Lyman-alpha Forest Constraints on the Mass of Warm Dark Matter and the Shape of the Linear Power Spectrum

Abstract

High resolution N-body simulations of cold dark matter (CDM) models predict that galaxies and clusters have cuspy halos with excessive substructure. Observations reveal smooth halos with central density cores. One possible resolution of this conflict is that the dark matter is warm (WDM); this will suppress the power spectrum on small scales. The Lyman-alpha forest is a powerful probe of the linear power spectrum on these scales. We use collisionless N-body simulations to follow the evolution of structure in WDM models, and analyze artificial Lyman-alpha forest spectra extracted from them. By requiring that there is enough small-scale power in the linear power spectrum to reproduce the observed properties of the Lyman-alpha forest in quasar spectra, we derive a lower limit to the mass of the WDM particle of 750 eV. This limit is robust to reasonable uncertainties in our assumption about the temperature of the mean density gas (T0) at z=3. We argue that any model that suppresses the CDM linear theory power spectrum more severely than a 750 eV WDM particle cannot produce the Lyman-alpha forest.Comment: 13 pages including 4 color Figures and 1 Table, submitted to ApJ Letter