Related papers: Dark matter as a heavy thermal hot relic
Since the thermal history of the Universe is unknown before the epoch of primordial nucleosynthesis, the largest temperature of the radiation dominated phase (the reheating temperature) might have been as low as 1 MeV. We perform a…
The unitary bound restricts thermal relics to be lighter than $100$ TeV. This work investigates the production of ultraheavy dark matter and WIMPs in the presence of primordial black holes. Firstly, we describe how Hawking evaporation can…
We introduce a novel mechanism where processes that preserve the number density of the dark sector set the relic density of a thermal particulate dark matter. In a relatively degenerate multipartite dark sector if there is a considerable…
We analyze the dark matter problem in the context of brane cosmology. We investigate the impact of the non-conventional brane cosmology on the relic abundance of non-relativistic stable particles in high and low reheating scenarios. We show…
A larger Planck scale during an early epoch leads to a smaller Hubble rate, which is the measure for efficiency of primordial processes. The resulting slower cosmic tempo can accommodate alternative cosmological histories. We consider this…
The evaporation of primordial black holes (PBH) with masses ranging from $\sim 10^{-1}$ to $\sim 10^9$ g could have generated the whole observed dark matter (DM) relic density. It is typically assumed that after being produced, its…
In this work we consider a simple model for dark matter and identify regions of parameter space where the relic abundance is set via kinematic thresholds, which open and close due to thermal effects. We discuss instantaneous freeze-out,…
Dark matter particles can be gravitationally trapped by celestial bodies, motivating searches for localized annihilation or decay. If neutrinos are among the decay products, then IceCube and other neutrino observatories could detect them.…
In models of Asymmetric Dark Matter (ADM) the relic density is set by a particle asymmetry in an analogous manner to the baryons. Here we explore the scenario in which ADM decouples from the Standard Model thermal bath during an early…
In this article, we show that in the usual type-I seesaw framework, augmented solely by a neutrino portal interaction, the dark matter (DM) relic density can be created through freeze-in in a manner fully determined by the seesaw…
We consider the production of dark matter during the process of reheating after inflation. The relic density of dark matter from freeze-in depends on both the energy density and energy distribution of the inflaton scattering or decay…
We study dark matter production from mediator decays in scenarios with an epoch of early matter domination. Particles that mediate interactions between dark matter and the standard model particles are kinematically accessible to the thermal…
We summarize here our studies \cite{Chu:2022xuh,Chu:2023jyb,Chu:2024rrv} on two distinct scenarios for MeV-mass thermal dark matter freeze-out. First, we determine the minimal viable mass for dark matter below tens of MeV, considering…
We study the general properties of the freezeout of a thermal relic. We give analytic estimates of the relic abundance for an arbitrary freezeout process, showing when instantaneous freezeout is appropriate and how it can be corrected when…
If the dark matter is produced in the early universe prior to Big Bang nucleosynthesis, a modified cosmological history can drastically affect the abundance of relic dark matter particles. Here, we assume that an additional species to…
We analyse the relic neutralino density in supersymmetric models with an intermediate unification scale. In particular, we present concrete cosmological scenarios where the reheating temperature is as small as $\cal{O}$ $1 - 1000$ MeV).…
Since the report of the PeV-TeV neutrinos by the IceCube Collaboration, various particle physics models have been proposed to explain the neutrino spectrum by dark matter particles decaying into neutrinos and other Standard Model…
The observed dark matter abundance in the Universe can be explained with non-thermal, heavy dark matter models. In order for dark matter to still be present today, its lifetime has to far exceed the age of the Universe. In these scenarios,…
The universe has evolved through several phases as its various constituents dominated its energy content. Candidate dark matter particles may have undergone freeze-out during any such phase. While the standard freeze-out scenarios have been…
A thermally decoupled hidden sector of particles, with a mass gap, generically enters a phase of cannibalism in the early Universe. The Standard Model sector becomes exponentially colder than the hidden sector. We propose the Cannibal Dark…