Dark matter production during the thermalization era

Journal Article · 11 July 2019 · Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2019)059 · OSTI ID:1596652

Harigaya, Keisuke ^[1]; Mukaida, Kyohei ^[2]; Yamada, Masaki ^[3]

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1. Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States). School of Natural Sciences
2. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany)
3. Tufts Univ., Medford, MA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy and Inst. of Cosmology

We revisit the non-thermal dark matter (DM) production during the thermalization and reheating era after inflation. The decay of inflaton produces high-energy particles that are thermalized to complete the reheating of the Universe. Before the thermalization is completed, DM can be produced from a collision between the high-energy particles and/or the ambient plasma. We calculate the DM abundance produced from these processes for the case where the cross section of the DM production is proportional to the $$n$$-th power of the center of mass energy. We find that the collision between the high-energy particles is almost always dominant for $$n \gtrsim 4$$ while it is subdominant for $$n \lesssim 2$$. The production from the ambient plasma is dominant when $$n \lesssim 3$$ and the reheating temperature is of the order of or larger than the DM mass. The production from a collision between the high-energy particle and the ambient plasma is important for $$n \lesssim 2$$ and the reheating temperature is much lower than the DM mass.

• Research Organization: Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0009988
• OSTI ID: 1596652
• Journal Information: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online), Vol. 2019, Issue 7; ISSN 1029-8479
• Publisher: Springer BerlinCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English