Related papers: Phases of Cannibal Dark Matter
We study the possibility that dark matter re-enters kinetic equilibrium with a radiation bath after kinetic decoupling, a scenario we dub kinetic recoupling. This naturally occurs, for instance, with certain types of resonantly-enhanced…
Cosmological observations have revealed the existence of a dark matter sector, which is commonly assumed to be made up of one particle species only. However, this sector might be more complicated than we currently believe: there might be…
A simple way of explaining dark matter without modifying known Standard Model physics is to require the existence of a hidden (dark) sector, which interacts with the visible one predominantly via gravity. We consider a hidden sector…
We propose a new thermal freeze-out mechanism for ultra-heavy dark matter. Dark matter coannihilates with a lighter unstable species, leading to an annihilation rate that is exponentially enhanced relative to standard WIMPs. This scenario…
The relic abundance of thermal dark matter particles is generally assumed to be inversely proportional to their annihilation rate, which is therefore constrained by the present matter density, <sigma v> ~ 10^{-26} Omega_{dm}^{-1} cm^3…
We consider dark matter models in which the mass splitting between the dark matter particles and their annihilation products is tiny. Compared to the previously proposed Forbidden Dark Matter scenario, the mass splittings we consider are…
We continue our work on a proposal for what dark matter could be, namely that the dark matter consists of essentially macroscopic objects built from ordinary matter. The only element of new physics is that there should exist several types…
The freeze-out of dark matter (DM) depends on the evolution of the DM temperature. The DM temperature does not have to follow the standard model one, when the elastic scattering is not sufficient to maintain the kinetic equilibrium. We…
Freeze-out or freeze-in during a period of early matter domination can yield the correct dark matter abundance for small values of the velocity-averaged annihilation cross section, $\langle \sigma_{\rm ann} v \rangle_{\rm f} < 3 \times…
We investigate a simplified freeze-in dark-matter model in which the dark matter only interacts with the standard-model neutrinos via a light scalar. The extremely small coupling for the freeze-in mechanism is naturally realized in several…
If dark matter is composed of new particles, these may become captured after scattering with nuclei in the Sun, thermalise through additional scattering, and finally annihilate into neutrinos that can be detected on Earth. If dark matter…
We analyse three cosmological scenarios with interaction in the dark sector, which are particular cases of a general expression for the energy flux from vacuum to matter. In the first case the interaction leads to a transition from an…
We propose a new alternative to the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) paradigm for dark matter. Rather than being determined by thermal freeze-out, the dark matter abundance in this scenario is set by dark matter decay, which is…
A hidden sector that kinetically mixes with the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model provides simple and well-motivated dark matter candidates that possess many of the properties of a traditional weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP).…
At the tail of its velocity distribution, cold dark matter (DM) can annihilate at finite temperature to states heavier than itself. We explore the possibility that DM freezeout is dictated by these "forbidden annihilations" at the…
We propose a novel scenario to obtain the correct relic abundance for thermally under-produced dark matter. This scenario utilizes a strongly first-order phase transition at temperature $T_{\rm PT}$ that gives rise to dark matter mass $m$.…
We describe a new mechanism of dark matter production in the early Universe, based on the dynamics of a first order phase transition. We assume that dark matter particles acquire mass during the phase transition, making it energetically…
Multi-body dark matter annihilation is commonly expected to be suppressed by higher-order couplings and phase-space factors, therefore being ignored thus far. We show that, however, this does not hold for a class of nonthermal dark matter…
We investigate a novel interplay between the decay and annihilation of a particle whose mass undergoes a large shift during a first order phase transition, leading to the particles becoming trapped in the false vacuum and enhancing their…
Annihilations of weakly interacting dark matter particles provide an important signature for the possibility of indirect detection of dark matter in galaxy halos. These self-annihilations can be greatly enhanced in the vicinity of a massive…