Intergalactic medium heating by dark matter

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dc.creatorRipamonti, E.
dc.creatorMapelli, M.
dc.creatorFerrara, A.
dc.date2006-06-20
dc.date2006-12-12
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T10:23:12Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T10:23:12Z
dc.descriptionWe derive the evolution of the energy deposition in the intergalactic medium (IGM) by dark matter (DM) decays/annihilations for both sterile neutrinos and light dark matter (LDM) particles. At z > 200 sterile neutrinos transfer a fraction f_abs~0.5 of their rest mass energy into the IGM; at lower redshifts this fraction becomes <~ 0.3 depending on the particle mass. The LDM particles can decay or annihilate. In both cases f_abs~0.4-0.9 at high (> 300) redshift, dropping to ~0.1 below z=100. These results indicate that the impact of DM decays/annihilations on the IGM thermal and ionization history is less important than previously thought. We find that sterile neutrinos (LDM) decays are able to increase the IGM temperature by z=5 at most up to 4K (100K), about 50-200 times less than predicted by estimates based on the assumption of complete energy transfer to the gas.
dc.description13 pages, 7 figures; MNRAS, in press; matches the published version
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0606482
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0606482
dc.identifierMon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.374:1067-1077,2007
dc.identifierdoi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11222.x
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/175744
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleIntergalactic medium heating by dark matter
dc.typetext

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