skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Thermal dark matter from a highly decoupled sector

Journal Article · · Physical Review D
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]
  1. Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
  2. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); The Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
  3. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)

It has recently been shown that if the dark matter is in thermal equilibrium with a sector that is highly decoupled from the Standard Model, it can freeze out with an acceptable relic abundance, even if the dark matter is as heavy as ~1–100 PeV. In such scenarios, both the dark and visible sectors are populated after inflation, but with independent temperatures. The lightest particle in the dark sector will be generically long-lived and can come to dominate the energy density of the Universe. Upon decaying, these particles can significantly reheat the visible sector, diluting the abundance of dark matter and thus allowing for dark matter particles that are much heavier than conventional WIMPs. In this study, we present a systematic and pedagogical treatment of the cosmological history in this class of models, emphasizing the simplest scenarios in which a dark matter candidate annihilates into hidden sector particles which then decay into visible matter through the vector, Higgs, or lepton portals. In each case, we find ample parameter space in which very heavy dark matter particles can provide an acceptable thermal relic abundance. We also discuss possible extensions of models featuring these dynamics.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1341882
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1332595
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB-16-318-A; arXiv:1609.02555; PRVDAQ; 1486023; TRN: US1701240
Journal Information:
Physical Review D, Vol. 94, Issue 9; ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 92 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (82)

Dark Matter Results from First 98.7 Days of Data from the PandaX-II Experiment journal September 2016
Stringent constraints on the dark matter annihilation cross section from the region of the Galactic Center journal June 2013
Origins of hidden sector dark matter I: cosmology journal March 2011
Review of Particle Physics journal August 2014
The Minimal Model of nonbaryonic dark matter: a singlet scalar journal December 2001
Shedding light on neutrino masses with dark forces journal August 2016
Chilly dark sectors and asymmetric reheating journal June 2016
Secluded WIMP dark matter journal April 2008
Minimal model of fermionic dark matter journal June 2007
SIMP dark matter with gauged Z 3 symmetry journal September 2015
Inflatable Dark Matter journal January 2016
Searching for Dark Matter Annihilation from Milky Way Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies with Six Years of Fermi Large Area Telescope Data journal November 2015
Is the cosmic microwave background telling us that dark matter is weaker than weakly interacting? journal October 2013
μ→eγ at a rate of one out of 109 muon decays? journal April 1977
Lepton Portal dark matter journal August 2014
Diluted equilibrium sterile neutrino dark matter journal November 2015
AMS-02 antiprotons, at last! Secondary astrophysical component and immediate implications for Dark Matter journal September 2015
Low scale leptogenesis and dark matter candidates in an extended seesaw model journal May 2008
Unitarity limits on the mass and radius of dark-matter particles journal February 1990
Self-interacting dark matter journal October 1992
Antiprotons from Dark Matter: current constraints and future sensitivities journal April 2013
A Guide to Designing Future Ground-Based Cosmic Microwave Background Experiments journal June 2014
Higgs decays to dark matter: Beyond the minimal model journal December 2011
Sub-eV scalar dark matter through the super-renormalizable Higgs portal journal August 2010
Precise determination of the mass of the Higgs boson and tests of compatibility of its couplings with the standard model predictions using proton collisions at 7 and 8 $$\,\text {TeV}$$ TeV journal May 2015
Reheating in Inflationary Cosmology: Theory and Applications journal November 2010
Dark matter freeze-out in a nonrelativistic sector journal August 2016
CERN LHC phenomenology of an extended standard model with a real scalar singlet journal February 2008
PeV-scale dark matter as a thermal relic of a decoupled sector journal September 2016
Thermal relics in hidden sectors journal October 2008
New Limits on Dark Matter Annihilation from Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Cosmic Ray Positron Data journal October 2013
Searching for dilepton resonances below the Z mass at the LHC journal October 2014
Thermal inflation and the moduli problem journal February 1996
Measurements of the Higgs boson production and decay rates and coupling strengths using pp collision data at $$\sqrt{s}=7$$ s = 7 and 8 TeV in the ATLAS experiment journal January 2016
Erratum: Low scale leptogenesis and dark matter candidates in an extended seesaw model journal March 2011
New Results from the Search for Low-Mass Weakly Interacting Massive Particles with the CDMS Low Ionization Threshold Experiment journal February 2016
DARK MATTER PAIR-PRODUCTION IN b → s TRANSITIONS journal February 2006
Heavy dark matter through the Higgs portal journal July 2008
Thermal relic dark matter beyond the unitarity limit journal August 2016
Supersymmetric dark matter and the reheating temperature of the universe journal January 2003
Improved Limits on Scattering of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles from Reanalysis of 2013 LUX Data journal April 2016
Cosmological moduli and the post-inflationary universe: A critical review journal July 2015
Nonthermal production of dark radiation and dark matter journal September 2016
Flooded Dark Matter and S level rise journal March 2016
Reheating the Standard Model from a hidden sector journal October 2016
Neutrino Mass and Spontaneous Parity Nonconservation journal April 1980
Singlet neighbors of the Higgs boson journal October 2012
Neutrino masses in SU(2) ⊗ U(1) theories journal November 1980
Self-interacting dark matter through the Higgs portal journal February 2015
Elastically Decoupling Dark Matter journal June 2016
Changes in dark matter properties after freeze-out journal December 2008
The new Minimal Standard Model journal March 2005
Z 2 -singlino dark matter in a portal-like extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model journal June 2008
Effect of a late decaying scalar on the neutralino relic density journal October 2006
Exciting dark matter and the INTEGRAL/SPI 511 keV signal journal October 2007
AMS-02 antiprotons, at last! Secondary astrophysical component and immediate implications for Dark Matter text January 2015
Low Scale Leptogenesis and dark Matter Candidates in an Extended Seesaw Model journal August 2008
Review of Particle Physics text January 2008
Review of Particle Physics text January 2018
Review of Particle Physics text January 2012
Secluded WIMP Dark Matter text January 2007
Heavy Dark Matter Through the Higgs Portal text January 2008
Sub-eV scalar dark matter through the super-renormalizable Higgs portal text January 2010
Origins of Hidden Sector Dark Matter I: Cosmology text January 2010
Higgs decays to dark matter: beyond the minimal model text January 2011
Antiprotons from Dark Matter: Current constraints and future sensitivities text January 2013
Searching for dilepton resonances below the Z mass at the LHC text January 2014
Diluted equilibrium sterile neutrino dark matter text January 2015
Self-interacting dark matter and cosmology of a light scalar mediator text January 2015
Flooded Dark Matter and S Level Rise text January 2015
Nonthermal production of dark radiation and dark matter text January 2015
Improved Limits on Scattering of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles from Reanalysis of 2013 LUX data text January 2015
Probing Light Thermal Dark-Matter With a Higgs Portal Mediator text January 2015
Elastically Decoupling Dark Matter text January 2015
PeV-Scale Dark Matter as a Thermal Relic of a Decoupled Sector text January 2016
Shedding Light on Neutrino Masses with Dark Forces text January 2016
Thermal Relic Dark Matter Beyond the Unitarity Limit text January 2016
Exciting Dark Matter and the INTEGRAL/SPI 511 keV signal text January 2007
The Minimal Model of Nonbaryonic Dark Matter: A Singlet Scalar text January 2000
Supersymmetric Dark Matter and the Reheating Temperature of the Universe text January 2002
The New Minimal Standard Model text January 2004
Thermal Inflation and the Moduli Problem text January 1995

Cited By (33)

Long-lived particles at the energy frontier: the MATHUSLA physics case journal October 2019
Toward (finally!) ruling out Z and Higgs mediated dark matter models journal December 2016
A search for dark matter in the Galactic halo with HAWC journal February 2018
Novel gamma-ray signatures of PeV-scale dark matter journal April 2018
A combined astrophysical and dark matter interpretation of the IceCube HESE and throughgoing muon events journal July 2018
Constraining non-thermal dark matter by CMB journal October 2018
Neutrinophilic Dark Matter in the epoch of IceCube and Fermi-LAT journal December 2018
Constraints on decaying dark matter from the isotropic gamma-ray background journal March 2019
Reconstructing non-standard cosmologies with dark matter journal October 2019
Z ′ mediated WIMPs: dead, dying, or soon to be detected? journal November 2019
Primordial gravitational waves in nonstandard cosmologies journal September 2019
Standard model Higgs field and hidden sector cosmology journal October 2019
Constraining nonthermal dark matter’s impact on the matter power spectrum journal December 2019
Thermal dark energy journal January 2020
Dark matter, millicharges, axion and scalar particles, gauge bosons, and other new physics with LDMX journal April 2019
Nonthermal dark matter from modified early matter domination journal April 2019
Scalar singlet dark matter in non-standard cosmologies journal January 2019
Phenomenology of self-interacting dark matter in a matter-dominated universe journal January 2019
Homeopathic Dark Matter, or how diluted heavy substances produce high energy cosmic rays text January 2019
Homeopathic Dark Matter, or how diluted heavy substances produce high energy cosmic rays journal February 2019
Thermal Dark Matter Below an MeV text January 2017
Thermal Dark Matter Through the Dirac Neutrino Portal text January 2017
A Search for Dark Matter in the Galactic Halo with HAWC text January 2017
Phenomenology of Self-Interacting Dark Matter in a Matter-Dominated Universe text January 2018
Long-Lived Particles at the Energy Frontier: The MATHUSLA Physics Case text January 2018
Neutrinophilic Dark Matter in the epoch of IceCube and Fermi-LAT text January 2018
Constraining Non-thermal Dark Matter by CMB text January 2018
Non-thermal Dark Matter from Modified Early Matter Domination text January 2018
The Inflaton Portal to a Highly decoupled EeV Dark Matter Particle text January 2019
Primordial Gravitational Waves in Nonstandard Cosmologies text January 2019
$Z'$ Mediated WIMPs: Dead, Dying, or Soon to be Detected? text January 2019
Constraining Nonthermal Dark Matter's Impact on the Matter Power Spectrum text January 2019
Breaking a dark degeneracy: The gamma-ray signature of early matter domination text January 2019

Similar Records

PeV-scale dark matter as a thermal relic of a decoupled sector
Journal Article · Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Physics Letters B · OSTI ID:1341882

Inflaton portal to a highly decoupled EeV dark matter particle
Journal Article · Mon Aug 05 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Physical Review D · OSTI ID:1341882

Hidden sector dark matter and the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess: a closer look
Journal Article · Fri Nov 24 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics · OSTI ID:1341882