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Can sterile neutrinos be the dark matter?

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arxiv astro-ph/0602430 v1 pith:JKLVSIAN submitted 2006-02-20 astro-ph

classification astro-ph
keywords neutrinodarkmatterlimitsterilecandidateconstraintsearly
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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We use the Ly-alpha forest power spectrum measured by the SDSS and high-resolution spectroscopy observations in combination with cosmic microwave background and galaxy clustering constraints to place limits on a sterile neutrino as a dark matter candidate in the warm dark matter (WDM) scenario. Such a neutrino would be created in the early universe through mixing with an active neutrino and would suppress structure on scales smaller than its free streaming scale. We ran a series of high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations with varying neutrino mass to describe the effect of a sterile neutrino on the Ly-alpha forest power spectrum. We find that the mass limit is m_s >14 keV at 95% c.l. (10keV at 99.9%), which is nearly an order of magnitude tighter constraint than previously published limits and is above the upper limit allowed by X-ray constraints, excluding this candidate as dark matter in this model. The corresponding limit for a neutrino that decoupled early while in thermal equilibrium is 2.5keV (95% c.l.).

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Forward citations

Cited by 4 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. Ringing of the Reionization: A first direct measurement of the intergalactic pressure smoothing scale at redshift z>4.2 as imprinted onto small-scale peculiar velocities in the Lyman-alpha forest

    astro-ph.CO 2026-07 reject novelty 6.0 of 10

    A claimed first direct measurement of the IGM pressure smoothing scale at z≈4.2–5.0 from a fitted peak in the Lyman-alpha flux power spectrum, tied to an acoustic feature in the peculiar velocity gradient.

  2. Multiple Populations of Same Sterile Neutrino as Dark Matter

    hep-ph 2025-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    A single sterile neutrino species can be produced by multiple early-universe mechanisms, yielding cold and warm dark matter populations with a two-humped momentum spectrum.

  3. Phenomenology of $keV$ sterile neutrino in minimal extended seesaw

    hep-ph 2019-08 reject novelty 3.0 of 10

    A single keV sterile neutrino in the minimal extended seesaw with A4 flavor symmetry is scanned against 0νββ, dark matter, and leptogenesis constraints, and the normal neutrino mass ordering emerges as favored.

  4. Machine Learning Techniques for Astrophysics and Cosmology: Lyman-$\alpha$ forest

    astro-ph.CO 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 2.0 of 10

    Review of machine learning applications for analyzing Lyman-alpha forest observations to probe cosmology, reionization, and dark matter.

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