Related papers: Dark Matter and Cosmic Strings in Particle Models
We propose a mechanism of nonthermal production of a neutralino cold dark matter particle, $\chi$, from the decay of cosmic strings which form from the spontaneous breaking of a U(1) gauge symmetry, such as $U_{B-L}(1)$, in an extension of…
Cosmic strings can be created in the early universe during symmetry-breaking phase transitions, such as might arise if the gauge structure of the standard model is extended by additional U(1) factors at high energies. Cosmic strings present…
In this paper we propose a dark matter model and study aspects of its phenomenology. Our model is based on a new dark matter sector with a U(1)' gauge symmetry plus a discrete symmetry added to the Standard Model of particle physics. The…
Non-thermal cosmological histories are capable of greatly increasing the available parameter space of different particle physics dark matter (DM) models and are well-motivated by the ubiquity of late-decaying gravitationally coupled scalars…
We investigate observable cosmological aspects of sterile neutrino dark matter produced via the freeze-in mechanism. The study is performed in a framework that admits many cosmologically interesting variations: high temperature production…
The recent PAMELA and ATIC/Fermi/HESS experiments have observed an excess of electrons and positrons, but not anti-protons, in the high energy cosmic rays. To explain this result, we construct a decaying hidden dark matter model in string…
We study neutralino dark matter within a semi-realistic type I string model, where supersymmetry breaking arises from F-terms of moduli fields parameterised in terms of Goldstino angles, which automatically gives rise to non-universal soft…
Reheating in string compactifications is generically driven by the decay of the lightest modulus which produces Standard Model particles, dark matter and light hidden sector degrees of freedom that behave as dark radiation. This common…
Dark matter may be coupled to dark radiation: light degrees of freedom that mediate forces between dark sector particles. Cosmological constraints favor dark radiation that is colder than Standard Model radiation. In models with fixed…
We propose a new scenario for generating a relic density of non-relativistic dark matter in the context of heterotic string theory. Contrary to standard thermal freeze-out scenarios, dark-matter particles are abundantly produced while still…
Cosmic strings are topological defects possibly formed in the early Universe, which may be observable due to their gravitational effects on the cosmic microwave background radiation or gravitational wave experiments. To this effect it is…
We show that in a wide class of string derived models of particle physics, heavy string modes with masses around the GUT scale can serve as a viable dark matter candidate. These heavy string modes wind around specific cycles in the…
The origin of dark matter in the universe may be weakly interacting scalar particles produced by amplification of quantum fluctuations during a period of dilaton-driven inflation. We present two interesting cases, the case of small…
Sterile neutrinos produced through oscillations are a well motivated dark matter candidate, but recent constraints from observations have ruled out most of the parameter space. We analyze the impact of new interactions on the evolution of…
Within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), LHC bounds suggest that scalar superpartner masses are far above the electroweak scale. Given a high superpartner mass, nonthermal dark matter is a viable alternative to WIMP dark…
We propose that the dark matter of our Universe could be sterile neutrinos which reside within the twin sector of a mirror twin Higgs model. In our scenario, these particles are produced through a version of the Dodelson-Widrow mechanism…
The appearance of scalar/moduli fields in the early universe, as motivated by string theory, naturally leads to non-thermal "moduli cosmology". Such cosmology provides a consistent framework where the generation of radiation, baryons, and…
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…
In the presence of interactions between neutrinos and dark matter (DM), DM can potentially be produced via freeze-in from the neutrino sector. We investigate the implications of such a scenario for the evolution of both DM and neutrinos in…
Axions are produced during a period of dilaton-driven inflation by amplification of quantum fluctuations. We show that for some range of string cosmology parameters and some range of axion masses, primordial axions may constitute a large…