272 research outputs found
Effects of dark matter annihilation on the first stars
We study the evolution of the first stars in the universe (Population III)
from the early pre-Main Sequence until the end of helium burning in the
presence of WIMP dark matter annihilation inside the stellar structure. The two
different mechanisms that can provide this energy source are the contemporary
contraction of baryons and dark matter, and the capture of WIMPs by scattering
off the gas with subsequent accumulation inside the star. We find that the
first mechanism can generate an equilibrium phase, previously known as a "dark
star", which is transient and present in the very early stages of pre-MS
evolution. The mechanism of scattering and capture acts later, and can support
the star virtually forever, depending on environmental characteristic of the
dark matter halo and on the specific WIMP model.Comment: Proceedings of the IAU Symposium 255, "Low-Metallicity Star
Formation: From the First Stars to Dwarf Galaxies"; L.K. Hunt, S. Madden and
R. Schneider ed
High Energy neutrino signals from the Epoch of Reionization
We perform a new estimate of the high energy neutrinos expected from GRBs
associated with the first generation of stars in light of new models and
constraints on the epoch of reionization and a more detailed evaluation of the
neutrino emission yields. We also compare the diffuse high energy neutrino
background from Population III stars with the one from "ordinary stars"
(Population II), as estimated consistently within the same cosmological and
astrophysical assumptions. In disagreement with previous literature, we find
that high energy neutrinos from Population III stars will not be observable
with current or near future neutrino telescopes, falling below both IceCube
sensitivity and atmospheric neutrino background under the most extreme
assumptions for the GRB rate. This rules them out as a viable diagnostic tool
for these still elusive metal-free stars.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures
Constraining Dark Matter annihilation with the Cosmic Microwave Background
I review one of the numerous physical processes that might change the standard model of recombination, i.e. the annihilation of Dark Matter particles. The high precision of current and future CMB data may allow the detection of these processes, that leave recognizable imprints on the angular power spectra. I review some of the results obtained in constraining this phenomenon using current WMAP5
data and forecasted data for future experiments such as the Planck satellite mission
First star formation with dark matter annihilation
We include an energy term based on Dark Matter (DM) self-annihilation during
the cooling and subsequent collapse of the metal-free gas, in halos hosting the
formation of the first stars in the Universe. We have found that the feedback
induced on the chemistry of the cloud does modify the properties of the gas
throughout the collapse. However, the modifications are not dramatic, and the
typical Jeans mass within the halo is conserved throughout the collapse, for
all the DM parameters we have considered. This result implies that the presence
of Dark Matter annihilations does not substantially modify the Initial Mass
Function of the First Stars, with respect to the standard case in which such
additional energy term is not taken into account. We have also found that when
the rate of energy produced by the DM annihilations and absorbed by the gas
equals the chemical cooling (at densities yet far from the actual formation of
a proto-stellar core) the structure does not halt its collapse, although that
proceeds more slowly by a factor smaller than few per cent of the total
collapse time.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables; replaced with published version after
minor change
Dark matter powered stars: Constraints from the extragalactic background light
The existence of predominantly cold non-baryonic dark matter is unambiguously
demonstrated by several observations (e.g., structure formation, big bang
nucleosynthesis, gravitational lensing, and rotational curves of spiral
galaxies). A candidate well motivated by particle physics is a weakly
interacting massive particle (WIMP). Self-annihilating WIMPs would affect the
stellar evolution especially in the early universe. Stars powered by
self-annihilating WIMP dark matter should possess different properties compared
with standard stars. While a direct detection of such dark matter powered stars
seems very challenging, their cumulative emission might leave an imprint in the
diffuse metagalactic radiation fields, in particular in the mid-infrared part
of the electromagnetic spectrum. In this work the possible contributions of
dark matter powered stars (dark stars; DSs) to the extragalactic background
light (EBL) are calculated. It is shown that existing data and limits of the
EBL intensity can already be used to rule out some DS parameter sets.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 7 pages, 5 figure
A robust estimate of the Milky Way mass from rotation curve data
We present a new estimate of the mass of the Milky Way, inferred via a Bayesian approach by making use of tracers of the circular velocity in the disk plane and stars in the stellar halo, as from the publicly available galkin compilation. We use the rotation curve method to determine the dark matter distribution and total mass under different assumptions for the dark matter profile, while the total stellar mass is constrained by surface stellar density and microlensing measurements. We also include uncertainties on the baryonic morphology via Bayesian model averaging, thus converting a potential source of systematic error into a more manageable statistical uncertainty. We evaluate the robustness of our result against various possible systematics, including rotation curve data selection, uncertainty on the Sun's velocity V0, dependence on the dark matter profile assumptions, and choice of priors. We find the Milky Way's dark matter virial mass to be log10M200DM/ Mo\u2d9 = 11.92+0.06-0.05(stat)\ub10.28\ub10.27(syst) (M200DM=8.3+1.2-0.9(stat)
71011 Mo\u2d9). We also apply our framework to Gaia DR2 rotation curve data and find good statistical agreement with the above results
PArthENoPE: Public Algorithm Evaluating the Nucleosynthesis of Primordial Elements
We describe a program for computing the abundances of light elements produced
during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis which is publicly available at
http://parthenope.na.infn.it/. Starting from nuclear statistical equilibrium
conditions the program solves the set of coupled ordinary differential
equations, follows the departure from chemical equilibrium of nuclear species,
and determines their asymptotic abundances as function of several input
cosmological parameters as the baryon density, the number of effective
neutrino, the value of cosmological constant and the neutrino chemical
potential. The program requires commercial NAG library routines.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures. Version accepted by Comp. Phys. Com. The code
(and an updated manual) is publicly available at
http://parthenope.na.infn.it
Dark matter annihilation effects on the first stars
We study the effects of WIMP dark matter (DM) on the collapse and evolution
of the first stars in the Universe. Using a stellar evolution code, we follow
the pre-Main Sequence (MS) phase of a grid of metal-free stars with masses in
the range 5-600 solar mass forming in the centre of a 1e6 solar mass halo at
redhisft z=20. DM particles of the parent halo are accreted in the
proto-stellar interior by adiabatic contraction and scattering/capture
processes, reaching central densities of order 1e12 GeV/cm3 at radii of the
order of 10 AU. Energy release from annihilation reactions can effectively
counteract the gravitational collapse, in agreement with results from other
groups. We find this stalling phase (known as "dark" star) is transients and
lasts from 2.1e3 yr (M=600 solar mass) to 1.8e4 yr (M=9 solar mass). Later in
the evolution, DM scattering/capture rate becomes high enough that energy
deposition from annihilations significantly alters the pre-MS evolution of the
star in a way that depends on DM (i) velocity dispersion, (ii) density, (iii)
elastic scattering cross section with baryons. For our fiducial set of
parameters (10 km/s, 1e11 GeV/cm3, 1e-38 cm2) we find that the evolution of
stars of mass lower than 40 solar masses "freezes" on the HR diagram before
reaching the ZAMS. Stars with bigger masses manage to ignite nuclear reactions;
however, DM "burning" prolonges their lifetimes by a factor 2 (5) for a 600
(40) solar mass star.Comment: Comments welcom
Primordial Nucleosynthesis
Primordial nucleosynthesis, or Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), is one of the
three evidences for the Big-Bang model, together with the expansion of the
Universe and the Cosmic Microwave Background. There is a good global agreement
over a range of nine orders of magnitude between abundances of 4He, D, 3He and
7Li deduced from observations, and calculated in primordial nucleosynthesis.
This comparison was used to determine the baryonic density of the Universe. For
this purpose, it is now superseded by the analysis of the Cosmic Microwave
Background (CMB) radiation anisotropies. However, there remain, a yet
unexplained, discrepancy of a factor 3-5, between the calculated and observed
lithium primordial abundances, that has not been reduced, neither by recent
nuclear physics experiments, nor by new observations. We review here the
nuclear physics aspects of BBN for the production of 4He, D, 3He and 7Li, but
also 6Li, 9Be, 11B and up to CNO isotopes. These are, for instance, important
for the initial composition of the matter at the origin of the first stars.
Big-Bang nucleosynthesis, that has been used, to first constrain the baryonic
density, and the number of neutrino families, remains, a valuable tool to probe
the physics of the early Universe, like variation of "constants" or alternative
theories of gravity.Comment: Invited Plenary Talk given at the 11th International Conference on
Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (NN2012), San Antonio, Texas, USA, May 27-June 1,
2012. To appear in the NN2012 Proceedings in Journal of Physics: Conference
Series (JPCS
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