Using the CMB angular power spectrum to study Dark Matter-photon interactions

Ryan J. Wilkinson, Julien Lesgourgues, C{é}line Bœhm
2014 Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics  
In this paper, we explore the impact of Dark Matter-photon interactions on the CMB angular power spectrum. Using the one-year data release of the Planck satellite, we derive an upper bound on the Dark Matter-photon elastic scattering cross section of sigma_DM-photon < 8 x 10^-31 (m_DM/GeV) cm^2 (68 sigma_DM-photon < 6 x 10^-40 (m_DM/GeV) cm^2 (68 temperature squared. For such a limiting cross section, both the B-modes and the TT angular power spectrum are suppressed with respect to LCDM
more » ... ons for l > 500 and l > 3000 respectively, indicating that forthcoming data from CMB polarisation experiments and Planck could help to constrain and characterise the physics of the dark sector. This essentially initiates a new type of dark matter search that is independent of whether dark matter is annihilating, decaying or asymmetric. Thus, any CMB experiment with the ability to measure the temperature and/or polarisation power spectra at high l should be able to investigate the potential interactions of dark matter and contribute to our fundamental understanding of its nature.
doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2014/04/026 fatcat:slcieyytevcnhhz35y7dt5m2me