2021/08/31 by Rouzbeh Allahverdi, Jacek K. Osiński
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Big Bang nucleosynthesis #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Gravitino #Nucleosynthesis #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Supergravity #Supernova #Supersymmetry #Universe #astro-ph.CO #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.105.023502
15 pages, 8 figures; reference added
arxiv created 2021/09/10 · openalex publication_date 2022/01/05 · arxiv updated 2022/01/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We show that a nonstandard cosmological history with a period of early matter domination driven by a sub-TeV visible-sector particle can arise rather naturally. This scenario involves a long-lived standard model (SM) singlet that acquires a thermal abundance at high temperatures from decays and inverse decays of a parent particle with SM charge(s), and subsequently dominates the energy density of the Universe as a frozen species. Entropy generation at the end of early matter domination dilutes the abundance of dangerous relics (such as gravitinos) by a factor as large as 104. The scenario can accommodate the correct dark matter relic abundance for cases with ⟨\ensuremathσannv⟩f\ensuremath\lessgtr3\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10^\ensuremath-26 cm3 s^\ensuremath-1. More importantly, the allowed parameter space can be directly probed by proposed searches for neutral long-lived particles at the energy frontier, allowing us to use particle physics experiments to reconstruct the cosmological history just prior to big bang nucleosynthesis.