38,298 research outputs found
Galaxy phase-space density data exclude Bose-Einstein condensate Axion Dark Matter
Light scalars (as the axion) with mass m ~ 10^{-22} eV forming a
Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) exhibit a Jeans length in the kpc scale and were
therefore proposed as dark matter (DM) candidates. Our treatment here is
generic, independent of the particle physics model and applies to all DM BEC,
in or out of equilibrium. Two observed quantities crucially constrain DM in an
inescapable way: the average DM density rho_{DM} and the phase-space density Q.
The observed values of rho_{DM} and Q in galaxies today constrain both the
possibility to form a BEC and the DM mass m. These two constraints robustly
exclude axion DM that decouples just after the QCD phase transition. Moreover,
the value m ~ 10^{-22} eV can only be obtained with a number of
ultrarelativistic degrees of freedom at decoupling in the trillions which is
impossible for decoupling in the radiation dominated era. In addition, we find
for the axion vacuum misalignment scenario that axions are produced strongly
out of thermal equilibrium and that the axion mass in such scenario turns to be
17 orders of magnitude too large to reproduce the observed galactic structures.
Moreover, we also consider inhomogenous gravitationally bounded BEC's supported
by the bosonic quantum pressure independently of any particular particle
physics scenario. For a typical size R ~ kpc and compact object masses M ~ 10^7
Msun they remarkably lead to the same particle mass m ~ 10^{-22} eV as the BEC
free-streaming length. However, the phase-space density for the gravitationally
bounded BEC's turns to be more than sixty orders of magnitude smaller than the
galaxy observed values. We conclude that the BEC's and the axion cannot be the
DM particle. However, an axion in the mili-eV scale may be a relevant source of
dark energy through the zero point cosmological quantum fluctuations.Comment: 8 pages, no figures. Expanded versio
Constraining the Warm Dark Matter Particle Mass through Ultra-Deep UV Luminosity Functions at z=2
We compute the mass function of galactic dark matter halos for different
values of the Warm Dark Matter (WDM) particle mass m_X and compare it with the
abundance of ultra-faint galaxies derived from the deepest UV luminosity
function available so far at redshift z~2. The magnitude limit M_UV=-13 reached
by such observations allows us to probe the WDM mass functions down to scales
close to or smaller than the half-mass mode mass scale ~10^9 M_sun. This
allowed for an efficient discrimination among predictions for different m_X
which turn out to be independent of the star formation efficiency adopted to
associate the observed UV luminosities of galaxies to the corresponding dark
matter masses. Adopting a conservative approach to take into account the
existing theoretical uncertainties in the galaxy halo mass function, we derive
a robust limit m_X>1.8 keV for the mass of thermal relic WDM particles when
comparing with the measured abundance of the faintest galaxies, while m_X>1.5
keV is obtained when we compare with the Schechter fit to the observed
luminosity function. The corresponding lower limit for sterile neutrinos
depends on the modeling of the production mechanism; for instance m_sterile > 4
keV holds for the Shi-Fuller mechanism. We discuss the impact of observational
uncertainties on the above bound on m_X. As a baseline for comparison with
forthcoming observations from the HST Frontier Field, we provide predictions
for the abundance of faint galaxies with M_UV=-13 for different values of m_X
and of the star formation efficiency, valid up to z~4.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
Equation of state, universal profiles, scaling and macroscopic quantum effects in Warm Dark Matter galaxies
The Thomas-Fermi approach to galaxy structure determines selfconsistently and
nonlinearly the gravitational potential of the fermionic WDM particles given
their quantum distribution function f(E). Galaxy magnitudes as the halo radius
r_h, mass M_h, velocity dispersion and phase space density are obtained. We
derive the general equation of state for galaxies (relation between the
pressure and the density), and provide an analytic expression. This clearly
exhibits two regimes: (i) Large diluted galaxies for M_h > 2.3 10^6 Msun
corresponding to temperatures T_0 > 0.017 K, described by the classical self
gravitating WDM Boltzman regime and (ii) Compact dwarf galaxies for 1.6 10^6
Msun > M_h>M_{h,min}=30000 (2keV/m)^{16/5} Msun, T_0<0.011 K described by the
quantum fermionic WDM regime. The T_0=0 degenerate quantum limit predicts the
most compact and smallest galaxy (minimal radius and mass M_{h,min}). All
magnitudes in the diluted regime exhibit square root of M_h scaling laws and
are universal functions of r/r_h when normalized to their values at the origin
or at r_h. We find that universality in galaxies (for M_h > 10^6 Msun) reflects
the WDM perfect gas behaviour. These theoretical results contrasted to robust
and independent sets of galaxy data remarkably reproduce the observations. For
the small galaxies, 10^6>M_h>M_{h,min} corresponding to effective temperatures
T_0 < 0.017 K, the equation of state is galaxy dependent and the profiles are
no more universal. These non-universal properties in small galaxies account to
the quantum physics of the WDM fermions in the compact regime. Our results are
independent of any WDM particle physics model, they only follow from the
gravitational interaction of the WDM particles and their fermionic quantum
nature.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with
arXiv:1309.229
Statistical Mechanics of the Self-Gravitating Gas: Thermodynamic Limit, Unstabilities and Phase Diagrams
We show that the self-gravitating gas at thermal equilibrium has an infinite
volume limit in the three ensembles (GCE, CE, MCE) when (N, V) -> infty,
keeping N/V^{1/3} fixed, that is, with eta = G m^2 N/[ V^{1/3} T] fixed. We
develop MonteCarlo simulations, analytic mean field methods (MF) and low
density expansions. We compute the equation of state and find it to be locally
p(r) = T rho_V(r), that is a local ideal gas equation of state. The system is
in a gaseous phase for eta < eta_T = 1.51024...and collapses into a very dense
object for eta > eta_T in the CE with the pressure becoming large and negative.
The isothermal compressibility diverges at eta = eta_T. We compute the
fluctuations around mean field for the three ensembles. We show that the
particle distribution can be described by a Haussdorf dimension 1 < D < 3.Comment: 12 pages, Invited lecture at `Statistical Mechanics of Non-Extensive
Systems', Observatoire de Paris, October 2005, to be published in a Special
issue of `Les Comptes rendus de l'Acade'mie des sciences', Elsevie
Quantum WDM fermions and gravitation determine the observed galaxy structures
Quantum mechanics is necessary to compute galaxy structures at kpc scales and
below. This is so because near the galaxy center, at scales below 10 - 100 pc,
warm dark matter (WDM) quantum effects are important: observations show that
the interparticle distance is of the order of, or smaller than the de Broglie
wavelength for WDM. This explains why all classical (non-quantum) WDM N-body
simulations fail to explain galactic cores and their sizes. We describe
fermionic WDM galaxies in an analytic semiclassical framework based on the
Thomas-Fermi approach, we resolve it numerically and find the main physical
galaxy magnitudes: mass, halo radius, phase-space density, velocity dispersion,
fully consistent with observations, including compact dwarf galaxies. Namely,
fermionic WDM treated quantum mechanically, as it must be, reproduces the
observed galaxy DM cores and their sizes. [In addition, as is known, WDM
simulations produce the right DM structures in agreement with observations for
scales > kpc]. We show that compact dwarf galaxies are natural quantum
macroscopic objects supported against gravity by the fermionic WDM quantum
pressure (quantum degenerate fermions) with a minimal galaxy mass and minimal
velocity dispersion. Interestingly enough, the minimal galaxy mass implies a
minimal mass m_{min} for the WDM particle. The lightest known dwarf galaxy
(Willman I) implies m > m_{min} = 1.91 keV. These results and the observed halo
radius and mass of the compact galaxies provide further indication that the WDM
particle mass m is approximately around 2 keV.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures, expanded version to appear in Astroparticle
Physics. admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1204.309
Warm dark matter primordial spectra and the onset of structure formation at redshift z
Analytic formulas reproducing the warm dark matter (WDM) primordial spectra
are obtained for WDM particles decoupling in and out of thermal equilibrium
which provide the initial data for WDM non-linear structure formation. We
compute and analyze the corresponding WDM overdensities and compare them to the
CDM case. We consider the ratio of the WDM to CDM primordial spectrum and the
WDM to CDM overdensities: they turn to be self-similar functions of k/k_{1/2}
and R/R_{1/2} respectively, k_{1/2} and R_{1/2} being the wavenumber and length
where the WDM spectrum and overdensity are 1/2 of the respective CDM
magnitudes. Both k_{1/2} and R_{1/2} show scaling as powers of the WDM particle
mass m while the self-similar functions are independent of m. The WDM
primordial spectrum sharply decreases around k_{1/2} with respect to the CDM
spectrum, while the WDM overdensity slowly decreases around R_{1/2}. The
nonlinear regions where WDM structure formation takes place are shown and
compared to those in CDM: the WDM non-linear structures start to form later
than in CDM, and as a general trend, decreasing the DM particle mass delays the
onset of the non-linear regime. The non-linear regime starts earlier for
smaller objects than for larger ones; smaller objects can form earlier both in
WDM and CDM. We compute and analyze the differential mass function dN/dM for
WDM at redshift z in the Press-Schechter approach. The WDM suppression effect
of small scale structure increases with the redshift z. Our results for dN/dM
are useful to be contrasted with observations, in particular for 4 < z < 12. We
perfom all these studies for the most popular WDM particle physics models.
Contrasting them to observations should point out the precise value of the WDM
particle mass in the keV scale, and help to single out the best WDM particle
physics model (Abridged).Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures. To appear in Phys Rev
Semiclassical (Quantum Field Theory) and Quantum (String) de Sitter Regimes: New Results
We compute the quantum string entropy S_s(m, H) from the microscopic string
density of states rho_s (m,H) of mass m in de Sitter space-time. We find for
high m, a {\bf new} phase transition at the critical string temperature T_s=
(1/2 pi k_B)L c^2/alpha', higher than the flat space (Hagedorn) temperature
t_s. (L = c/H, the Hubble constant H acts at the transition as producing a
smaller string constant alpha' and thus, a higher tension). T_s is the precise
quantum dual of the semiclassical (QFT Hawking-Gibbons) de Sitter temperature
T_sem = hbar c /(2\pi k_B L). We find a new formula for the full de Sitter
entropy S_sem (H), as a function of the usual Bekenstein-Hawking entropy
S_sem^(0)(H). For L << l_{Planck}, ie. for low H << c/l_Planck,
S_{sem}^{(0)}(H) is the leading term, but for high H near c/l_Planck, a new
phase transition operates and the whole entropy S_sem (H) is drastically
different from the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy S_sem^(0)(H). We compute the
string quantum emission cross section by a black hole in de Sitter (or
asymptotically de Sitter) space-time (bhdS). For T_sem ~ bhdS << T_s, (early
evaporation stage), it shows the QFT Hawking emission with temperature T_sem ~
bhdS, (semiclassical regime). For T_sem ~ bhdS near T_{s}, it exhibits a phase
transition into a string de Sitter state of size L_s = l_s^2/L}, l_s=
\sqrt{\hbar alpha'/c), and string de Sitter temperature T_s. Instead of
featuring a single pole singularity in the temperature (Carlitz transition), it
features a square root branch point (de Vega-Sanchez transition). New bounds on
the black hole radius r_g emerge in the bhdS string regime: it can become r_g =
L_s/2, or it can reach a more quantum value, r_g = 0.365 l_s.Comment: New original materia
The pre-inflationary and inflationary fast-roll eras and their signatures in the low CMB multipoles
We study the entire coupled evolution of the inflaton and the scale factor
for general initial conditions at a given initial time. The generic early
universe evolution has three stages: decelerated fast-roll followed by
inflationary fast roll and then inflationary slow-roll. This evolution is valid
for all regular inflaton potentials. In addition, we find a special (extreme)
slow-roll solution starting at t = -infty in which the fast-roll stages are
absent. At some time t = t_*, the generic evolution backwards in time reaches a
mathematical singu- larity where a(t) vanishes and Hubble becomes singular. We
find the general behaviour near the singularity. The classical inflaton
description is valid for t-t_* > 10 t_{Planck} well before the beginning of
inflation, quantum loop effects are negligible there. The singularity is never
reached in the validity region of the classical treatment and therefore it is
not a real physical phenomenon here. The whole evolution of the fluctuations is
computed. The Bunch-Davies initial conditions (BDic) are generalized for the
present case. The power spectrum gets dynamically modified by the effect of the
fast-roll eras and the BDic choice at a finite time through the transfer
function D(k) of initial conditions. D(0) = 0. D(k) presents a first peak for k
~ 2/eta_0 (eta_0 being the conformal initial time), then oscillates with
decreasing amplitude and vanishes asymptotically for k -> infty. The transfer
function D(k) affects the low CMB multipoles C_l: the change Delta C_l/C_l for
l=1-5 is computed as a function of the starting instant of the fluctuations
t_0. CMB quadrupole observations give large suppressions which are well
reproduced here(Abridged)Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures. Version to appear in PR
The mass of the dark matter particle from theory and observations
We combine observed properties of galaxies as the core density and radius
with the theoretical linear evolution of density fluctuations computed from
first principles since the end of inflation till today. The halo radius r_0 is
computed in terms of cosmological parameters. The theoretical density profiles
rho(r)/rho(0) have an universal shape as a function of r/r_0 which reproduces
the observations. We show that the linear approximation to the Boltzmann-Vlasov
equation is valid for very large galaxies and correctly provides universal
quantities which are common to all galaxies, as the surface density and density
profile. By matching the theoretically computed surface density to its observed
value we obtain (i) the decreasing of the phase-space density during the MD era
(ii) the mass of the dark matter particle which turns to be between 1 and 2 keV
and the decoupling temperature T_d which turns to be above 100 GeV (iii) the
core vs. cusp discrimination: keV dark matter particles produce cored density
profiles while wimps (m \sim 100 GeV, T_d \sim 5 GeV) produce cusped profiles
at scales about 0.003 pc. These results are independent of the particle model
and vary very little with the statistics of the dark matter particle.
Non-universal galaxy quantities (which need to include non-linear effects as
mergers and baryons) are reproduced in the linear approximation up to a factor
of order one for the halo radius r_0, galaxy mass M_{gal}, halo central density
rho_{0} and velocity dispersion sqrt{{\bar {v^2}}_{halo}} in the limiting case
of large galaxies (both r_0 and M_{gal} large). This shows the power of the
linear approximation scheme: although it cannot capture the whole content of
the structure formation, it correctly provides universal quantities which as
well as the main non-universal galaxy properties.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures, improved and expanded version to appear in New
Astronom
- …