Impact of dark matter on reionization and heating

preprint2007arXivOpen access

Abstract

We derived the evolution of the energy deposition in the intergalactic medium (IGM) by different decaying (or annihilating) dark matter (DM) candidates. Heavy annihilating DM particles (with mass larger than a few GeV) have no influence on reionization and heating, even if we assume that all the energy emitted by annihilations is absorbed by the IGM. In the case of lighter particles, the impact on reionization and heating depends on the efficiency of energy absorption by the IGM. We calculated the fraction of energy produced by decays and annihilations which is effectively absorbed by the IGM. We found that this fraction is generally high at very high redshift (>>100), but drops at more recent epochs.

Explore this paper’s authors, topics and related work.

Building this map preview

BZPEER is loading the nearby papers, people, topics and institutions for this page.

Reviews 0

Write a reviewWrite

No reviews yet.

Discussion 0

Add a commentWrite

No comments yet.