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Title: Cosmological evolution of light dark photon dark matter

Journal Article · · Physical Review. D.

Light dark photons are subject to various plasma effects, such as Debye screening and resonant oscillations, which can lead to a more complex cosmological evolution than is experienced by conventional cold dark matter candidates. Maintaining a consistent history of dark photon dark matter requires ensuring that the superthermal abundance present in the early Universe (i) does not deviate significantly after the formation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and (ii) does not excessively leak into the Standard Model plasma after big band nucleosynthesis (BBN). We point out that the role of nonresonant absorption, which has previously been neglected in cosmological studies of this dark matter candidate, produces strong constraints on dark photon dark matter with mass as low as 10 - 22 eV . Furthermore, we show that resonant conversion of dark photons after recombination can produce excessive heating of the intergalactic medium (IGM) which is capable of prematurely reionizing hydrogen and helium, leaving a distinct imprint on both the Ly- α forest and the integrated optical depth of the CMB. Our constraints surpass existing cosmological bounds by more than 5 orders of magnitude across a wide range of dark photon masses.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); Generalitat Valenciana; European Union’s Horizon 2020
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359; FPA2014-57816-P; FPA2017-85985-P; 690575; 674896
OSTI ID:
1606618
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1581421
Report Number(s):
arXiv:1911.05086; FERMILAB-PUB-19-565-T; PRVDAQ; 063030
Journal Information:
Physical Review. D., Journal Name: Physical Review. D. Vol. 101 Journal Issue: 6; ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 43 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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