2016/09/30 by Asher Berlin, Dan Hooper, Gordan Krnjaic · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark energy #Dark fluid #Dark matter #Hidden sector #Hot dark matter #Inflation (cosmology) #Light dark matter #Mixed dark matter #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Scalar field dark matter #Standard Model (mathematical formulation) #Theoretical physics #Universe #Warm dark matter #Weakly interacting massive particles #astro-ph.CO #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.94.095019
published as Phys. Rev. D 94, 095019 (2016) · 28 pages (1 in the Appendix), 9 figures; added references and updated to published version
openalex publication_date 2016/11/17 · arxiv created 2016/12/01 · arxiv updated 2016/12/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
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 \ensuremath∼1--100 PeV. In such scenarios, both the dark and visible sectors are populated after inflation, but with independent temperatures. The lightest particle in the dark sector will be generically long-lived and can come to dominate the energy density of the Universe. Upon decaying, these particles can significantly reheat the visible sector, diluting the abundance of dark matter and thus allowing for dark matter particles that are much heavier than conventional WIMPs. In this paper, we present a systematic and pedagogical treatment of the cosmological history in this class of models, emphasizing the simplest scenarios in which a dark matter candidate annihilates into hidden sector particles which then decay into visible matter through the vector, Higgs, or lepton portals. In each case, we find ample parameter space in which very heavy dark matter particles can provide an acceptable thermal relic abundance. We also discuss possible extensions of models featuring these dynamics.