A frequentist view on the two-body decaying dark matter model

Abstract: Decaying dark matter (DDM) has emerged as an interesting framework to extend the Lambda-cold-dark-matter (LCDM) model, as many particle physics models predict that dark matter may not be stable over cosmic time and can impact structure formation. In particular, a model in which DM decays at a rate $\Gamma$ and imprints a velocity kick $v$ onto its decay products leads to a low amplitude of fluctuations, as quantified by the parameter $S_8$, in better agreement with that measured by some past weak lensing surveys. Bayesian analyses have provided mixed conclusions regarding its viability, with a reconstructed clustering amplitude only slightly below the standard LCDM value. In this paper, we perform a frequentist analysis of Planck+BAO data. We find $1\sigma$ constraints on the half-life of $6.93^{+7.88}_{-2.85}$Gyr and a velocity kick of $1250^{+1450}_{-1000}$km/s which differ from their Bayesian counterparts, indicating the presence of volume effects. Moreover, we find that under the DDM model, the frequentist analysis predicts lower values of $S_8$, in agreement with those found by KiDS-1000 and DES-Y3 at $1.5\sigma$. We further show that previously derived KiDS-1000 constraints that appeared to exclude the best-fit model from Planck data were driven by priors on the primordial parameters $A_s$ and $n_s$. When those are removed from the analysis, KiDS-1000 constraints on the DDM parameters are fully relaxed. It is only when applying Planck-informed priors on $A_s$ and $n_s$ to the KiDS-1000 analysis that one can constrain the model. We further highlight that in the absence of such priors, the region of scales best-measured by KiDS-1000 does not exactly match the $S_8$ kernel, but rather a slightly smaller range of scales centered around $k\sim 0.3\, h/$Mpc. One must thus be careful in applying $S_8$ constraints to a model instead of the full data likelihood.