Dark Matter Structures and Small-Scale Cosmological Perturbations
Summary
Dark matter underpins the formation and evolution of cosmic structures, traceable from vast filaments of the cosmic web down to subgalactic scales. Its gravitational influence amplifies primordial density perturbations imprinted during inflation, shaping the matter power spectrum across a wide range of scales. On scales below a kiloparsec, the behaviour of these perturbations tests the fundamental properties of dark matter, including its particle mass, interaction cross-section and free-streaming length. Ultradense substructures such as ultracompact minihalos and primordial black holes can arise from enhanced power on small scales, offering unique observational signatures through gravitational lensing, annihilation signals, the 21 cm line and pulsar timing delays. Understanding these features is crucial for distinguishing between cold, warm or alternative dark matter models and for constraining the physics of the early Universe.
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Dark Matter Structures and Small-Scale Cosmological Perturbations publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in dark matter structures and small-scale cosmological perturbations across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Primordial power spectrum: Distribution of density fluctuations produced during inflation, as a function of spatial scale.
Ultracompact minihalo (UCMH): A highly dense dark matter clump formed from enhanced small-scale primordial perturbations.
Primordial black hole (PBH): A black hole formed in the early Universe due to the collapse of large density fluctuations.
Pulsar timing array: A network of millisecond pulsars monitored to detect gravitational perturbations from intervening mass concentrations.
Free-streaming length: The characteristic scale below which particle motion suppresses the growth of density perturbations.
References
- Minihalos as probes of the inflationary spectrum: accurate boost factor calculation and new CMB constraints. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (2023).
- Constraints on primordial black holes in the mixed dark matter scenarios using the ratio (3He+D)/H. European Physical Journal C (2023).
- Probing small-scale power spectra with pulsar timing arrays. Journal of High Energy Physics (2021).
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