Constraints on warm dark matter models from high-redshift long gamma-ray bursts de Souza, R. S. Mesinger, A. Ferrara, A. Haiman, Zoltán Perna, R. Yoshida, N. Structures in Warm Dark Matter (WDM) models are exponentially suppressed below a certain scale, characterized by the dark matter particle mass, mx. Since structures form hierarchically, the presence of collapsed objects at high-redshifts can set strong lower limits on mx. We place robust constraints on mx using recent results from the {\it Swift} database of high-redshift gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We parameterize the redshift evolution of the ratio between the cosmic GRB rate and star formation rate (SFR) as ∝(1+z)α, thereby allowing astrophysical uncertainties to partially mimic the cosmological suppression of structures in WDM models. Using a maximum likelihood estimator on two different z>4 GRB subsamples (including two bursts at z>8), we constrain mx≳1.6-1.8 keV at 95% C.L., when marginalized over a flat prior in α. We further estimate that 5 years of a SVOM-like mission would tighten these constraints to mx≳2.3 keV. Our results show that GRBs are a powerful probe of high-redshift structures, providing robust and competitive constraints on mx. Oxford University Press 2013 info:eu-repo/semantics/article doc-type:article text http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_2df8fbb1 https://research-explorer.ista.ac.at/record/17646 de Souza RS, Mesinger A, Ferrara A, Haiman Z, Perna R, Yoshida N. Constraints on warm dark matter models from high-redshift long gamma-ray bursts. <i>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</i>. 2013;432(4):3218-3227. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stt674">10.1093/mnras/stt674</a> eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1093/mnras/stt674 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/0035-8711 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1365-2966 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess