Filtered Dark Matter at a First Order Phase Transition

We describe a new mechanism of dark matter production. If dark matter particles acquire mass during a first order phase transition, it is energetically unfavorable for them to enter the expanding bubbles. Instead, most of them are reflected and quickly annihilate away. The bubbles eventually merge a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Physical review letters 2020-10, Vol.125 (15), p.1-151102, Article 151102
Main Authors:	Baker, Michael J., Kopp, Joachim, Long, Andrew J.
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS Bubbles Dark matter First order phase transitions particle dark matter Phase transitions
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	We describe a new mechanism of dark matter production. If dark matter particles acquire mass during a first order phase transition, it is energetically unfavorable for them to enter the expanding bubbles. Instead, most of them are reflected and quickly annihilate away. The bubbles eventually merge as the phase transition completes and only the dark matter particles that have entered the bubbles survive to constitute the observed dark matter today. This mechanism can produce dark matter with masses from the TeV scale to above the PeV scale, surpassing the Griest-Kamionkowski bound.
ISSN:	0031-9007 1079-7114