Related papers: Cosmic Deconstructionism
The nature of the cosmic dark matter is unknown. The most compelling hypothesis is that dark matter consists of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the 100 GeV mass range. Such particles would annihilate in the galactic halo,…
In co-annihilation scenarios, the weakly interacting dark matter particle (WIMP) is close in mass to another particle that can decay into the WIMP. As a result, both particles freeze out at roughly the same time in the early universe, and…
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…
Dark matter is thought to make up most of the matter density of the Universe, yet its true nature remains uncertain. Among dark matter theories, Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are a prominent candidate for dark matter because…
Dark matter caustics are small scale, high density structures believed to exist in galaxies like ours. If the dark matter consists of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, these caustics may be detected by means of the gamma rays produced…
Cosmologists have long wondered whether the Universe will eventually re-collapse and end with a Big Crunch, or expand forever, becoming increasingly cold and empty. Recent evidence for a flat Universe, possibly with a cosmological constant…
We review severe constraints on asymmetric bosonic dark matter based on observations of old neutron stars. Under certain conditions, dark matter particles in the form of asymmetric bosonic WIMPs can be effectively trapped onto nearby…
Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are one of very few probes of cosmology before Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). We point out that in scenarios in which the Universe evolves in a non-standard manner during and after WIMP kinetic…
Since neither supersymmetry nor dark matter WIMPs have yet been observed, pessimism about their reality has been growing. Here we discuss a new supersymmetric theory and a new dark matter candidate which are naturally consistent with…
We initiate the study of dark matter models based on a gapped continuum. Dark matter consists of a mixture of states with a continuous mass distribution, which evolves as the universe expands. We present an effective field theory describing…
The most compelling and popular models for dark matter predict that it should congregate and annihilate in stellar cores. Stars where annihilation contributes substantially to the total energy budget look very different to those with which…
This write--up gives a rather elementary introduction into particle physics aspects of the cosmological Dark Matter puzzle. A fairly comprehensive list of possible candidates is given; in each case the production mechanism and possible ways…
If dark matter decays to electromagnetically-interacting particles, it can inject energy into the baryonic gas and thus affect the processes of recombination and reionization. This leaves an imprint on the cosmic microwave background (CMB):…
Dark matter, proposed decades ago as a speculative component of the universe, is now known to be the vital ingredient in the cosmos, eight times more abundant than ordinary matter, one quarter of the total energy density and the component…
A better understanding of the formation of large-scale structure in the Universe is arguably the most pressing question in cosmology. The most compelling and promising theoretical paradigm, Inflation + Cold Dark Matter, holds that the…
The existence of dark matter was suggested, using simple gravitational arguments, seventy years ago. Although we are now convinced that most of the mass in the Universe is indeed some non-luminous matter, we still do not know its…
Some part of the relic Dark Matter is distributed in small-scale clumps which survived structure formation in inflation cosmological scenario. The annihilation of DM inside these clumps is a strong source of stable charged particles which…
Asymmetric dark matter theories generically allow for mass terms that lead to particle-antiparticle mixing. Over the age of the Universe, dark matter can thus oscillate from a purely asymmetric configuration into a symmetric mix of…
These lectures are intended to provide a brief pedagogical review of dark matter for the newcomer to the subject. We begin with a discussion of the astrophysical evidence for dark matter. The standard weakly-interacting massive particle…
We ask whether the universe can be a patchwork consisting of distinct regions of matter and antimatter. We demonstrate that, after recombination, it is impossible to avoid annihilation near regional boundaries. We study the dynamics of this…