cold dark matter models American Physical Society 2017-07-20 Article PeerReviewed Irsic, Vid, Viel, Matteo, Haehnelt, Martin G., Bolton, James S. and Becker, George D. (2017) First constraints on fuzzy dark matter from Lyman-alpha forest data and hydrodynamical simulations. Physical Review Letters, 119 (3). 031302/1-031302/7. ISSN 1079-7114 https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.031302 doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.031302 doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.031302 |
| spellingShingle | Irsic, Vid Viel, Matteo Haehnelt, Martin G. Bolton, James S. Becker, George D. First constraints on fuzzy dark matter from Lyman-alpha forest data and hydrodynamical simulations |
| title | First constraints on fuzzy dark matter from Lyman-alpha forest data and hydrodynamical simulations |
| title_full | First constraints on fuzzy dark matter from Lyman-alpha forest data and hydrodynamical simulations |
| title_fullStr | First constraints on fuzzy dark matter from Lyman-alpha forest data and hydrodynamical simulations |
| title_full_unstemmed | First constraints on fuzzy dark matter from Lyman-alpha forest data and hydrodynamical simulations |
| title_short | First constraints on fuzzy dark matter from Lyman-alpha forest data and hydrodynamical simulations |
| title_sort | first constraints on fuzzy dark matter from lyman-alpha forest data and hydrodynamical simulations |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44069/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44069/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44069/ |