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Title: Stepped partially acoustic dark matter, large scale structure, and the Hubble tension
A bstract We propose a new interacting dark sector model, Stepped Partially Acoustic Dark Matter (SPartAcous), that can simultaneously address the two most important tensions in current cosmological data, the H 0 and S 8 problems. As in the Partially Acoustic Dark Matter (PAcDM) scenario, this model features a subcomponent of dark matter that interacts with dark radiation at high temperatures, suppressing the growth of structure at small scales and thereby addressing the S 8 problem. However, in the SPartAcous model, the dark radiation includes a component with a light mass that becomes non-relativistic close to the time of matter-radiation equality. As this light component annihilates away, the remaining dark radiation heats up and its interactions with dark matter decouple. The heating up of the dark sector results in a step-like increase in the relative energy density in dark radiation, significantly reducing the H 0 tension, while the decoupling of dark matter and dark radiation ensures that the power spectrum at larger scales is identical to ΛCDM.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1914679
NSF-PAR ID:
10418315
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Journal of High Energy Physics
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of High Energy Physics
Volume:
2023
Issue:
6
ISSN:
1029-8479
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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