Precise dark matter relic abundance in decoupled sectors

Torsten Bringmann,Paul Frederik Depta,Marco Hufnagel,Kai Schmidt-Hoberg

doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2021.136341

Torsten Bringmann, Paul Frederik Depta + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2021.136341

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Abstract

Dark matter (DM) as a thermal relic of the primordial plasma is increasingly pressured by direct and indirect searches, while the same production mechanism in a decoupled sector is much less constrained. We extend the standard treatment of the freeze-out process to such scenarios and perform precision calculations of the annihilation cross-section required to match the observed DM abundance. We demonstrate that the difference to the canonical value of this ‘thermal cross-section’ is generally sizeable, and can reach orders of magnitude. Our results directly impact the interpretation of DM searches in hidden sector scenarios.

Highlights

Introduction.— Cosmological observations require the existence of a dark matter (DM) component making up about 80 % of the matter in our Universe [1], likely consisting of a new type of elementary particle [2, 3]
This roughly requires weak-scale couplings for DM masses at the electroweak scale – which has been argued to be an intriguing coincidence in view of proposed solutions to the hierarchy problem of the standard model (SM) [5] – but the same mechanism works for lighter DM and correspondingly weaker couplings [6]
Conclusions.— In this work we have presented a framework for precision calculations of DM freeze-out in a secluded sector, matching the observational accuracy on the one hand, and the increasing demand for consistent interpretations of phenomenological dark sector studies on the other hand

Summary

Introduction

Introduction.— Cosmological observations require the existence of a dark matter (DM) component making up about 80 % of the matter in our Universe [1], likely consisting of a new type of elementary particle [2, 3].

Results

Conclusion