Related papers: Dark Matter and Cosmic Strings in Particle Models
If interpreted in terms of decaying dark matter, the steep rise in the positron fraction of cosmic rays above 10 GeV, as observed by the PAMELA experiment, suggests an underlying production mechanism that favors leptonic channels. We…
We study dark matter production by decaying topological defects, in particular cosmic strings. In topological defect or "top-down" (TD) scenarios, the dark matter injection rate varies as a power law with time with exponent $p-4$. We find a…
We study cosmic strings in the complex symmetron model, a scalar-tensor theory with a spontaneously broken local $U(1)$ symmetry in low matter density regions. Using numerical simulations, we show that these strings preferentially attach to…
In hidden sector models with an extra U(1) gauge group, new fields can interact with the Standard Model only through gauge kinetic mixing and the Higgs portal. After the U(1) is spontaneously broken, these interactions couple the resultant…
The standard model of particle physics is marvelously successful. However, it is obviously not a complete or final theory. I shall argue here that the structure of the standard model gives some quite concrete, compelling hints regarding…
We describe the results of high-resolution numerical simulations of string-induced structure formation in open universes and those with a non-zero cosmological constant. For models with $\Gamma = \Omega h = 0.1 - 0.2$ and a cold dark matter…
We study the effects of cosmic strings on structure formation in open universes. We calculate the power spectrum of density perturbations for two class of models: one in which all the dark matter is non baryonic (CDM) and one in which it is…
The out-of-equilibrium production of dark matter (DM) from standard model (SM) species in the early universe (freeze-in mechanism) is expected in many scenarios in which very heavy beyond the SM fields act as mediators. In this conference,…
We present small-scale structure constraints on sterile dark matter produced from a heavy mediator particle, inspired by models of moduli decay. Dark matter particles produced through this mechanism can contribute to the entire dark matter…
By numerically solving the appropriate Boltzmann equations, we study the production of sterile neutrinos in models with low reheating temperatures. We take into account the production in oscillations as well as in direct decays and compute…
We propose a new scenario of non-thermal production of neutralino cold dark matter, in which the overproduction problem of lightest supersymmetric particles (LSPs) in the standard thermal history is naturally solved. The mechanism requires…
In this article we study the significance of string loop corrections, in a perturbative moduli stabilization scenario, focusing on their role in unraveling the origin of dark radiation in the late cosmological epoch and their correlation to…
We apply phase-space density considerations to obtain lower bounds on the mass of sterile neutrino as dark matter candidate. The bounds are different for non-resonant production, resonant production in the presence of lepton asymmetry and…
The main goal of this work is to pursue an investigation of cosmic string configurations focusing on possible consequences of the Lorentz-symmetry breaking by a background vector. We analyze the possibility of cosmic strings as a viable…
We update a previous investigation of cosmological effects of a non-standard interaction between neutrinos and dark matter. Parameterizing the elastic-scattering cross section between the two species as a function of the temperature of the…
Dark matter and neutrinos provide the two most compelling pieces of evidence for new physics beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics but they are often treated as two different sectors. The aim of this paper is to determine whether…
We develop a string-inspired model for particle cosmology, based on a flipped SU(5)$\times$U(1) gauge group formulated in a no-scale supergravity framework. The model realizes Starobinsky-like inflation, which we assume to be followed by…
Motivated by astrophysical observations of excess electronic production in the galaxy, new theoretical models of the dark matter sector have been proposed in which the Standard model couples to the dark matter sector through an attractive…
We study the mutual interaction between the dark sectors (dark matter and dark energy) of the Universe by resorting to the extended thermodynamics of irreversible processes and constrain the former with supernova type Ia data. As a…
I propose a reinterpretation of cosmic dark matter in which a rigid network of cosmic strings formed at the end of inflation. The cosmic strings fulfill three functions: At recombination they provide an accretion mechanism for virializing…