Constraining fuzzy dark matter with the 21-cm power spectrum from Cosmic Dawn and Reionization

TL;DR

This study explores how fuzzy dark matter influences 21-cm signals from Cosmic Dawn and Reionization, revealing that its effects delay and shorten key epochs, and forecasts constraints on FDM parameters from upcoming observations.

Contribution

The paper introduces a comprehensive simulation of FDM effects on 21-cm signals, incorporating both linear and nonlinear wave dynamics, and assesses the potential of SKA1-Low to constrain FDM particle mass.

Findings

FDM suppresses small-scale halos, delaying reionization epochs.

FDM effects are dominant early but require nonlinear modeling during X-ray heating.

SKA1-Low can constrain FDM mass to within ~10% if astrophysical degeneracies are managed.

Abstract

The 21-cm signals from Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization contain valuable information on cosmological structure formation dominated by dark matter. Measurements of the 21-cm power spectrum can thus probe certain dark matter candidates. Here we investigate the impacts of fuzzy dark matter (FDM) on the 21-cm signals, taking into account both the linear matter power spectrum and the halo mass function (HMF) in FDM cosmologies. The full FDM dynamics are implemented in reionization simulations, along with a new ansatz on modulation of the FDM HMF by the linear overdensity. Not only does the suppression of FDM halos on small scales give rise to delay of the signature epochs during cosmic reionization, but these epochs are also shortened relative to the cold dark matter cosmology. In addition, we find that while the FDM effects on the 21-cm power spectrum are dominated by its linear dynamics early in Cosmic Dawn, a correct FDM HMF resulting from nonlinear wave dynamics must be considered when X-ray heating begins. We forecast the constraints on the FDM model parameters from upcoming 21-cm power spectrum measurements by SKA1-Low (central area). In FDM cosmologies with $m_\mathrm{FDM}=10^{-21}$ eV, SKA1-Low will be able to constrain the boson mass to within $\sim10$% at 2$\sigma$ confidence with a mock 1080-hour observation, if the ionizing efficiency is mass independent. However, our results show that realistic astrophysical processes are degenerate with the FDM effects, which shall severely loosen the constraints on the boson mass from 21-cm power spectrum data alone.