Abstract
We revisit Lyman-α bounds on the dark matter mass in Λ Warm Dark Matter (ΛWDM) models, and derive new bounds in the case of mixed Cold plus Warm models (ΛCWDM), using a set up which is a good approximation for several theoretically well-motivated dark matter models. We combine WMAP5 results with two different Lyman-α data sets, including observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We pay a special attention to systematics, test various possible sources of error, and compare the results of different statistical approaches. Expressed in terms of the mass of a non-resonantly produced sterile neutrino, our bounds readmNRP ⩾ 8 keV (frequentist 99.7% confidence limit) or mNRP ⩾ 12.1 keV (Bayesian 95% credible interval) in the pure ΛWDM limit. For the mixed model, we obtain limits on the mass as a function of the warm dark matter fraction FWDM. Within the mass range studied here (5 keV < mNRP < ∞), we find that any mass value is allowed when FWDM < 0.6 (frequentist 99.7% confidence limit); similarly, the Bayesian joint probability on (FWDM, 1/mNRP) allows any value of the mass at the 95% confidence level, provided that FWDM < 0.35.
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