The EDGES 21 cm anomaly and properties of dark matter
The recently claimed anomaly in the measurement of the 21 cm hydrogen absorption signal by EDGES at z∼17, if cosmological, requires the existence of new physics. The possible attempts to resolve the anomaly rely on either (i) cooling the hydrogen gas via new dark matter-hydrogen interactions or (ii)...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2018-10-01
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| Series: | Physics Letters B |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269318306488 |
| _version_ | 1819261614999732224 |
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| author | Sean Fraser Andi Hektor Gert Hütsi Kristjan Kannike Carlo Marzo Luca Marzola Antonio Racioppi Martti Raidal Christian Spethmann Ville Vaskonen Hardi Veermäe |
| author_facet | Sean Fraser Andi Hektor Gert Hütsi Kristjan Kannike Carlo Marzo Luca Marzola Antonio Racioppi Martti Raidal Christian Spethmann Ville Vaskonen Hardi Veermäe |
| author_sort | Sean Fraser |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The recently claimed anomaly in the measurement of the 21 cm hydrogen absorption signal by EDGES at z∼17, if cosmological, requires the existence of new physics. The possible attempts to resolve the anomaly rely on either (i) cooling the hydrogen gas via new dark matter-hydrogen interactions or (ii) modifying the soft photon background beyond the standard CMB one, as possibly suggested also by the ARCADE 2 excess. We argue that solutions belonging to the first class are generally in tension with cosmological dark matter probes once simple dark sector models are considered. Therefore, we propose soft photon emission by light dark matter as a natural solution to the 21 cm anomaly, studying a few realizations of this scenario. We find that the signal singles out a photophilic dark matter candidate characterised by an enhanced collective decay mechanism, such as axion mini-clusters. Keywords: Dark matter, Axions, Cosmology, Hydrogen gas, Photon background |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T19:44:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d53a78ab300d4e859a674dca91c6b8ef |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0370-2693 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T19:44:37Z |
| publishDate | 2018-10-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Physics Letters B |
| spelling | doaj.art-d53a78ab300d4e859a674dca91c6b8ef2022-12-21T17:33:35ZengElsevierPhysics Letters B0370-26932018-10-01785159164The EDGES 21 cm anomaly and properties of dark matterSean Fraser0Andi Hektor1Gert Hütsi2Kristjan Kannike3Carlo Marzo4Luca Marzola5Antonio Racioppi6Martti Raidal7Christian Spethmann8Ville Vaskonen9Hardi Veermäe10NICPB, Rävala 10, 10143 Tallinn, Estonia; Corresponding author.NICPB, Rävala 10, 10143 Tallinn, EstoniaNICPB, Rävala 10, 10143 Tallinn, Estonia; Tartu Observatory, University of Tartu, Observatooriumi 1, 61602 Tõravere, EstoniaNICPB, Rävala 10, 10143 Tallinn, EstoniaNICPB, Rävala 10, 10143 Tallinn, EstoniaNICPB, Rävala 10, 10143 Tallinn, EstoniaNICPB, Rävala 10, 10143 Tallinn, EstoniaNICPB, Rävala 10, 10143 Tallinn, Estonia; Theoretical Physics Department, CERN, Geneva, SwitzerlandNICPB, Rävala 10, 10143 Tallinn, EstoniaNICPB, Rävala 10, 10143 Tallinn, EstoniaNICPB, Rävala 10, 10143 Tallinn, Estonia; Theoretical Physics Department, CERN, Geneva, SwitzerlandThe recently claimed anomaly in the measurement of the 21 cm hydrogen absorption signal by EDGES at z∼17, if cosmological, requires the existence of new physics. The possible attempts to resolve the anomaly rely on either (i) cooling the hydrogen gas via new dark matter-hydrogen interactions or (ii) modifying the soft photon background beyond the standard CMB one, as possibly suggested also by the ARCADE 2 excess. We argue that solutions belonging to the first class are generally in tension with cosmological dark matter probes once simple dark sector models are considered. Therefore, we propose soft photon emission by light dark matter as a natural solution to the 21 cm anomaly, studying a few realizations of this scenario. We find that the signal singles out a photophilic dark matter candidate characterised by an enhanced collective decay mechanism, such as axion mini-clusters. Keywords: Dark matter, Axions, Cosmology, Hydrogen gas, Photon backgroundhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269318306488 |
| spellingShingle | Sean Fraser Andi Hektor Gert Hütsi Kristjan Kannike Carlo Marzo Luca Marzola Antonio Racioppi Martti Raidal Christian Spethmann Ville Vaskonen Hardi Veermäe The EDGES 21 cm anomaly and properties of dark matter Physics Letters B |
| title | The EDGES 21 cm anomaly and properties of dark matter |
| title_full | The EDGES 21 cm anomaly and properties of dark matter |
| title_fullStr | The EDGES 21 cm anomaly and properties of dark matter |
| title_full_unstemmed | The EDGES 21 cm anomaly and properties of dark matter |
| title_short | The EDGES 21 cm anomaly and properties of dark matter |
| title_sort | edges 21 cm anomaly and properties of dark matter |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269318306488 |
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