WIMP decay as a possible Warm Dark Matter model

Abstract The Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) have long been the favoured Cold Dark Matter (CDM) candidate in the standard ΛCDM model. However, owing to great improvement in the experimental sensitivity in the past decade, some parameter space of the Supersymmetric (SUSY)-based WIMP model is ruled out. In addition, a massive stable WIMP as the CDM particle is also at variance with other astrophysical observables at small scales. We consider a model that addresses both these issues. In the model, the WIMP decays into a massive particle and radiation. We study the background evolution and the first order perturbation theory (coupled Einstein-Boltzmann equations) for this model and show that the dynamics can be captured by a single parameter r = m L /q , which is the ratio of the lighter mass and the comoving momentum of the decay particle. We incorporate the relevant equations in the existing Boltzmann code CLASS to compute the matter power spectra and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) angular power spectra. The decaying WIMP model is akin to a non-thermal Warm Dark Matter (WDM) model and suppresses matter power at small scales, which could alleviate several issues that plague the CDM model at small scales. We compare the predictions of the model with CMB and galaxy clustering data. As the model deviates from the ΛCDM model at small scales, the evolution of the collapse fraction of matter in the universe is compared with the high-redshift Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) HI data. Both these data sets yield r ≳ 10 6 , which can be translated into the bounds on other parameters. In particular, we obtain the following lower bounds on the thermally-averaged self-annihilation cross-section of WIMPs, ⟨ σv ⟩, and the lighter mass: ⟨ σv ⟩ ≳ 4.9 × 10 -34 cm 3 sec -1 and m L ≳ 2.4 keV. The lower limit on m L is comparable to constraints on the mass of thermally-produced WDM particle. The limit on the self-annihilation cross-section greatly expands the available parameter space as compared to the stable WIMP scenario.