• Physics 15, 180
Spectra from quasars counsel that intergalactic fuel might have been heated by a type of darkish matter referred to as darkish photons.
Ok. G. Lee/Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and C. Stark/UC Berkeley
Dense fuel clouds throughout the Universe take in mild from distant quasars, producing absorption strains within the quasar spectra. A brand new research exhibits that the larger-than-predicted widths of those strains from close by fuel clouds might consequence from a type of darkish matter referred to as darkish photons [1]. These particles might warmth the clouds, resulting in a widening of the absorption strains. Different explanations of the broadening—primarily based on extra typical heating sources—have been proposed, but when the dark-photon mechanism is at work, it may also trigger heating in low-density clouds from earlier epochs of the Universe. Researchers are already planning to check this prediction.
When viewing the spectrum of a distant quasar, astronomers usually observe absorption strains coming from the intervening clouds of fuel. Essentially the most outstanding absorption line is the Lyman-alpha line of hydrogen. Certainly, some quasar spectra have a “forest” of Lyman-alpha strains, with every coming from a cloud at a unique distance from our Galaxy (or totally different epochs). By analyzing the widths, depths, and different particulars of the road shapes, researchers can extract details about the density, the temperature, and different options of the clouds. This info will be in contrast with the outcomes of cosmological simulations that attempt to reproduce the clumping of matter into galaxies and different large-scale constructions.
Comparisons between forest knowledge and simulations have usually proven good settlement, however a discrepancy seems for comparatively close by fuel clouds. Observations present that these so-called low redshift clouds produce broader absorption strains than predicted in simulations. “This can be a sign of a specific candidate of darkish matter, which known as a darkish photon,” says Andrea Caputo from CERN in Switzerland. “This darkish photon can inject some vitality and warmth up the fuel, [which makes] the strains a bit broader, in higher settlement with the info.”
P. Gaikwad/Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge
To discover how this vitality injection would possibly work, Caputo and his colleagues ran cosmic simulations with darkish photons. The speculation of darkish photons assumes that the particles can spontaneously flip into regular photons with some small likelihood, however this conversion will be enhanced when darkish photons enter an ionized fuel satisfying a resonance situation. The situation quantities to the fuel having a sure density, which is set by the darkish photon’s mass. If an intergalactic cloud has this density, then the abnormal photons generated by the resonance conversion will warmth the fuel.
Caputo stresses {that a} cloud’s density adjustments over time, so the resonance situation might be met for under a sure time frame. This time-dependent heating is exclusive to darkish photons, as different proposed sorts of heat-producing darkish matter, resembling people who decay or annihilate, are anticipated to be “switched on” on a regular basis. Nonetheless, fashions of steady heating are constrained by different cosmological observations, such because the cosmic microwave background, which don’t present indicators of unexplained heating.
The simulations of Caputo and colleagues counsel that darkish photons with an especially small mass of round 10−14 eV/c2 (roughly 1019 occasions smaller than the electron mass) would resonantly convert to photons in low-redshift Lyman-alpha clouds. This conversion would inject between 5 and seven eV of vitality per hydrogen atom into the fuel, sufficient to account for the observations.
As well as, the staff predicts that dark-photon heating may need occurred at increased redshift, however solely in so-called under-dense clouds, which up to now had increased densities—probably excessive sufficient to satisfy the resonance situation. The staff is presently operating simulations to see if this predicted heating would agree with observations of high-redshift clouds.
Nonetheless, unique darkish matter physics fashions is probably not required to elucidate the Lyman-alpha knowledge, says astrophysicist Blakesley Burkhart from Rutgers College in New Jersey. She says darkish photons are an thrilling risk, however researchers haven’t but dominated out extra typical heating sources, resembling supermassive black gap jets on the facilities of galaxies, generally known as lively galactic nuclei.
Sam Witte—a cosmologist from the College of Amsterdam—agrees that the darkish photon clarification is extra speculative than different eventualities, however he thinks the researchers have made a convincing case with testable predictions. “Ought to future research exclude typical astrophysical explanations, it’s compelling to think about the chance that we could be observing the primary nongravitational imprint of darkish matter,” he says.
–Michael Schirber
Michael Schirber is a Corresponding Editor for Physics Journal primarily based in Lyon, France.
References
- J. S. Bolton et al., “Comparability of low-redshift Lyman- forest observations to hydrodynamical simulations with darkish photon darkish matter,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 211102 (2022).
