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What mass are the smallest protohalos?

Stefano Profumo1, Kris Sigurdson, Marc Kamionkowski

  • 1California Institute of Technology, Mail Code 130-33, Pasadena, California 91125, USA. profumo@caltech.edu

Physical Review Letters
|August 16, 2006
PubMed
Summary

We calculated the decoupling temperature for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), revealing a wide range of possible masses for the smallest dark matter protohalos. This finding impacts our understanding of dark matter structure formation across various particle physics models.

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Area of Science:

  • Cosmology
  • Particle Physics
  • Astrophysics

Background:

  • Cosmic microwave background measurements indicate the presence of cold dark matter.
  • Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are leading candidates for dark matter.
  • Supersymmetric (SUSY) and extra dimensional models are explored for WIMP dark matter realization.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To calculate the kinetic-decoupling temperature of WIMPs in SUSY and extra dimensional models.
  • To determine the implications of these temperatures for the masses of the smallest dark matter protohalos.
  • To assess the general applicability of these findings to various WIMP dark matter models.

Main Methods:

  • Calculation of kinetic-decoupling temperatures for WIMPs.
  • Analysis of particle-physics model parameters influencing decoupling.

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  • Estimation of protohalo masses based on derived decoupling temperatures.

    • Main Results:

    • Decoupling temperatures for WIMPs range from MeV to GeV, depending on model parameters.
    • This implies a broad range of smallest protohalo masses, from 10^-6 to 10^2 solar masses.
    • The derived protohalo mass range is expected to be characteristic of most models accommodating WIMP relic abundance.

    Conclusions:

    • The kinetic-decoupling temperature significantly influences the minimum mass of dark matter protohalos.
    • Particle physics models, including SUSY and extra dimensions, predict a wide spectrum of potential protohalo masses.
    • These results provide a framework for understanding dark matter structure formation across diverse theoretical models.