Bound Dark Matter (BDM) towards solving the Small Scale Structure Problem

TL;DR

This paper proposes a Bound Dark Matter (BDM) model where dark matter particles acquire mass through a non-perturbative phase transition, significantly impacting small-scale structure formation and offering new constraints from cosmological data.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel BDM model with an abrupt velocity transition, analyzing its effects on structure formation and deriving observational constraints on the transition parameters.

Findings

BDM can reduce the free-streaming scale compared to warm dark matter.

Constraints on the transition scale ac are established using cosmological data.

BDM models with abrupt velocity transitions significantly alter the Jeans mass and small-scale structure formation.

Abstract

Cosmological observations such as structure formation, CMB, and cosmic distance ladder set tight constraints to the amount and nature of dark matter (DM). In particular structure formation strongly constraints not only the amount of energy density, but also the time when DM became non-relativistic, anr. Standard cold and thermic warm DM particles have a smooth transition from being relativistic at high energies to a non-relativistic regime since the mass of these particles is constant while the velocity redshifts with the expansion of the universe. However, here we explore the possibility that the DM particle acquires a non-perturbative mass at a phase transition scale and a scale factor ac. This transition acquired a more fundamental meaning for the Bound Dark Matter (BDM) model because they describe a particle getting its mass through a non-perturbative process. These BDM particles may go from being relativistic to non-relativistic at ac, which implies an abrupt transition of the velocity of the particles vc at that time, affecting the equation of state and the cosmological evolution. Here we study the cosmological impact of the values of vc and the scale transition ac and they by reducing the free-streaming scale and therefore the small scale structure. Using CMB Plank, Supernovae SNIa, and BAO data, we constrain the valid region in the parameter space ac-vc putting upper bounds to ac but not restricting vc. For instance, the transition must be ac<$2.66\times10^{-6}$ for vc = 0. We also find that the free-streaming and the Jeans mass of the dark matter particle is highly influenced by the velocity vc, for example, a 3 keV WDM have a Jeans mass of Mfs=$1.97\times10^7$ Msun/h^3 but an equivalent BDM with the same anr but an abrupt transition in the velocity, vc~0 would have a Jeans mass of Mfs=$2.08x10^4$ Msun/h^3 which significantly changes the large scale structure formation.