CMB limits on decaying dark matter beyond the ionization threshold

TL;DR

This paper extends constraints on decaying dark matter to sub-keV masses using CMB anisotropies, employing principal component analysis and validating with MCMC methods, highlighting sensitivity to energy deposition near recombination.

Contribution

It introduces a method to constrain sub-keV decaying dark matter using CMB data, extending previous limits and analyzing energy deposition effects below the hydrogen ionization threshold.

Findings

Lower bounds on dark matter decay lifetime for sub-keV masses.

Energy deposition effects are well approximated by a single parameter.

CMB anisotropies are more sensitive to energy around recombination.

Abstract

The temperature and polarization anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have been used to set constraints on decaying dark matter models down to keV masses. In this work, we extend these limits down to the sub-keV mass range. Using principal component analysis, we estimate the lower bound on the decay lifetime for a basis of different dark matter masses and Standard Model final states, from which the bound on an arbitrary model can be calculated. We validate our principal component analysis using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods and Planck 2018 data. We perform a separate analysis for models decaying into photons below the hydrogen ionization threshold. We demonstrate that for these models, the effect of energy deposition can be captured approximately by a single parameter, but the redshift dependence of the effect is very different from higher-energy injections; in particular, the perturbations to CMB anisotropies are more sensitive to energy deposited around the time of recombination.