Enhancement of the dark matter abundance before reheating: Applications to gravitino dark matter

Journal Article · Mon Nov 13 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Physical Review. D.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.96.103510· OSTI ID:1541122

Garcia, Marcos A. G. ^[1]; Mambrini, Yann ^[2]; Olive, Keith A. ^[3]; Peloso, Marco ^[3]

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1. Rice University, Houston, TX (United States)
2. University Paris-Sud, Orsay (France)
3. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)

In the first stages of inflationary reheating, the temperature of the radiation produced by inflaton decays is typically higher than the commonly defined reheating temperature T_RH ~ (Γ_φM_P)^1/2 where Γ_φ is the inflaton decay rate. Here we consider the effect of particle production at temperatures at or near the maximum temperature attained during reheating. We show that the impact of this early production on the final particle abundance depends strongly on the temperature dependence of the production cross section. For $$\langle$$σv$$\rangle$$ ~ Tⁿ/M^{n + 2}, and for n < 6, any particle produced at T_max is diluted by the later generation of entropy near T_RH. This applies to cases such as gravitino production in low scale supersymmetric models (n = 0) or NETDM models of dark matter (n = 2). However, for n ≥ 6 the net abundance of particles produced during reheating is enhanced by over an order of magnitude, dominating over the dilution effect. This applies, for instance to gravitino production in high scale supersymmetry models where n = 6.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States); Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC); European Unions Horizon 2020; National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0011842; SC0018216; 690575; 674896; PHY-1066293; DE–SC0011842
• OSTI ID: 1541122
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1408559
• Report Number(s): LPT-Orsay 17-36; UMN-TH-3635/17; FTPI-MINN-17/15
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D., Vol. 96, Issue 10; ISSN 2470-0010
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
inflation
particle dark matter
supersymmetric models