Light and feebly interacting non-Abelian vector dark matter produced through vector misalignment

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the evolution of light and feebly interacting non-abelian dark gauge bosons dark matter in the early universe. We specifically work on a multi-component dark matter scenario with a SU(2)R gauge symmetry, spontaneously broken by a scalar ϕ. For sufficiently light ≲O(MeV) and feebly interacting (gR≲10−10) gauge bosons, WR3 and WR±≡WR1±iWR2 become the dark matter candidates. In this study, the portal between the dark sector and the standard model sector is provided by the right-handed electron charged under SU(2)R. We show that in the region of the parameter space where gR∼10−12, the dark gauge boson WR3 can be produced efficiently via the freeze-in mechanism, however, this mechanism fails to produce WR± sufficiently. For smaller dark gauge coupling, the relic density of three dark matter components can be obtained via the vector misalignment mechanism. Vector misalignment has already been discussed in the case of dark photon dark matter. In this study, we extend the arguments to non-abelian gauge bosons. After discussing the evolution of WRs in the early universe, we study the model's constraints and show the parameter space's allowed region.