Ultraviolet freeze-in dark matter through the dilaton portal

Abstract

We study a class of models in which the Standard Model (SM) and dark matter (DM) belong to a conformal/scale-invariant theory at high energies. Scale invariance is spontaneously broken at scale $f$, giving rise to a dilaton as the corresponding Goldstone boson. In the low-energy theory, we assume that DM interacts with the SM solely through the dilaton portal, which is suppressed by the conformal breaking scale $f$. For $f\ensuremath{\gg}\mathrm{TeV}$, the portal interactions are extremely weak, resulting in DM not being in thermal equilibrium with the SM. Thus, ultraviolet freeze-in production of DM occurs through the dilaton portal, being most effective at the maximum temperature of the SM bath. The temperature evolution is greatly impacted by the reheating dynamics, which we parametrize using a general equation of state $w$ and temperature at the end of reheating ${T}_{\mathrm{rh}}$. We analyze the implications of the reheating dynamics for DM production in this framework and identify regions of parameter space that result in the observed DM relic abundance for a wide range of DM masses and reheating temperatures for scalar, vector, or fermion DM.