Cutoff in the Lyman- α forest power spectrum: Warm IGM or warm dark matter?

• DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2017.08.022
• Publication Date: 2017-08-23T14:32:48Z
• Authors: Antonella Garzilli; Alexey Boyarsky; Oleg Ruchayskiy
• Keywords: Numerical; Cosmology, Warm dark matter, Large scale structure of Universe; Methods, Numerical, Observational; Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); Physics; QC1-999; Large scale structure of Universe; FOS: Physical sciences; Quasars, Absorption lines; Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies; Cosmology; High Energy Physics - Phenomenology; High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Methods; Absorption lines; Warm dark matter; Observational; Quasars; Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

We re-analyse high redshift and high resolution Lyman-$��$ forest spectra considered in (Viel et al 2013), seeking to constrain the properties of warm dark matter particles. Compared to this previous work, we consider a wider range of thermal histories of the intergalactic medium. We find that both warm and cold dark matter models can explain the cut-off observed in the flux power spectra of high-resolution observations equally well. This implies, however, very different thermal histories and underlying re-ionisation models. We discuss how to remove this degeneracy.<br/>Accepted in Physics Letters B<br/>