Sensitivity of the Global 21-cm Signal to Dark Matter-Baryon Scattering

Abstract

With current and upcoming experiments on the horizon, the global 21-cm signal can open up new avenues for probing dark matter (DM) physics at redshifts that are otherwise inaccessible to other observables. This work investigates the effects of elastic scattering between DM and baryons on the global 21-cm signal in two distinct interacting DM (IDM) models: Coulomb-like and velocity-independent interactions. Our analysis incorporates key astrophysical parameters essential for accurately modeling the global signal, including star formation efficiency, escape fraction of ionizing photons, normalization of the X-ray luminosity, the number of Lyman-Werner photons emitted per stellar baryon, the minimum virial temperature of star-forming halos, as well as the IDM particle mass and cross section. We perform a Fisher analysis to forecast the sensitivity of four global 21-cm signal experimental scenarios as probes of DM-baryon scattering. We find that global signal experiments, even at the sensitivity of the current facilities such as EDGES and SARAS3, could improve existing cosmological and astrophysical constraints on DM-baryon scattering. Our results also highlight the degeneracies among the DM-baryon interaction cross section and astrophysical quantities. In particular, degeneracies between the IDM cross section and two astrophysical parameters, the minimum virial temperature, and Lyman-Werner photon production, can significantly impact the DM interaction inference. Conversely, the velocity-independent cross section is found to be insensitive to uncertainties in the X-ray luminosity. These findings underscore the necessity of accurately characterizing the uncertainties in astrophysical parameters to leverage the full potential of the 21-cm global signal experiments in probing IDM physics.