DESI forecast for Dark Matter-Neutrino interactions using EFTofLSS

TL;DR

This paper applies the Effective Field Theory of Large Scale Structure to models of dark matter interacting with neutrinos, assessing the potential of DESI survey data to detect such interactions.

Contribution

It demonstrates the applicability of EFTofLSS to non-standard dark matter models with suppressed small-scale structure and evaluates the prospects for detecting dark matter-neutrino interactions with DESI.

Findings

EFTofLSS accurately reproduces halo-halo power spectrum from simulations.

Current priors limit constraints on dark matter interactions.

Improved understanding of counterterms could enable detection of IDM models.

Abstract

We apply the Effective Field Theory of Large Scale Structure (EFTofLSS) to non-standard models of dark matter with suppressed small-scale structure imprinted by early-time physics, here exemplified by interacting dark matter (IDM) coupled to standard model neutrinos, and cross-check that the EFTofLSS has no trouble replicating the real-space halo-halo power spectrum from N-body simulations. We perform forecasts for a DESI ELG-like experiment using the redshift-space power spectrum and find that, under very conservative priors on these parameters, the EFTofLSS is not expected to yield strong constraints on dark matter interactions. However, with a better understanding of the evolution of counterterms and stochastic terms with redshift, realistic IDM models could in principle be detected using the full-shape power spectrum analysis of such a spectroscopic galaxy survey.