Bound-state formation for thermal relic dark matter and unitarity

Journal Article · Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2014/12/033· OSTI ID:22382068

Harling, Benedict von ^[1]; Petraki, Kalliopi ^[2]

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1. SISSA and INFN, Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste (Italy)
2. Nikhef, Science Park 105, 1098 XG Amsterdam (Netherlands)

We show that the relic abundance of thermal dark matter annihilating via a long-range interaction, is significantly affected by the formation and decay of dark matter bound states in the early universe, if the dark matter mass is above a few TeV . We determine the coupling required to obtain the observed dark matter density, taking into account both the direct 2-to-2 annihilations and the formation of bound states, and provide an analytical fit. We argue that the unitarity limit on the inelastic cross-section is realized only if dark matter annihilates via a long-range interaction, and we determine the upper bound on the mass of thermal-relic dark matter to be about 197 (139) TeV for (non)-self-conjugate dark matter.

• OSTI ID: 22382068
• Journal Information: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2014, Issue 12; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ABUNDANCE
ANNIHILATION
BOUND STATE
COUPLING
CROSS SECTIONS
DECAY
DENSITY
INTERACTION RANGE
MASS
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
TEV RANGE 100-1000
UNITARITY
UNIVERSE