Related papers: What mass are the smallest protohalos?
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…
A heavy supersymmetric spectrum at the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model is considered and the decoupling from the low energy electroweak scale is analyzed. A formal and partial proof of decoupling of supersymmetric particles in the…
Dark photons, a generic class of light gauge bosons that interact with the Standard Model (SM) exclusively through kinetic mixing, arise naturally in many gauge extensions of the SM. Motivated by these theoretical considerations, we present…
Direct detection of Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) candidates of Dark Matter (DM) is studied within the context of a self-consistent truncated isothermal model of the finite-size dark halo of the Galaxy based on the "King model"…
Earth-mass ``microhalos'' may be the first objects to virialize in the early universe. Their ability to survive the hierarchical clustering process as substructure in the larger halos that form subsequently has implications for dark matter…
One of the most popular classes of candidates for dark matter are Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), i.e. particles possessing masses and couplings falling roughly within the electroweak scale. Apart from offering a natural…
Every dark matter halo and subhalo is expected to have a prompt $\rho\propto r^{-1.5}$ central density cusp, which is a relic of its condensation out of the smooth mass distribution of the early universe. The sizes of these prompt cusps are…
Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are among the favored candidates for cold dark matter in the universe. The phenomenology of supersymmetric WIMPs has been quite developed during recent years. However, there are other…
Currently available experimental data from electroweak precision observables (EWPO), B-physics observables (BPO) and cosmological data can be combined to extract the preferred value of SUSY mass scales. We review recent results on the…
We report a first search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) using the background rejection capabilities of SuperCDMS. An exposure of 577 kg-days was analyzed for WIMPs with mass < 30 GeV/c2, with the signal region blinded.…
It has recently been shown that if the dark matter is in thermal equilibrium with a sector that is highly decoupled from the Standard Model, it can freeze-out with an acceptable relic abundance, even if the dark matter is as heavy as ~1-100…
Unparticle $\U$ with scaling dimension $d_\U$ has peculiar thermal properties due to its unique phase space structure. We find that the equation of state parameter $\omega_\U$, the ratio of pressure to energy density, is given by $1/(2d_\U…
We study a superweakly interacting dark matter particle motivated by minimal walking technicolor theories. Our WIMP is a mixture of a sterile state and a state with the charges of a standard model fourth family neutrino. We show that the…
We study how the indirect observation of dark matter substructures in the Milky Way, using recent stellar stream studies, translates into constraints for different dark matter models. Particularly, we use the measured number of dark…
If the energy density of the Universe before nucleosynthesis is dominated by a scalar field $\phi$ that decays and reheats the plasma to a low reheating temperature $T_{RH}$, neutralinos may be warm dark matter particles. We study this…
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 consider two non-standard cosmological scenaria according to which the universe is reheated to a low reheating temperature after the late decay of a scalar field or is dominated by the kinetic energy of a quintessence field in the…
Light dark matter is a compelling experimental target in light of stringent constraints on heavier WIMPs. However, for a sub-MeV WIMP, the universe is sufficiently well understood at temperatures below 10 MeV that there is no room for it to…
The decoupling of a cold relic, during a decaying-particle-dominated cosmological evolution is analyzed, the relic density is calculated both numerically and semi-analytically and the results are compared with each other. Using plausible…
Visinelli and Gondolo (2015, hereafter VG15) derived analytic expressions for the evolution of the dark matter temperature in a generic cosmological model. They then calculated the dark matter kinetic decoupling temperature…