AP1 - Strange Stars |
Speaker_ |
Mapelli, Michela |
Co-autors |
Emanuele Ripamonti; Andrea Ferrara |
Talk _ |
Impact of dark matter decays and annihilations on reionization |
Abstract _ |
We consider four different dark matter candidates (light dark matter, gravitinos, neutralinos and sterile neutrinos), for each of them deriving the decaying/annihilation rate, the influence on reionization, matter temperature and structure formation. We find that light dark matter particles (1-10 MeV) and sterile neutrinos (2-8 keV) can be sources of partial early reionization (z<~100). However, their integrated contribution to Thomson optical depth is small (<~0.01) with respect to the three year WMAP results. Finally, they can significantly affect the behavior of matter temperature, delaying the formation of first stars. On the contrary, effects of heavy dark matter candidates (gravitinos and neutralinos) on reionization and heating are minimal. |