English

Free streaming in mixed dark matter

Astrophysics 2008-12-18 v2 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

Free streaming in a \emph{mixture} of collisionless non-relativistic dark matter (DM) particles is studied by implementing methods from the theory of multicomponent plasmas. The mixture includes Fermionic, condensed and non condensed Bosonic particles decoupling in equilibrium while relativistic, heavy non-relativistic thermal relics (WIMPs), and sterile neutrinos that decouple \emph{out of equilibrium} when they are relativistic. The free-streaming length λfs\lambda_{fs} is obtained from the marginal zero of the gravitational polarization function, which separates short wavelength Landau-damped from long wavelength Jeans-unstable \emph{collective} modes. At redshift zz we find 1λfs2(z)=1(1+z)[0.071kpc]2aνagd,a2/3(ma/keV)2Ia \frac{1}{\lambda^2_{fs}(z)}= \frac{1}{(1+z)} \big[\frac{0.071}{\textrm{kpc}} \big]^2 \sum_{a}\nu_a g^{2/3}_{d,a}({m_a}/{\mathrm{keV}})^2 I_a ,where 0νa10\leq \nu_a \leq 1 are the \emph{fractions} of the respective DM components of mass mam_a that decouple when the effective number of ultrarelativistic degrees of freedom is gd,ag_{d,a}, and IaI_a only depend on the distribution functions at decoupling, given explicitly in all cases. If sterile neutrinos produced either resonantly or non-resonantly that decouple near the QCD scale are the \emph{only} DM component,we find λfs(0)7kpc(keV/m)\lambda_{fs}(0) \simeq 7 \mathrm{kpc} (\mathrm{keV}/m) (non-resonant), λfs(0)1.73kpc(keV/m)\lambda_{fs}(0) \simeq 1.73 \mathrm{kpc} (\mathrm{keV}/m) (resonant).If WIMPs with mwimp100GeVm_{wimp} \gtrsim 100 \mathrm{GeV} decoupling at Td10MeVT_d \gtrsim 10 \mathrm{MeV} are present in the mixture with νwimp1012\nu_{wimp} \gg 10^{-12},λfs(0)6.5×103pc\lambda_{fs}(0) \lesssim 6.5 \times 10^{-3} \mathrm{pc} is \emph{dominated} by CDM. If a Bose Einstein condensate is a DM component its free streaming length is consistent with CDM because of the infrared enhancement of the distribution function.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0711.0470,
  title  = {Free streaming in mixed dark matter},
  author = {Daniel Boyanovsky},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0711.0470},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

19 pages, 2 figures. More discussions same conclusions and results. Version to appear in Phys. Rev. D

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:39:32.376Z