jtd55

[Nature Link] [PDF]

Author: Rennan Barkana

Abstract:

The cosmic radio-frequency spectrum is expected to show a strong absorption signal corresponding to the 21-centimetre-wavelength transition of atomic hydrogen around redshift, which arises from Lyman-α radiation from some of the earliest stars. By observing this 21-centimetre signal—either its sky-averaged spectrum or maps of its fluctuations, obtained using radio interferometers —we can obtain information about cosmic dawn, the era when the first astrophysical sources of light were formed. The recent detection of the global 21-centimetre spectrum reveals a stronger absorption than the maximum predicted by existing models, at a confidence level of 3.8 standard deviations. Here we report that this absorption can be explained by the combination of radiation from the first stars and excess cooling of the cosmic gas induced by its interaction with dark matter. Our analysis indicates that the spatial fluctuations of the 21-centimetre signal at cosmic dawn could be an order of magnitude larger than previously expected and that the dark-matter particle is no heavier than several proton masses, well below the commonly predicted mass of weakly interacting massive particles. Our analysis also confirms that dark matter is highly non-relativistic and at least moderately cold, and primordial velocities predicted by models of warm dark matter are potentially detectable. These results indicate that 21-centimetre cosmology can be used as a dark-matter probe.

jtd55

Nature news article about:

An absorption profile centred at 78 megahertz in the sky-averaged spectrum [Nature Link] [PDF]

Possible interaction between baryons and dark-matter particles revealed by the first stars [Nature Link] [PDF]

jtd55

[Nature Link] [PDF]

Authors: Judd D. Bowman, Alan E. E. Rogers, Raul A. Monsalve, Thomas J. Mozdzen & Nivedita Mahesh

Abstract:

After stars formed in the early Universe, their ultraviolet light is expected, eventually, to have penetrated the primordial hydrogen gas and altered the excitation state of its 21-centimetre hyperfine line. This alteration would cause the gas to absorb photons from the cosmic microwave background, producing a spectral distortion that should be observable today at radio frequencies of less than 200 megahertz. Here we report the detection of a flattened absorption profile in the sky-averaged radio spectrum, which is centred at a frequency of 78 megahertz and has a best-fitting fullwidth at half-maximum of 19 megahertz and an amplitude of 0.5 kelvin. The profile is largely consistent with expectations for the 21-centimetre signal induced by early stars; however, the best-fitting amplitude of the profile is more than a factor of two greater than the largest predictions. This discrepancy suggests that either the primordial gas was much colder than expected or the background radiation temperature was hotter than expected. Astrophysical phenomena (such as radiation from stars and stellar remnants) are unlikely to account for this discrepancy; of the proposed extensions to the standard model of cosmology and particle physics, only cooling of the gas as a result of interactions between dark matter and baryons seems to explain the observed amplitude. The lowfrequency edge of the observed profile indicates that stars existed and had produced a background of Lyman-α photons by 180million years after the Big Bang. The high-frequency edge indicates that the gas was heated to above the radiation temperature less than 100million years later.

B. M. Roberts, A. Derevianko

Dark matter may be composed of ultralight quantum fields that form macroscopic objects. As the Earth moves through the galaxy, interactions with such objects may leave transient signatures in terrestrial experiments. These signatures may be sought by analyzing correlations between multiple devices in a distributed network. However, if the objects are small (<~10^3 km) it becomes unlikely that more than one device will be affected in a given event. Such models may, however, induce an observable asymmetry in the noise distributions of precision measurement devices, such as atomic clocks. Further, an annual modulation in this asymmetry is expected. Such an analysis may be performed very simply using existing data, and would be sensitive to models with a high event rate, even if individual events cannot be resolved. For certain models, our technique extends the discovery reach beyond that of existing experiments by many orders of magnitude.

Timothy Clifton, Viraj A. A. Sanghai

We present a link between parameterizations of alternative theories of gravity on large and small scales in cosmology. This relationship is established using theoretical consistency conditions only. We find that in both limits the "slip" and "effective Newton's constant" can be written in terms of a set of four functions of time, two of which are direct generalizations of the $\alpha$ and $\gamma$ parameters from post-Newtonian physics. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a link between parameterizations of gravity on these very different scales has been established. We expect our result to facilitate the imposition of observational constraints, by drastically reducing the number of functional degress of freedom required to consistently test gravity on multiple scales in cosmology.

A. Ewall-Wice, T.-C. Chang, J. Lazio, O. Dore, M. Seiffert, R.A. Monsalve

We estimate the 21 cm Radio Background from accretion onto the first intermediate-mass Black Holes between $z\approx 30$ and $z\approx 16$. Combining potentially optimistic, but plausible, scenarios for black hole formation and growth with empirical correlations between luminosity and radio-emission observed in low-redshift active galactic nuclei, we find that black hole remnants of Pop-III stars are able to produce a 21 cm background that exceeds the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) at $z \approx 17$. Thus, such a background could explain the surprisingly large amplitude of the 21 cm absorption feature recently reported by the EDGES collaboration. These black holes also produce significant X-ray emission and contribute to the $0.5-2$ keV soft X-ray background at the level of $\approx 10^{-13}-10^{-12}$ erg sec$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ deg$^{-2}$, consisten with existing constraints. In order to prevent the same black holes from over-producing the optical depth to the CMB measured by Planck, these sources are either heavily obscured with $f_{\text{esc}}\lesssim 0.05$ or their radio-loud fraction is higher than in the local universe.

oxg34

https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0604040