Soliton merger rates and enhanced axion dark matter decay

Xiaolong Du; David J.E. Marsh; Miguel Escudero; Andrew Benson; Diego Blas; Charis Kaur Pooni; Malcolm Fairbairn

doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.109.043019

Soliton merger rates and enhanced axion dark matter decay

Xiaolong Du, David J.E. Marsh, Miguel Escudero, Andrew Benson, Diego Blas, Charis Kaur Pooni, Malcolm Fairbairn

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Solitons are observed to form in simulations of dark matter (DM) halos consisting of bosonic fields. We use the extended Press-Schechter formalism to compute the mass function of solitons, assuming various forms for the relationship between halo mass and soliton mass. We further provide a new calculation of the rate of soliton major mergers. Solitons composed of axion DM are unstable above a critical mass, and decay to either relativistic axions or photons, depending on the values of the coupling constants. We use the computed soliton major merger rate to predict the enhanced DM decay rate due to soliton instability. For certain values of currently allowed axion parameters, the energy injection into the intergalactic medium from soliton decays to photons is comparable to or larger than the energy injection due to core collapse supernovae at z>10. A preceding paper explores the phenomenology of such an energy injection.

Original language	English
Article number	043019
Journal	Physical Review D
Volume	109
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.043019
Publication status	Published - 15 Feb 2024

Access to Document

10.1103/PhysRevD.109.043019

Cite this

@article{0246040b4b824274938a94a62124e488,

title = "Soliton merger rates and enhanced axion dark matter decay",

abstract = "Solitons are observed to form in simulations of dark matter (DM) halos consisting of bosonic fields. We use the extended Press-Schechter formalism to compute the mass function of solitons, assuming various forms for the relationship between halo mass and soliton mass. We further provide a new calculation of the rate of soliton major mergers. Solitons composed of axion DM are unstable above a critical mass, and decay to either relativistic axions or photons, depending on the values of the coupling constants. We use the computed soliton major merger rate to predict the enhanced DM decay rate due to soliton instability. For certain values of currently allowed axion parameters, the energy injection into the intergalactic medium from soliton decays to photons is comparable to or larger than the energy injection due to core collapse supernovae at z>10. A preceding paper explores the phenomenology of such an energy injection.",

author = "Xiaolong Du and Marsh, {David J.E.} and Miguel Escudero and Andrew Benson and Diego Blas and Pooni, {Charis Kaur} and Malcolm Fairbairn",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2024 American Physical Society. ",

year = "2024",

month = feb,

day = "15",

doi = "10.1103/PhysRevD.109.043019",

language = "English",

volume = "109",

journal = "Physical Review D",

issn = "2470-0010",

publisher = "American Physical Society (APS)",

number = "4",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Soliton merger rates and enhanced axion dark matter decay

AU - Du, Xiaolong

AU - Marsh, David J.E.

AU - Escudero, Miguel

AU - Benson, Andrew

AU - Blas, Diego

AU - Pooni, Charis Kaur

AU - Fairbairn, Malcolm

PY - 2024/2/15

Y1 - 2024/2/15

N2 - Solitons are observed to form in simulations of dark matter (DM) halos consisting of bosonic fields. We use the extended Press-Schechter formalism to compute the mass function of solitons, assuming various forms for the relationship between halo mass and soliton mass. We further provide a new calculation of the rate of soliton major mergers. Solitons composed of axion DM are unstable above a critical mass, and decay to either relativistic axions or photons, depending on the values of the coupling constants. We use the computed soliton major merger rate to predict the enhanced DM decay rate due to soliton instability. For certain values of currently allowed axion parameters, the energy injection into the intergalactic medium from soliton decays to photons is comparable to or larger than the energy injection due to core collapse supernovae at z>10. A preceding paper explores the phenomenology of such an energy injection.

AB - Solitons are observed to form in simulations of dark matter (DM) halos consisting of bosonic fields. We use the extended Press-Schechter formalism to compute the mass function of solitons, assuming various forms for the relationship between halo mass and soliton mass. We further provide a new calculation of the rate of soliton major mergers. Solitons composed of axion DM are unstable above a critical mass, and decay to either relativistic axions or photons, depending on the values of the coupling constants. We use the computed soliton major merger rate to predict the enhanced DM decay rate due to soliton instability. For certain values of currently allowed axion parameters, the energy injection into the intergalactic medium from soliton decays to photons is comparable to or larger than the energy injection due to core collapse supernovae at z>10. A preceding paper explores the phenomenology of such an energy injection.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85184869746&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevD.109.043019

DO - 10.1103/PhysRevD.109.043019

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85184869746

SN - 2470-0010

VL - 109

JO - Physical Review D

JF - Physical Review D

IS - 4

M1 - 043019

ER -

Soliton merger rates and enhanced axion dark matter decay

Abstract

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this