Nonthermal heavy dark matter from a first-order phase transition

In many well-motivated new physics models, the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (pNGB) from U(1) symmetry breaking emerges as a promising dark matter candidate. Its coupling, suppressed by the symmetry breaking scale, prevents thermal equilibrium in the early Universe for high scale symmetry breaking. Thus, pNGB dark matter is predominantly produced via non-thermal mechanisms, such as the freeze-in process through a new portal coupling. In this work, we explore a novel mechanism for the production of pNGB dark matter even with feeble Higgs portal coupling — arising from Hawking radiation or superradiance of primordial black holes. We systematically investigate the production of light and heavy pNGB dark matter, both for Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes. We also discuss its potential gravitational wave signatures from domain wall collapse, density perturbations, and Hawking radiation. If the ultraviolet (UV) model is considered, the recent 𝒪(100) PeV neutrino event KM3-230213A at KM3NeT can be naturally explained.

Among the various candidates for dark matter (DM), ultralight vector DM can be probed by laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors through the measurement of oscillating length changes in the arm cavities. In this context, KAGRA has a unique feature due to differing compositions of its mirrors, enhancing the signal of vector DM in the length change in the auxiliary channels. Here we present the result of a search for $U(1{)}_{B\ensuremath{-}L}$ gauge boson DM using the KAGRA data from auxiliary length channels during the first joint observation run together with GEO600. By applying our search pipeline, which takes into account the stochastic nature of ultralight DM, upper bounds on the coupling strength between the $U(1{)}_{B\ensuremath{-}L}$ gauge boson and ordinary matter are obtained for a range of DM masses. While our constraints are less stringent than those derived from previous experiments, this study demonstrates the applicability of our method to the lower-mass vector DM search, which is made difficult in this measurement by the short observation time compared to the auto-correlation timescale of DM.

If the mass of dark matter is generated from a cosmological phase transition involving the nucleation of bubbles, the corresponding bubble walls can filter out dark matter particles during the phase transition. Only particles with sufficient momentum to overcome their mass inside the bubbles can pass through the walls. As a result, the dark matter number density after the phase transition has a suppression factor $\exp(-M_\chi/2\tilde \gamma T)$, where $M_\chi$ is the dark matter mass, and $\tilde \gamma$ and $T$ are the Lorentz factor and temperature of the incoming fluid in the bubble wall rest frame, respectively. Under certain assumptions, we show that the filtering-out process can naturally provide a large suppression consistent with the observed dark matter density for a wide range of dark matter masses up to the Planck scale. Since the first-order phase transition is the decisive ingredient in our mechanism, a new connection is made between heavy dark matter scenarios and gravitational wave observations.

The freeze-in mechanism describes the out-of-equilibrium production of dark matter (DM) particles via feeble couplings or non-renormalisable interactions with large suppression scales. In the latter case, predictions suffer from a strong sensitivity to the initial conditions of the universe, such as the details of reheating. In this work, we investigate how this sensitivity is altered in the presence of a cosmological first-order phase transition. We show that freeze-in via non-renormalisable interactions is not always dominated by the highest temperatures of the Standard Model (SM) thermal bath, but instead may be governed by the period immediately after the phase transition, during which the decaying scalar field transfers its energy density to the SM radiation. We refer to this alternative production regime as DM phase-in. Using numerical and approximate analytical solutions of the relevant Boltzmann equations, we determine the conditions under which phase-in or conventional freeze-in production dominates the final DM abundance in terms of the type of interaction between the DM and SM particles, the amount of supercooling before and the evolution of the scalar field after the phase transition. In the phase-in regime, the DM abundance is correlated with the peak frequency of the gravitational wave signal associated with the phase transition, opening up new observational possibilities.

We consider extensions of the Standard Model by a hidden sector consisting of a gauge field coupled with a scalar field. In the absence of dimensionful parameters in the tree-level potential, radiative symmetry breaking will induce the electroweak scale of the Standard Model and generate mass for the hidden sector gauge field. We consider both $U(1{)}_{\mathrm{D}}$ and $SU(2{)}_{\mathrm{D}}$ dark sector gauge groups and focus on probing the models with a combination of direct detection experiments and gravitational wave observatories. We find that recent dark matter direct detection results significantly constrain the parameter space of the models where they can account for the observed dark matter relic density via freeze-out. The gravitational wave signals originating from strongly first-order electroweak phase transition in these models can be probed in future gravitational wave observatories such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. We show how the projected results complement direct detection experiments and can help probe parameter space near the neutrino floor of direct detection.

We investigate a neutral gauge boson X originated from a hidden U(1) extension of the standard model as the particle dark matter candidate. The vector dark matter interacts with the standard model fermions through heavy fermion mediators. The interactions give rise to t-channel annihilation cross section in the XX to ff process, which dominates the thermal relic abundance during thermal freeze-out and produces measurable gamma-ray flux in the galactic halo. For a light vector dark matter, if it predominantly couples to the third generation fermions, this model could explain the excess of gamma rays from the galactic center. We show that the vector dark matter with a mass of 20 ~ 40 GeV and that annihilate into the bb and tautau final states provides an excellent description of the observed gamma-ray excess. The parameter space aimed at explaining the gamma-ray excess, could also provide the correct thermal relic density and is compatible with the constraints from electroweak precision data, Higgs invisible decay, and collider searches. We also show the dark matter couplings to the nucleon from the fermion portal interactions are loop-suppressed, and only contribute to the spin-dependent cross section. So the vector dark matter could easily escape the stringent constraints from the direct detection experiments.

This review focuses on novel astrophysical probes of dark matter at galactic and sub-galactic scales. After reviewing classical tests of cold dark matter (CDM) in galaxy formation, we discuss them in light of recent results from increasingly detailed simulations and observations, and then shift our attention to more recent, less explored tests in the context of the most popular and most studied dark matter scenarios alternative to CDM. Among them, there are warm dark matter (WDM) scenarios, arising, for example, from sterile neutrinos, as well as self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) scenarios , mixed models that combine WDM and SIDM, and Bose–Einstein condensate/fuzzy dark matter scenarios (FDM/BECDM) originating from ultra-light bosons such as axions. The hypothesis that primordial black holes constitute all or most of the dark matter is also revisited in light of the LIGO/Virgo discovery of massive black holes together with very recent constraints from the internal structure of nearby ultra-faint dwarf galaxies. The important role of baryonic physics in the interpretation of various probes of dark matter, especially how it affects the ability to infer dark matter properties from observational diagnostics, is emphasized and reviewed. The effect of baryons blurs, in many cases, the underlying differences in the properties of dark matter halos arising in various dark matter models. Nevertheless, baryons can potentially be a useful tracer of such differences, for instance during the earliest phases of star formation in the lowest mass galaxies. New promising probes which will be delivered by future gravitational wave experiments are discussed, such as the occurrence rate of gravitational wave signals from merging intermediate mass black holes in dwarf galaxies tracing the inner structure of dark halos. Recent observational discoveries and analysis methods, such as the tentative detection of dark subhalos through the analysis of stellar tidal streams in the Milky Way halo, and the prospects of gravitational lensing analysis to directly detect dark substructure down to the relevant small scales, are also illustrated.

We investigate the differences in the small-scale structure of vector dark matter (VDM) and scalar dark matter (SDM) using 3+1 dimensional simulations of single/mul­ticomponent Schrödinger-Poisson system. We find that the amount of wave interference, core-to-halo mass ratio (and its scatter), spin of the core, as well as the shape of the central regions of dark matter halos can distinguish VDM and SDM. Starting with a collection of idealized halos (self-gravitating solitons) as an initial condition, we show that the system dynamically evolves to an approximately spherically symmetric configuration that has a core surrounded by a halo of interference patterns in the mass density. In the vector case, the central soliton in less dense and has a smoother transition to an r -3 tail compared to the scalar case. As compared to SDM, wave interference in VDM is ∼ 1/√3 times smaller, resulting in fewer low and high density regions, and more diffuse granules in the halo. The ratio of VDM core mass to the total halo mass is lower than that in SDM, with a steeper dependence on the total energy of the system and a slightly larger scatter. Finally, we also initiate a study of the evolution of intrinsic spin angular momentum in the VDM case. We see a positive correlation between the total intrinsic spin in the simulation and the spin of the final central core, with significant scatter. We see large intrinsic spin in the core being possible even with vanishing amounts total angular momentum in the initial conditions (at least instantaneously). Our results point towards the possibility of distinguishing VDM from SDM using astrophysical and terrestrial observations.

We study a vector dark matter (VDM) model in which the dark sector couples to the Standard Model sector via a Higgs portal. If the portal coupling is small enough the VDM can be produced via the freeze-in mechanism. It turns out that the electroweak phase transition have a substantial impact on the prediction of the VDM relic density. We further assume that the dark Higgs boson which gives the VDM mass is so light that it can induce strong VDM self-interactions and solve the small-scale structure problems of the Universe. As illustrated by the latest LUX data, the extreme smallness of the Higgs portal coupling required by the freeze-in mechanism implies that the dark matter direct detection bounds are easily satisfied. However, the model is well constrained by the indirect detections of VDM from BBN, CMB, AMS-02, and diffuse γ/X-rays. Consequently, only when the dark Higgs boson mass is at most of mathcal{O} (keV) does there exist a parameter region which leads to a right amount of VDM relic abundance and an appropriate VDM self-scattering while satisfying all other constraints simultaneously.

We study the strength of a first-order electroweak phase transition in the Inert Doublet Model (IDM), where particle dark matter (DM) is comprised of the lightest neutral inert Higgs boson. We improve over previous studies in the description and treatment of the finite-temperature effective potential and of the electroweak phase transition. We focus on a set of benchmark models inspired by the key mechanisms in the IDM leading to a viable dark matter particle candidate, and illustrate how to enhance the strength of the electroweak phase transition by adjusting the masses of the yet undiscovered IDM Higgs states. We argue that across a variety of DM masses, obtaining a strong enough first-order phase transition is a generic possibility in the IDM. We find that due to direct dark matter searches and collider constraints, a sufficiently strong transition and a thermal relic density matching the universal DM abundance is possible only in the Higgs funnel regime.

We present an improved treatment for the scattering of heavy dark matter from the ion constituents of a white dwarf. In the heavy dark matter regime, multiple collisions are required for the dark matter to become gravitationally captured. Our treatment incorporates all relevant physical effects including the dark matter trajectories, nuclear form factors, and radial profiles for the white dwarf escape velocity and target number densities. Our capture rates differ by orders of magnitude from previous estimates, which have typically used approximations developed for dark matter scattering in the Earth.We also compute the time for the dark matter to thermalize in the center of the white dwarf, including in-medium effects such as phonon emission and absorption from the ionic lattice in the case where the star has a crystallized core. We find much shorter thermalization timescales than previously estimated, especially if the white dwarf core has crystallized.We illustrate the importance of our improved approach by determining the cross section required for accumulated asymmetric dark matter to self-gravitate.

The coannihilation mechanism is a well-motivated alternative to the simple thermal freeze-out mechanism, where the dark matter relic density can be obtained through the coannihilation with a partner particle of similar mass with dark matter. When the partner particle is neutral, the inelastic nature of dark matter can help it to escape the direct detection limits. In this work, we focus on the coannihilation scenario in which the annihilation cross section is dominated by the partner-partner pair annihilation. We pay special interest on the parameter space where the coannihilation partner is long-lived, which leads to displaced signatures at the collider. In such case, it opens the heavy mass parameter space for the coannihilation dark matter, comparing with those dominated by the partner-dark matter annihilation. Specifically, we study an inelastic scalar dark matter model with a specific parameter space, which realizes the domination of partner-partner pair annihilation. Then, we study two different realizations of the coannihilation partner decay and the existing constraints from the relic abundance, direct and indirect dark matter detection and the collider searches. We focus on the channel that the long-lived coannihilation partner decays to dark matter plus leptons. The high-luminosity LHC can reach good sensitivities for such heavy dark matter and coannihilation partner around 100–700 GeV.

Measurement of TeV dark particles due to decay of heavy dark matter in the earth core at IceCube

micrOMEGAs5.0 : Freeze-in

Dark matter accumulates in the center of the Earth as the planet plows through the dark matter halo in the Milky Way. Possible annihilation of dark matter to Standard Model particles can be probed in indirect dark matter searches. Among possible messengers, neutrinos are uniquely ideal as they can escape dense regions.Therefore, neutrino telescopes, with their large volume and broad energy exposures, offer new opportunities to search for dark matter signals from the center of the Earth. However, such studies have been restricted to dark matter masses below ∼ PeV as the Earth becomes opaque to very-high-energy neutrinos.In this study, we demonstrate that neutrino telescopes operating at TeV-PeV energies can probe very heavy dark matter particles if they annihilate to tau neutrinos or tau leptons. Here, we report upper limits on the spin-independent dark matter-nucleon cross section for masses between 105 GeV and 1010 GeV by using 7.5 years of IceCube high-energy starting event observations. Our results motivate detailed analyses in IceCube and other upcoming neutrino telescopes in the Northern Hemisphere.