New constraints on dark matter production during kination

Redmond, Kayla; Erickcek, Adrienne L.

doi:10.1103/physrevd.96.043511

Cited by 44 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(73 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Likewise, if thermal freeze-out occurs during an epoch in which the energy density of the universe is dominated by the kinetic energy associated with a rapidly rolling scalarfield zero mode (as in so-called "kination" scenarios [47][48][49]), one finds [50] Ω χ ∝ m χ T RH σv , (5.4) up to logarithmic corrections in T f /T RH . All of these scenarios alter the standard m χ -dependence for the resulting cosmological abundance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamical Dark Matter from thermal freeze-out

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the Dynamical Dark Matter (DDM) framework, the dark sector comprises a large number of constituent dark particles whose individual masses, lifetimes, and cosmological abundances obey specific scaling relations with respect to each other. In particular, the most natural versions of this framework tend to require a spectrum of cosmological abundances which scale inversely with mass, so that dark-sector states with larger masses have smaller abundances. Thus far, DDM model-building has primarily relied on non-thermal mechanisms for abundance generation such as misalignment production, since these mechanisms give rise to abundances that have this property. By contrast, the simplest versions of thermal freeze-out tend to produce abundances that increase, rather than decrease, with the mass of the dark-matter component. In this paper, we demonstrate that there exist relatively simple modifications of the traditional thermal freeze-out mechanism which "flip" the resulting abundance spectrum, producing abundances that scale inversely with mass. Moreover, we demonstrate that a far broader variety of scaling relations between lifetimes, abundances, and masses can emerge through thermal freeze-out than through the non-thermal mechanisms previously considered for DDM ensembles. The results of this paper thus extend the DDM framework into the thermal domain and essentially allow us to "design" our resulting DDM ensembles at will in order to realize a rich array of resulting dark-matter phenomenologies.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamical Dark Matter from thermal freeze-out

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…[68,[72][73][74][75][76], and has recently been investigated in Ref. [77], in light of recent data. Ref.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Non-)Thermal Production of WIMPs during Kination

Visinelli

2018

Symmetry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding the nature of the Dark Matter (DM) is one of the current challenges in modern astrophysics and cosmology. Knowing the properties of the DM particle would shed light on physics beyond the Standard Model and even provide us with details of the early Universe. In fact, the detection of such a relic would bring us information from the pre-Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) period, an epoch from which we have no direct data, and could even hint at inflation physics. In this work, we assume that the expansion rate of the Universe after inflation is governed by the kinetic energy of a scalar field φ, in the so-called "kination" model. Adding to previous work on the subject, we assume that the φ field decays into both radiation and DM particles, which we take to be Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). The present abundance of WIMPs is then fixed during the kination period through either a thermal "freeze-out" or "freeze-in" mechanism, or through a non-thermal process governed by the decay of φ. We explore the parameter space of this theory with the requirement that the present WIMP abundance provides the correct relic budget. Requiring that BBN occurs during the standard cosmological scenario sets a limit on the temperature at which the kination period ends. Using this limit and assuming the WIMP has a mass mχ = 100 GeV, we obtain that the thermally-averaged WIMP annihilation cross section has to satisfy the constraints 4 × 10 −16 GeV −2 σv 2 × 10 −5 GeV −2 in order for having at least one of the production mechanism to yield the observed amount of DM. This result shows how the properties of the WIMP particle, if ever measured, can yield information on the pre-BBN content of the Universe.

show abstract

“…Since the universe is approximately RD at the onset and the end of the EMD phase, and after using Eq. (14) with c ∼ 0.1, the inequality in (9) can now be written as: m χ 120 g * ,dec g * ,R g * ,0…”

Section: B An Examplementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unless it is driven by oscillations of the inflaton itself, it is typically preceded by a RD phase or a period with a more general equation of state. Thermal freeze-out or freeze-in at these early stages can also contribute to the DM relic abundance (for example, see [9][10][11]) and thereby affect the allowed parameter space. Since freeze-out occurs at temperatures below the DM mass m χ , pre-EMD production will only be relevant for (very) large DM masses in this case.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Freeze-in production of dark matter prior to early matter domination

Allahverdi

Osiński

2020

Phys. Rev. D

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Freeze-out or freeze-in during a period of early matter domination can yield the correct dark matter abundance for σannv f < 3 × 10 −26 cm 3 s −1 . However, in a generic non-standard thermal history, such a period is typically preceded by other phases. Here, we study nonthermal production of dark matter in a simple post-inflationary history where a radiation-dominated phase after reheating is followed by an epoch of early matter domination. Focusing on the freeze-in regime, we show that dark matter production prior to early matter domination can dominate the relic abundance in large parts of the parameter space, including weak scale dark matter masses, and the allowed regions are highly dependent on the entire post-inflationary history. Moreover, for a very broad range of σannv f spanning over several decades, dark matter particles can start in chemical equilibrium early on and decouple during early matter domination, thereby rendering the relic abundance essentially independent of σannv f . We briefly discuss connections to different observables as a possible means to test the elusive freeze-in scenario in this case.

show abstract

New constraints on dark matter production during kination

Cited by 44 publications

References 51 publications

Dynamical Dark Matter from thermal freeze-out

Dynamical Dark Matter from thermal freeze-out

(Non-)Thermal Production of WIMPs during Kination

Freeze-in production of dark matter prior to early matter domination

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About