Related papers: Temperature evolution in the Early Universe and fr…
Mechanisms for the generation of the matter-antimatter asymmetry and dark matter strongly depend on the reheating temperature T_R, the maximal temperature reached in the early universe. Forthcoming results from the LHC, low energy…
We sketch the average behaviour of the temperatures and densities of the main components of the $\Lambda$CDM universe after inflation. It is modelled as a perfect fluid with dark energy associated with the macroscopic effect of conformal…
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)…
Model-independent theoretical upper bound on the thermal dark matter (DM) mass can be derived from the maximum inelastic DM cross-section featuring the whole observed DM abundance. We deploy partial-wave unitarity of the scattering matrix…
Dark matter (DM) annihilation during hydrogen recombination (z ~ 1000) will alter the recombination history of the Universe, and affect the observed CMB temperature and polarization fluctuations. Unlike other astrophysical probes of DM,…
The secluded dark matter resides within a hidden sector and self-annihilates into lighter mediators which subsequently decay to the Standard Model (SM) particles. Depending on the coupling strength of the mediator to the SM, the hidden…
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…
We discuss the thermal evolution and Bose-Einstein condensation of ultra-light dark matter particles at finite, realistic cosmological temperatures. We find that if these particles decouple from regular matter before Standard model…
We extend the Standard Model (SM) by introducing a $U(1)'$ gauge boson and a real pseudo-scalar field, both odd under a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. The resulting low-energy spectrum consists of a stable vector as the dark matter candidate, and…
We study models in which the inflaton is coupled to two otherwise decoupled sectors, and the effect of preheating and related processes on their energy densities during the evolution of the universe. Over most of parameter space, preheating…
Dark matter communicating with the Standard Model solely via electroweak interactions provides a compelling picture. However, thermal freeze-out of electroweak doublet dark matter is generically strongly excluded by direct detection. We…
We consider dark matter as Strongly Interacting Massive Particles (SIMPs) in a hidden sector, thermally decoupled from the Standard Model heat bath. Due to its strong interactions, the number-changing processes of the SIMP lead to its…
We investigate the thermalization process of the Universe after inflation to determine the evolution of the effective temperature. The time scale of thermalization is found to be so long that it delays the evolution of the effective…
In this work we focus on the thermodynamics consistency of a new set of solutions emerging from a cosmology in which dark matter is able to decay into relativistic particles within the dark sector. It is important to stress that the…
When dark matter particles only feebly interact with plasma constituents in the early universe, they never reach thermal equilibrium. As opposed to the freeze-out mechanism, where the dark matter abundance is determined at $T \ll M$, the…
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 consider a simple extension of the standard model with fermionic dark matter (DM) and a $Z'$ gauge boson acting as a mediator. We also assume a scenario where cosmic reheating occurs at low temperatures due to the decay of a massive…
It has recently been shown that a subdominant hidden sector of atomic dark matter in the early universe provides a novel avenue towards resolving the Hubble ($H_0$) tension while maintaining good agreement with Cosmic Microwave Background…
Freeze-in dark matter (DM) mediated by a light ($\ll$ keV) weakly-coupled dark-photon is an important benchmark for the emerging low-mass direct detection program. Since this is one of the only predictive, detectable freeze-in models, we…
In warm dark matter scenarios structure formation is suppressed on small scales with respect to the cold dark matter case, reducing the number of low-mass halos and the fraction of ionized gas at high redshifts and thus, delaying…