Dark matter annihilation in the Epoch of Reionisation

Abstract

Some of the leading dark matter candidates feature self-annihilation. Injected energy from dark matter annihilation not only provides an additional source of heating and ionisation of the intergalactic medium but could also change the evolution of the first stars and galaxies. These changes may be detectable in the 21cm line from neutral hydrogen. The following work examines the impact dark matter annihilation has on early structure formation and how this could help constrain dark matter models.