Fuzzy Dark Matter and the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Data

TL;DR

This study uses DES-Y1 weak lensing data combined with Planck CMB data to place new, stringent lower bounds on the mass of fuzzy dark matter particles, improving previous constraints significantly.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis combining DES-Y1 and Planck data to constrain fuzzy dark matter, incorporating advanced halo modeling and non-linear effects.

Findings

No evidence of FDM suppression in shear correlation

Established a new 95% C.L. lower limit log10m > -23

Improved mass bounds by nearly two orders of magnitude

Abstract

Gravitational weak lensing by dark matter halos leads to a measurable imprint in the shear correlation function of galaxies. Fuzzy dark matter (FDM), composed of ultralight axion-like particles of mass $m\sim 10^{-22}\text{ eV}$, suppresses the matter power spectrum and shear correlation with respect to standard cold dark matter. We model the effect of FDM on cosmic shear using the optimised halo model \textsc{HMCode}, accounting for additional suppression of the mass function and halo concentration in FDM as observed in $N$-body simulations. We combine Dark Energy Survey year 1 (DES-Y1) data with the \emph{Planck} cosmic microwave background anisotropies to search for shear correlation suppression caused by FDM. We find no evidence of suppression compared to the preferred cold DM model, and thus set a new lower limit to the FDM particle mass. Using a log-flat prior and marginalising over uncertainties related to the non-linear model of FDM, we find a new, independent 95\% C.L. lower limit $\log_{10}m>-23$ combining \emph{Planck} and DES-Y1 shear, an improvement of almost two orders of magnitude on the mass bound relative to CMB-only constraints. Our analysis is largely independent of baryonic modelling, and of previous limits to FDM covering this mass range. Our analysis highlights the most important aspects of the FDM non-linear model for future investigation. The limit to FDM from weak lensing could be improved by up to three orders of magnitude with $\mathcal{O}(0.1)$ arcmin cosmic shear angular resolution, if FDM and baryonic feedback can be simultaneously modelled to high precision in the halo model.