Related papers: Boosting Freeze-in through Thermalization
We explore an alternative mechanism for the production of gravitino dark matter whereby relic gravitinos originate from the decays of superpartners which are still in thermal equilibrium, i.e. via freeze-in. Contributions to the gravitino…
Thermal freeze-out is a compelling framework for naturally generating the dark matter abundance. We systematically study a broad range of dark matter and mediator particle combinations that can viably realize thermal freeze-out, focusing on…
We propose a new mechanism for thermal dark matter freezeout, termed Co-Decaying Dark Matter. Multi-component dark sectors with degenerate particles and out-of-equilibrium decays can co-decay to obtain the observed relic density. The dark…
The origin of dark matter as a thermal relic offers a compelling way in which the early universe was initially populated by dark matter. Alternative explanations typically appear exotic compared to the simplicity of thermal production.…
Dark matter freeze-in is a compelling cosmological production mechanism in which all or some of the observed abundance of dark matter is generated through feeble interactions it has with the Standard Model. In this work we present the first…
We compare dark matter production from the thermal bath in the early universe with its direct production through the decay of the inflaton. We show that even if dark matter does not possess a direct coupling with the inflaton, Standard…
Dark matter (DM) could couple to particles in the Standard Model (SM) through a light vector mediator. In the limit of small coupling, this portal could be responsible for producing the observed DM abundance through a mechanism known as…
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 present a detailed study of the production of dark matter in the form of a sterile neutrino via freeze-in from decays of heavy right-handed neutrinos. Our treatment accounts for thermal effects in the effective couplings, generated via…
A novel particle has been and still is an intriguing option to explain the strong evidence for dark matter in our universe. To quantitatively predict the dark matter energy density, two main ingredients are needed: interaction rates and an…
We consider a dark sector consisting of fermionic dark matter (DM) charged under a broken dark $U(1)_D$ gauge symmetry, interacting with the Standard Model through kinetic mixing. In such models, the DM annihilation cross section is…
We propose a new mechanism where a multi-component dark sector generates the observed dark matter abundance and baryon asymmetry and thus addresses the coincidence between the two. The thermal freeze-out of dark matter annihilating into…
We present a novel perspective on the role of inflation in the production of Dark Matter (DM). Specifically, we explore the DM production during Warm Inflation via ultraviolet Freeze-In (WIFI). We demonstrate that in a Warm Inflation (WI)…
Let's be frank: we all love WIMP dark matter (DM). However, thermal equilibrium may not be reached between the visible and dark sectors. The only interaction guaranteed between them is gravity. Gravitational DM could be generated by the…
Many new physics models include secluded sectors that interact little with the Standard Model and whose internal interactions control the dark matter abundance. If these same interactions are responsible for maintaining kinematic…
The freeze-in mechanism for dark matter (DM) requires extremely feeble interactions with the Standard Model (SM), preventing thermal equilibrium in the early Universe and typically evading experimental detection. However, for sufficiently…
We consider the possibility that along the thermal history of the Universe, dark matter (DM) would have been created from Standard Model particles, either through a kinetic mixing portal to an extra U(1) gauge field, or through the Higgs…
We examine a simple dark sector extension where the observed dark matter (DM) abundance arises from a freeze-in process through the decay of heavy vector-like quarks into a scalar dark matter candidate. The detection prospects of such DM…
We study a nonstandard dark-matter thermal history in which strong self-interactions give rise to collective many-body effects at high number density, as in strongly interacting quantum media. At early times, dark matter occupies a…
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…