http://arxiv.org/abs/1809.06585
The observed Lyman-$\alpha$ flux power spectrum (FPS) is suppressed on scales below $\sim~ 30~{\rm km~s}^{-1}$. This cutoff could be due to the high temperature, $T_0$, and pressure, $p_0$, of the absorbing gas or, alternatively, it could reflect the free streaming of dark matter particles in the early universe. We perform a set of very high resolution cosmological hydrodynamic simulations in which we vary $T_0$, $p_0$ and the amplitude of the dark matter free streaming, and compare the FPS of mock spectra to the data. We show that the location of the dark matter free-streaming cutoff scales differently with redshift than the cutoff produced by thermal effects and is more pronounced at higher redshift. We, therefore, focus on a comparison to the observed FPS at $z>5$. We demonstrate that the FPS cutoff can be fit assuming cold dark matter, but it can be equally well fit assuming that the dark matter consists of $\sim 7$ keV sterile neutrinos in which case the cutoff is due primarily to the dark matter free streaming.
A. Garzilli, A. Magalich, T. Theuns, et. al.
Wed, 19 Sep 18
11/59
Comments: 16 pages, 10 figures
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