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Garzilli, A., Magalich, A., Theuns, T., Frenk, C.S., Weniger, C., Ruchayskiy, O., et al. (2019) The Lyman-α Forest as a Diagnostic of the Nature of the Dark Matter. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 489, 3456-3471.
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2188
has been cited by the following article:
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TITLE:
Study of Warm Dark Matter with the Lyman-α Forest
AUTHORS:
Bruce Hoeneisen
KEYWORDS:
Lyman-α Forest, Warm Dark Matter, Free Streaming, Dark Matter
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics,
Vol.16 No.3,
July
20,
2026
ABSTRACT: Quasar light becomes absorbed by the Lyman-α line of neutral hydrogen in “clouds” along the line-of-sight in the highly ionized intergalactic medium after re-ionization. The received flux spectrum is known as the “Lyman-α forest”. Limits on the dark matter “standard thermal relic mass” have been obtained in the literature from the power spectrum of the Lyman-α forest, e.g.
m
th
>5.7
keV. These limits are in tension with four independent estimates of the dark matter warmness:
0.6≲
m
th
≲1.6
keV. To try to understand this tension we attempt to measure the dark matter warmness by two methods: the power spectrum of the Lyman-α forest, and the width of individual absorption lines, e.g. “Lyman-α trees”. We obtain a measurement of the dark matter warmness with the Lyman-α forest power spectrum, in agreement with the four independent estimates. In conclusion, the warm dark matter free-streaming is clearly observed as a cut-off of the Lyman-α forest power spectrum.