Search results for "Reionization"
showing 6 items of 16 documents
Constraining the primordial black hole abundance with 21-cm cosmology
2019
The discoveries of a number of binary black hole mergers by LIGO and VIRGO has reinvigorated the interest that primordial black holes (PBHs) of tens of solar masses could contribute non-negligibly to the dark matter energy density. Should even a small population of PBHs with masses $\gtrsim \mathcal{O}(M_\odot)$ exist, they could profoundly impact the properties of the intergalactic medium and provide insight into novel processes at work in the early Universe. We demonstrate here that observations of the 21cm transition in neutral hydrogen during the epochs of reionization and cosmic dawn will likely provide one of the most stringent tests of solar mass PBHs. In the context of 21cm cosmolog…
Warm dark matter and the ionization history of the Universe
2017
In warm dark matter scenarios structure formation is suppressed on small scales with respect to the cold dark matter case, reducing the number of low-mass halos and the fraction of ionized gas at high redshifts and thus, delaying reionization. This has an impact on the ionization history of the Universe and measurements of the optical depth to reionization, of the evolution of the global fraction of ionized gas and of the thermal history of the intergalactic medium, can be used to set constraints on the mass of the dark matter particle. However, the suppression of the fraction of ionized medium in these scenarios can be partly compensated by varying other parameters, as the ionization effic…
CMB anisotropies: cosmic confusion and polarization
2001
Abstract Some physical effects producing Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies are briefly described. The CMB angular power spectrum is calculated -in appropriate cases- with the essential aim of estimating and comparing the effects produced by reionization and gravitational waves; thus a problem of Cosmic Confusion is pointed out. Accurate measurements of the CMB polarization could solve this problem in future. Some comments about the PLANCK mission —ESA project for anisotropy detection— are given.
Cosmological limits on neutrino unknowns versus low redshift priors
2015
Recent Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropy measurements from the Planck mission have significantly improved previous constraints on the neutrino masses as well as the bounds on extended models with massless or massive sterile neutrino states. However, due to parameter degeneracies, additional low redshift priors are mandatory in order to sharpen the CMB neutrino bounds. We explore here the role of different priors on low redshift quantities, such as the Hubble constant, the cluster mass bias, and the reionization optical depth $\tau$. Concerning current priors on the Hubble constant and the cluster mass bias, the bounds on the neutrino parameters may di…
Laser-stimulated two-step recombination of highly charged ions and electrons in a storage ring
1994
Two-step resonant laser-stimulated recombination of highly charged ions was performed for the first time. Nd:YAG laser pulses overlapped with an Ar[sup 18+] beam in the electron cooler of the ESR storage ring at GSI induced transitions from the continuum to the [ital n]=81 state of hydrogenlike Ar[sup 17+]. To avoid reionization in the bending magnet before reaching the detector, the [ital n]=81 population was transferred to a state well below the reionization threshold by a Ti:sapphire laser. Tuning of this laser yielded the [ital n]=81 to 36 and 37 transition-line profiles. The two-step method provides access to detailed Rydberg spectroscopy in an electron beam environment.
Late decaying 2-component dark matter scenario as an explanation of the AMS-02 positron excess
2016
The long standing anomaly in the positron flux as measured by the PAMELA and AMS-02 experiments could potentially be explained by dark matter (DM) annihilations. This scenario typically requires a large "boost factor" to be consistent with a thermal relic dark matter candidate produced via freeze-out. However, such an explanation is disfavored by constraints from CMB observations on energy deposition during the epoch of recombination. We discuss a scenario called late-decaying two-component dark matter (LD2DM), where the entire DM consists of two semi-degenerate species. Within this framework, the heavier species is produced as a thermal relic in the early universe and decays to the lighter…