Dark Matter Freeze-in from a Z^′ Reheaton

2025/11/04 by Ghosh, Avirup, Sopov, Alexei H., Volkas, Raymond R. · 1 citation
#Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.02184

Abstract

We consider the Standard Model (SM) extended by a secluded U(1)_D gauge sector encompassing a Dirac fermion (χ) dark matter (DM), an abelian gauge boson Z^′ and a SM-singlet complex-scalar field Φ, whose radial component drives cosmic inflation. When the Higgs portal coupling is small, the Z^′ then acts as a \it ``reheaton'', dominating the energy budget of the Universe before finally yielding the SM bath, with reheating temperature < O(10) TeV, through the gauge portal interaction. We explore the possibility that DM freezes-in via non-thermal Z^′ decays before reheating ends, giving rise to substantial viable parameter space. We account for non-perturbative effects, relevant during the initial stages of reheating, using lattice simulations. We additionally show how the cosmological gravitational wave (GW) background produced by preheating and inflation allow for a direct probe of the reheating mechanism.

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Cited by

• Z' portal dark matter from post-inflationary reheating: WIMPs, FIMPs, and UFOs

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