Related papers: Inelastically Decoupling Dark Matter
An appealing framework for dark matter is provided by light hidden sectors, below the electroweak scale, feebly coupled to the Standard Model via light mediators. We consider a minimal, predictive model where both the dark matter and the…
We propose a new mechanism for dark matter freeze-out that results in the self-organized criticality in dark matter production, wherein the final relic abundance is independent of initial inputs, in analogy to scale invariance in other…
We discuss a supersymmetric model for cogenesis of dark and baryonic matter where the dark matter (DM) has mass in the 8-10 GeV range as indicated by several direct detection searches including most recently the CDMS experiment with the…
The null results in dark matter direct detection experiments imply the present scalar dark matter (DM) annihilation cross section to bottom quark pairs through the Higgs boson exchange is smaller than about $10^{-31}$ cm$^3/$s for a wide DM…
It has recently been proposed that dark matter could be a thermal relic of 3-to-2 scatterings in a strongly coupled hidden sector. We present explicit classes of strongly coupled gauge theories that admit this behavior. These are QCD-like…
We study the cosmological signatures of Invisibly Annihilating Dark Matter (IAnDM), where DM annihilates into dark radiation particles that are decoupled from the Standard Model (SM). In the simple benchmark model we consider here, such…
We study the thermodynamic history of composite Dark Matter models. We start with classifying the models by means of the symmetries partially protecting the composite Dark Matter decays and constrain their lifetimes. For each model, we…
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…
If the reheating temperature at the end of inflation is low, of order 10 MeV, then dark matter produced through ultraviolet freeze-in has a large direct detection cross section. We study such a scenario in which dark matter is hadrophilic.…
We explore the production of thermal dark matter (DM) candidates (WIMPs, SIMPs, ELDERs and Cannibals) during cosmic reheating. Assuming a general parametrization for the scaling of the inflaton energy density and the standard model (SM)…
We study a novel dark matter production mechanism based on the freeze-in through semi-production, i.e. the inverse semi-annihilation processes. A peculiar feature of this scenario is that the production rate is suppressed by a small initial…
The early kinetic decoupling (eKD) effect is an inevitable ingredient in calculating the relic density of dark matter (DM) for various well-motivated scenarios. It appears naturally in forbidden dark matter annihilation, the main focus of…
A solution to the Boltzmann equation governing the thermal relic abundance of cold dark matter is constructed by matched asymptotic approximations. The approximation of the relic density is an asymptotic series valid when the abundance does…
Dark matter (DM) particles with mass in the sub-GeV range are an attractive alternative to heavier weakly-interacting massive particles, but direct detection of such light particles is challenging. If however DM-nucleus scattering leads to…
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…
The existence of a light mediator is beneficial to some phenomena in astroparticle physics, such as the core-cusp problem and diversity problem. It can decouple from Standard Model to avoid direct detection constraints, generally realized…
Dark matter (DM) could be a pseudo-Dirac thermal relic with a small mass splitting that is coupled off-diagonally to a kinetically mixed dark photon. This model, particularly in the sub-GeV mass range, is a key benchmark for accelerator…
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 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…
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…