Ultracompact Minihalos as Probes of Inflationary Cosmology

Phys Rev Lett. 2016 Sep 30;117(14):141102. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.141102. Epub 2016 Sep 28.

Abstract

Cosmological inflation generates primordial density perturbations on all scales, including those far too small to contribute to the cosmic microwave background. At these scales, isolated ultracompact minihalos of dark matter can form well before standard structure formation, if the perturbations have sufficient amplitude. Minihalos affect pulsar timing data and are potentially bright sources of gamma rays. The resulting constraints significantly extend the observable window of inflation in the presence of cold dark matter, coupling two of the key problems in modern cosmology.