Dark Sector Research Articles

The primordial black holes that disappeared: connections to dark matter and MHz-GHz gravitational Waves

In the post-LIGO era, there has been a lot of focus on primordial black holes (PBHs) heavier than ∼ 1015g as potential dark matter (DM) candidates. We point out that the branch of the PBH family that disappeared — PBHs lighter than ∼ 109g that ostensibly Hawking evaporated away in the early Universe — also constitute an interesting frontier for DM physics. Hawking evaporation itself serves as a portal through which such PBHs can illuminate new physics, for example by emitting dark sector particles. Taking a simple DM scalar singlet model as a template, we compute the abundance and mass of PBHs that could have provided, by Hawking evaporation, the correct DM relic density. We consider two classes of such PBHs: those originating from curvature perturbations generated by inflation, and those originating from false vacuum collapse during a first-order phase transition. For PBHs of both origins we compute the gravitational wave (GW) signals emanating from their formation stage: from second-order effects in the case of curvature perturbations, and from sound waves in the case of phase transitions. The GW signals have peak frequencies in the MHz-GHz range typical of such light PBHs. We compute the strength of such GWs compatible with the observed DM relic density, and find that the GW signal morphology can in principle allow one to distinguish between the two PBH formation histories.

Cosmic Evolution of Five‐dimensional Einstein Chern‐Simons Gravity Through Dark Energy Model

AbstractIn this paper, the cosmic evolution in the context of five‐dimensional Einstein Chern‐Simons gravity theory by using flat homogeneous and isotropic universe model is studied. The interaction is taken into account between dark sector of the evolving universe along with holographic dark energy model with Hubble horizon. Our study with well‐known models EChS ‐β5 and EChS ‐ for Einstein Chern‐Simons gravity theory in five dimensions are carried. Some cosmological parameters through graphical representations such as coincidence parameter u, equation of state parameter , deceleration parameter q and squared speed of sound parameter is analyzed. It is found that these cosmological parameters show consistent behavior with current cosmic scenario. Also, the behavior of generalized second law of thermodynamics in the underlying gravity theory with Bekenstein‐Hawking entropy and its validity for some fixed values of constants appearing in each model are explored.

Limits to gauge coupling in the dark sector of super-heavy dark matter particles from the Pierre Auger Observatory data

Assuming that the energy density of super-heavy particles matches that of dark matter observed today, tight constraints on the couplings governing the decay process are presented as a function of the particle mass. These constraints are obtained from the lack of signatures that would be suggestive of decaying super-heavy XX particles in the data of the Pierre Auger Observatory. In particular, instanton-induced decay processes allow us to derive a bound on the reduced coupling constant of gauge interactions in the dark sector: \alpha_X \lesssim 0.09αX≲0.09, for 10^{9} \lesssim M_X/\mathrm{GeV} < 10^{19}109≲MX/GeV<1019. Cosmological aspects for super-heavy dark matter production during the reheating epoch are discussed.

Nonparametric analysis of the Hubble diagram with neural networks

The recent extension of the Hubble diagram of supernovae and quasars to redshifts much higher than 1 prompted a revived interest in nonparametric approaches to test cosmological models and to measure the expansion rate of the Universe. In particular, it is of great interest to infer model-independent constraints on the possible evolution of the dark energy component. Here we present a new method, based on neural network regression, to analyze the Hubble diagram in a completely nonparametric, model-independent fashion. We first validated the method through simulated samples with the same redshift distribution as the real ones, and we discuss the limitations related to the “inversion problem” for the distance-redshift relation. We then applied this new technique to the analysis of the Hubble diagram of supernovae and quasars. We confirm that the data up to z ∼ 1 − 1.5 are in agreement with a flat Λ cold dark matter model with ΩM ∼ 0.3, while ∼5-sigma deviations emerge at higher redshifts. A flat Λ cold dark matter model would still be compatible with the data with ΩM > 0.4. Allowing for a generic evolution of the dark energy component, we find solutions that suggest an increasing value of ΩM with redshift, as predicted by interacting dark sector models.

NANOGrav signal from a dark conformal phase transition

We explore the possibility that a confining first-order phase transition of a nearly-conformal dark sector generates the reported NANOGrav signal of a stochastic gravitational wave background. The visible Standard Model (SM) sector and the dark sector are initially thermally decoupled so that their temperatures are different. The nearly conformal phase transition is described by the shallow potential of a dilaton (or a radion in the 5D holographic perspective) generated by a new dark Yang-Mills field coupled to the conformal sector. For a dark sector only gravitationally connected with the visible sector, the NANOGrav signal is explained by the phase transition without contradicting the ΔNeff constraint, together with a contribution from supermassive black hole binaries. While the dilaton and dark glueballs can be produced after the phase transition, they immediately decay into dark radiation, which can help ameliorate the Hubble tension and be tested by the future CMB-S4 experiment. Alternatively, for a dark conformal sector decaying into the visible sector after the phase transition, the ΔNeff constraint is not applied and the phase transition can solely explain the NANOGrav signal.

NANOGrav meets Hot New Early Dark Energy and the origin of neutrino mass

It has recently been speculated that the NANOGrav observations point towards a first-order phase transition in the dark sector at the GeV scale [1]. Here, we show that such a phase transition might already have been predicted in the Hot New Early Dark Energy model (Hot NEDE) [2,3]. There, it was argued that two dark sector phase transitions are the signature of neutrino mass generation through the inverse seesaw mechanism. In particular, an IR phase transition serves a double purpose by resolving the Hubble tension through an energy injection and generating the Majorana mass entry in the inverse seesaw mixing matrix. This usual NEDE phase transition is then accompanied by a UV counterpart, which generates the heavy Dirac mass entry in the inverse seesaw mass matrix of a right-handed neutrino. Here, we investigate if the UV phase transition of the Hot NEDE model can occur at the GeV scale in view of the recent NANOGrav observations.

A unified cosmological dark sector from a Bose–Einstein condensate

We examine the viability of cosmological solution(s) describing a unified picture of the dark side of the universe from a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) of light bosons. The energy density of the BEC, together with its quantum potential, can indeed account for such a unification, in the sense that the (dust-like) cold dark matter and the dark energy components emerge from the same source. In particular, the bulk of the dark energy can be attributed to the quantum potential, in the quantum corrected Raychaudhuri–Friedmann equation, when the ‘macroscopic’ BEC wave-function is taken to be such that the corresponding probability density is construed as the energy density of the dusty fluid. However, there arises a purely quantum mechanical back-reaction, of even the visible baryons, on the effective dark energy and dark matter contents, which crucially determines the mass of the BEC. We determine the constraint on such a back-reaction, and hence on the BEC mass, from physical considerations, as well as estimate the same using recent observational data.

On the dynamics of a dark sector coupling

Interacting dark energy models may play a crucial role in explaining several important observational issues in modern cosmology and also may provide a solution to current cosmological tensions. Since the phenomenology of the dark sector could be extremely rich, one should not restrict the interacting models to have a coupling parameter which is constant in cosmic time, rather allow for its dynamical behaviour, as it is common practice in the literature when dealing with other dark energy properties, as the dark energy equation of state. We present here a compendium of the current cosmological constraints on a large variety of interacting models, investigating scenarios where the coupling parameter of the interaction function and the dark energy equation of state can be either constant or dynamical. For the most general schemes, in which both the coupling parameter of the interaction function and the dark energy equation of state are dynamical, we find 95% CL evidence for a dark energy component at early times and slightly milder evidence for a dynamical dark coupling for the most complete observational data set exploited here, which includes CMB, BAO and Supernova Ia measurements. Interestingly, there are some cases where a dark energy component different from the cosmological constant case at early times together with a coupling different from zero today, can alleviate both the H0 and S8 tension for the full dataset combination considered here. Due to the energy exchange among the dark sectors, the current values of the matter energy density and of the clustering parameter σ8 are shifted from their ΛCDM-like values. This fact makes future surveys, especially those focused on weak lensing measurements, unique tools to test the nature and the couplings of the dark energy sector.

Custodial and SUSY 2HDM breaking under interfering condensates’ Goldstone bosons

The Higgs condensates are proven along with the minimal versions of the hyper-symmetric 2HDM extensions when containing Supersymmetry that can play the role of oscillators for the CPC and CPV interferences, up to via [Formula: see text]. With the uncharged Higgs inclusion (considering the uncharged Goldstone Bosons compared to the spontaneously broken SM-like Higgs), the symmetric [Formula: see text] and anti-symmetric [Formula: see text] linear combinations of an ‘[Formula: see text]’ and a rescaled [Formula: see text], where masses of [Formula: see text]GeV and [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]GeV, such as under the condensate’s boundary impacts. The range of the [Formula: see text]s would be up to where the composed singlet and triplet can interchange, then, they approach the Custodial SUSY at a Triple point transition with a Goldstone-type order mass [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]GeV, as well into their Dark Matter sectors’ cut-off [Formula: see text], (including [Formula: see text]) up to order 1.7[Formula: see text]TeV. That will lead to opening the way to measure the existence of Supersymmetry, indirectly at the least, through any dominance of [Formula: see text]-violating Higgs decays.

QCD axion-mediated dark matter

A QCD axion with a decay constant below 1011 GeV is a strongly-motivated extension to the Standard Model, though its relic abundance from the misalignment mechanism or decay of cosmic defects is insufficient to explain the origin of dark matter. Nevertheless, such an axion may still play an important role in setting the dark matter density if it mediates a force between the SM and the dark sector. In this work, we explore QCD axion-mediated freeze-out and freeze-in scenarios, finding that the axion can play a critical role for setting the dark matter density. Assuming the axion solves the strong CP problem makes this framework highly predictive, and we comment on experimental targets.

Phenomenological motivation for gravitational positivity bounds: A case study of dark sector physics

Phenomenological motivation for gravitational positivity bounds: A case study of dark sector physics

Comparable dark matter and baryon abundances with a heavy dark sector

We propose a scenario that explains the comparable abundances of dark matter (DM) and baryons without any coincidence in the corresponding particle masses. Here, DM corresponds to heavy “dark baryons” in a hidden MSSM-like dark sector, where the supersymmetry breaking scale can be several orders of magnitude larger than in the visible sector. In both sectors a baryon asymmetry is generated via the Affleck-Dine mechanism, and the smaller dark baryon-to-entropy ratio partially compensates the larger dark baryon masses to give similar densities in the two sectors. The large mass hierarchy also naturally results in an asymmetric reheating of these sequestered sectors. Moreover, this scenario predicts uncorrelated DM and baryon isocurvature perturbations.

Probing the Dark Sector with Nuclear Transition Photons.

Here we present world-leading sensitivity to light (<170 MeV) dark matter (DM) using beam-dump experiments. Dark sector particles produced during pion decay at accelerator beam dumps can be detected via scattering in neutrino detectors. The decay of nuclei excited by the inelastic scattering of DM is an unexploited channel which has significantly better sensitivity than similar searches using the elastic scattering channel. We show that this channel is a powerful probe of DM by demonstrating sensitivity to the thermal relic abundance benchmark in a scalar DM dark-photon portal model. This is achieved through the use of existing data, obtained by the KARMEN experiment over two decades ago, which allow us to set world-leading constraints on this model over a wide mass range. With experimental improvements planned for the future, this technique will be able to probe the thermal relic benchmark for fermionic DM across a wide mass range.

Linear seesaw mechanism from dark sector

We propose a minimal model where a dark sector seeds neutrino mass generation radiatively within the linear seesaw mechanism. Neutrino masses are calculable, since tree-level contributions are forbidden by symmetry. They arise from spontaneous lepton number violation by a small Higgs triplet vacuum expectation value. Lepton flavour violating processes e.g. μ → eγ can be sizeable, despite the tiny neutrino masses. We comment also on dark-matter and collider implications.

Revise the Phase-Space Analysis of the Dynamical Spacetime Unified Dark Energy Cosmology

We analyze the phase-space of an alternate scalar field cosmology that aims to combine the concepts of dark energy and the dark sector. The investigation focuses on stationary points within this phase-space, considering different functional forms of the two potential functions. Our findings indicate that a de Sitter universe is achievable solely when at the asymptotic limit the potential function is constant. For constant potential function, the de Sitter universe is recovered in the finite regime; however, for the exponential potential, the de Sitter universe exists at the infinity regime. The cosmological viability of the present theory is discussed.

A hidden self-interacting dark matter sector with first-order cosmological phase transition and gravitational wave

A hidden self-interacting dark matter sector with first-order cosmological phase transition and gravitational wave

Indirect detection of Dark Matter annihilating into Dark Glueballs

We examine indirect detection of dark matter that annihilates into dark glueballs, which in turn decay into the Standard Model via a range of portals. This arises if the dark matter candidate couples to a confining gauge force without light flavours, representative of many possible complex dark sectors. Such Hidden Valley scenarios are being increasingly considered due to non-detection of minimal models as well as theoretical motivations such as the Twin Higgs solution to the little hierarchy problem. Study of dark glueballs in indirect detection has previously been hampered by the difficulty of modeling their production in dark showers. We use the recent GlueShower code to produce the first constraints on dark matter annihilating via dark glueballs into the Standard Model across photon, antiproton, and positron channels. We also fit the Galactic Centre Excess and use this observation, combined with other astrophysical constraints, to show how multi-channel observations can constrain UV and IR details of the theory, namely the exact decay portal and hadronization behaviour respectively. This provides unique complementary discovery and diagnostic potential to Hidden Valley searches at colliders. It is interesting to note that thermal WIMPs annihilating to O\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{O} $$\\end{document}(10 GeV) dark glueballs and then the SM via the Twin-Higgs-like decay portal can account for the GCE while respecting other constraints.

Decay of the mediator particle at threshold

A light mediator particle is often predicted in the dark sector scenario, which weakly interacts with the standard model (SM) particles. The weakness of the interaction is usually described by a small coupling; however, the small coupling does not always guarantee the weakness of the interaction. When the mass of the mediator particle lies in a threshold region, the so-called threshold singularity may emerge, and then the perturbative calculation fails. This singularity causes several effects, e.g., the mixing between the mediator particle and bound states, the Sommerfeld effect on the final state of the mediator particle decay, etc. Taking the minimal model of the vector mediator particle decaying mainly into the SM particles as an example, we develop a method to describe the singularity quantitatively. We also calculate some physical quantities using this method, such as the lifetime of the mediator particle and find that those could be significantly altered compared with the result of the perturbative calculation.

Simulating Atomic Dark Matter in Milky Way Analogs

Dark sector theories naturally lead to multicomponent scenarios for dark matter where a subcomponent can dissipate energy through self-interactions, allowing it to efficiently cool inside galaxies. We present the first cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of Milky Way analogs where the majority of dark matter is collisionless cold dark matter (CDM) but a subcomponent (6%) is strongly dissipative minimal atomic dark matter (ADM). The simulations, implemented in GIZMO and utilizing FIRE-2 galaxy formation physics to model the standard baryonic sector, demonstrate that the addition of even a small fraction of dissipative dark matter can significantly impact galactic evolution despite being consistent with current cosmological constraints. We show that ADM gas with roughly standard model–like masses and couplings can cool to form a rotating “dark disk” with angular momentum closely aligned with the visible stellar disk. The morphology of the disk depends sensitively on the parameters of the ADM model, which affect the cooling rates in the dark sector. The majority of the ADM gas gravitationally collapses into dark “clumps” (regions of black hole or mirror star formation), which form a prominent bulge and a rotating thick disk in the central galaxy. These clumps form early and quickly sink to the inner ∼kiloparsec of the galaxy, affecting the galaxy’s star formation history and present-day baryonic and CDM distributions.

Probing dark QCD sector through the Higgs portal with machine learning at the LHC

The QCD-like dark sector with GeV-scale dark hadrons has the potential to generate new signatures at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In this paper, we consider a singlet scalar mediator in the tens of GeV-scale that connects the dark sector and the Standard Model (SM) sector via the Higgs portal. We focus on the Higgs-strahlung process, qoverline{q} ′ → W* → WH, to produce a highly boosted Higgs boson. Our scenario predicts two different processes that can generate dark mesons: (1) the cascade decay from the Higgs boson to two light scalar mediators and then to four dark mesons; (2) the Higgs boson decaying to two dark quarks, which then undergo a QCD-like shower and hadronization to produce dark mesons. We apply machine learning techniques, such as Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Energy Flow Network (EFN), to the fat-jet structure to distinguish these signal processes from large SM backgrounds. We find that the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to two light scalar mediators can be constrained to be less than about 10% at 14 TeV LHC with mathcal{L} = 3000 fb−1.