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First constraints on fuzzy dark matter from Lyman-$\alpha$ forest data and hydrodynamical simulations

6 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

6 Pith papers citing it
abstract

We present constraints on the masses of extremely light bosons dubbed fuzzy dark matter from Lyman-$\alpha$ forest data. Extremely light bosons with a De Broglie wavelength of $\sim 1$ kpc have been suggested as dark matter candidates that may resolve some of the current small scale problems of the cold dark matter model. For the first time we use hydrodynamical simulations to model the Lyman-$\alpha$ flux power spectrum in these models and compare with the observed flux power spectrum from two different data sets: the XQ-100 and HIRES/MIKE quasar spectra samples. After marginalization over nuisance and physical parameters and with conservative assumptions for the thermal history of the IGM that allow for jumps in the temperature of up to $5000\rm\,K$, XQ-100 provides a lower limit of 7.1$\times 10^{-22}$ eV, HIRES/MIKE returns a stronger limit of 14.3$\times 10^{-22}$ eV, while the combination of both data sets results in a limit of 20 $\times 10^{-22}$ eV (2$\sigma$ C.L.). The limits for the analysis of the combined data sets increases to 37.5$\times 10^{-22}$ eV (2$\sigma$ C.L.) when a smoother thermal history is assumed where the temperature of the IGM evolves as a power-law in redshift. Light boson masses in the range $1-10 \times10^{-22}$ eV are ruled out at high significance by our analysis, casting strong doubts that FDM helps solve the "small scale crisis" of the cold dark matter models.

citation-role summary

background 2 baseline 2

citation-polarity summary

years

2026 5 2025 1

verdicts

UNVERDICTED 6

representative citing papers

Tunneling and tidal stripping in multifield ultralight dark matter halos

hep-ph · 2026-05-12 · unverdicted · novelty 7.0

A semiclassical tunneling model shows that two-field ultralight DM halos have stability bounds that can be relaxed for some density-mass ratios but become more stringent across much of the parameter space compared to single-field cases.

Analytic compression of the effective field theory of the Lyman-alpha forest

astro-ph.CO · 2026-04-10 · unverdicted · novelty 7.0

Analytic compression of EFT parameters for Lyα forest P1D via Fisher matrix and linearization allows efficient marginalization, saturating constraints with linear bias plus five effective terms and forecasting 10% and 2% precision on Δ²_p and n_p at k_p=0.7 Mpc^{-1}.

Tidal Heating of Stellar Clusters in Fuzzy Dark Matter Halos

astro-ph.CO · 2026-04-29 · unverdicted · novelty 5.0

Simulations reveal tidal heating dominates stellar cluster evolution in low-mass fuzzy dark matter halos, suppressed by reduced soliton mass and tidal stripping, so halo structure must be modeled to constrain the fuzzy dark matter particle mass.

Echoes of Global Cosmic Strings

hep-ph · 2026-04-16 · unverdicted · novelty 4.0

Global cosmic strings from symmetry breaking produce Nambu-Goldstone bosons whose cosmological signatures can be constrained by current and upcoming CMB and large-scale structure observations.

Axions as Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and Dark Radiation

hep-ph · 2025-09-21 · unverdicted · novelty 2.0

A mini-review of axion phenomenology showing how light bosons can account for dark matter, drive cosmic acceleration, or contribute to relativistic backgrounds in the early and late Universe.

citing papers explorer

Showing 6 of 6 citing papers.

  • Tunneling and tidal stripping in multifield ultralight dark matter halos hep-ph · 2026-05-12 · unverdicted · none · ref 14 · internal anchor

    A semiclassical tunneling model shows that two-field ultralight DM halos have stability bounds that can be relaxed for some density-mass ratios but become more stringent across much of the parameter space compared to single-field cases.

  • Analytic compression of the effective field theory of the Lyman-alpha forest astro-ph.CO · 2026-04-10 · unverdicted · none · ref 13

    Analytic compression of EFT parameters for Lyα forest P1D via Fisher matrix and linearization allows efficient marginalization, saturating constraints with linear bias plus five effective terms and forecasting 10% and 2% precision on Δ²_p and n_p at k_p=0.7 Mpc^{-1}.

  • Self-Interaction Bounds on Ultralight Dark Matter Couplings to Matter hep-ph · 2026-05-05 · unverdicted · none · ref 46

    Self-interaction bounds from cosmology constrain ultralight dark matter couplings to neutrinos, electrons, and light quarks via unavoidable quantum loop corrections.

  • Tidal Heating of Stellar Clusters in Fuzzy Dark Matter Halos astro-ph.CO · 2026-04-29 · unverdicted · none · ref 29

    Simulations reveal tidal heating dominates stellar cluster evolution in low-mass fuzzy dark matter halos, suppressed by reduced soliton mass and tidal stripping, so halo structure must be modeled to constrain the fuzzy dark matter particle mass.

  • Echoes of Global Cosmic Strings hep-ph · 2026-04-16 · unverdicted · none · ref 17

    Global cosmic strings from symmetry breaking produce Nambu-Goldstone bosons whose cosmological signatures can be constrained by current and upcoming CMB and large-scale structure observations.

  • Axions as Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and Dark Radiation hep-ph · 2025-09-21 · unverdicted · none · ref 127 · internal anchor

    A mini-review of axion phenomenology showing how light bosons can account for dark matter, drive cosmic acceleration, or contribute to relativistic backgrounds in the early and late Universe.