Related papers: The SIMP Miracle
We present a new paradigm for the production of dark-matter particles called the spontaneous freeze out, in which the decoupling from the thermal bath is enforced by the sudden increase of the dark-matter mass, due to the spontaneous…
We consider the possibility that thermalized dark-matter particles acquire their mass thanks to the spontaneous breaking of a symmetry below some critical temperature. We describe the regime where a freeze out mechanism takes place shortly…
We propose and study a scalar extension of the Standard Model which respects a $\mathbb{Z}_3$ symmetry remnant of the spontaneous breaking of a global $U(1)_\text{DM}$ symmetry. Consequently, this model has a natural dark matter candidate…
The persistent null results at dark matter (DM) direct-detection experiments have pushed the popular weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) DM to tight corners. Generic WIMP models with direct-detection rate below the current upper…
Dark matter (DM) as a thermal relic of the primordial plasma is increasingly pressured by direct and indirect searches, while the same production mechanism in a decoupled sector is much less constrained. We extend the standard treatment of…
We consider a resonant SIMP dark matter in models with two singlet complex scalar fields charged under a local dark $U(1)_D$. After the $U(1)_D$ is broken down to a $Z_5$ discrete subgroup, the lighter scalar field becomes a SIMP dark…
We consider a model of dark matter where the mediator corresponds to a superposition of a scalar and pseudoscalar, and the scenario where, after reheating, the number densities of the dark sector particles, i.e. the dark matter and the…
Dark matter could be a thermal relic comprised of strongly interacting massive particles (SIMPs), where $3 \rightarrow 2$ interactions set the relic abundance. Such interactions generically arise in theories of chiral symmetry breaking via…
The 'WIMP miracle' for the relic abundance of thermal dark matter motivates weak scale dark matter with renormalizable couplings to standard model particles. We study minimal models with such couplings that explain dark matter as a thermal…
Dark matter may be hidden, with no standard model gauge interactions. At the same time, in WIMPless models with hidden matter masses proportional to hidden gauge couplings squared, the hidden dark matter's thermal relic density may…
We consider the cosmological history of a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) coupled to a light axion-like particle (ALP) via a quadratic coupling. Although the coupling is too feeble to thermalize the ALP, coherent forward…
We propose an alternate, calculable mechanism of dark matter genesis, "thermal freeze-in," involving a Feebly Interacting Massive Particle (FIMP) interacting so feebly with the thermal bath that it never attains thermal equilibrium. As with…
Chemical equilibrium is a commonly made assumption in the freeze-out calculation of coannihilating dark matter. We explore the possible failure of this assumption and find a new conversion-driven freeze-out mechanism. Considering a…
Thermal relic dark matter has been severely constrained in recent years by direct and indirect dark matter searches, as well as multi-messenger probes of dark sectors. At the current level of experimental precision, it has become difficult…
We consider a complex scalar field as SIMP dark matter in models with gauged $Z_3$ discrete symmetry appearing as a remnant of dark local $U(1)$. Dark matter (DM) annihilates dominantly by the 3-to-2 scattering, due to the DM cubic coupling…
Strongly interacting massive particles $\pi$ have been advocated as prominent dark matter candidates when they regulate their relic abundance through odd-numbered $3 \pi \to2\pi$ annihilation. We show that successful freeze-out may also be…
We point out that a QCD-like dark sector can be coupled to the Standard Model by gauging the topological Skyrme current, which measures the dark baryon number in the infrared, to give a technically natural model for dark matter. This…
We present a new paradigm of dark matter freeze-out, where the annihilation of dark matter particles is catalyzed. We discuss in detail the regime that the depletion of dark matter proceeds via $2\chi \to 2A'$ and $3A' \to 2\chi$ processes,…
A strongly interacting massive particle (SIMP) is an interesting candidate for dark matter (DM) because its self-interaction cross section can be naturally strong enough to address the astrophysical problem of small-scale structure…
We propose a new paradigm for the thermal production of dark matter in the early universe, in which dark-matter particles acquire their mass and freeze out spontaneously from the thermal bath after a dark phase transition takes place. The…