http://arxiv.org/abs/1502.07354
We explore the viability of a boson dark matter candidate with an asymmetry between the number densities of particles and antiparticles. A simple thermal field theory analysis confirms that, under certain general conditions, this component would develop a Bose-Einstein condensate in the early universe that, for appropriate model parameters, could survive the ensuing cosmological evolution until now. The condensation of a dark matter component in equilibrium with the thermal plasma is a relativistic process, hence the amount of matter dictated by the charge asymmetry is complemented by a hot relic density frozen out at the time of decoupling. Contrary to the case of ordinary WIMPs, dark matter particles in a condensate can be very light, $10^{-22}\,{\rm eV} \lesssim m \lesssim 10^2\,{\rm eV}$; the lower limit arises from constraints on small-scale structure formation, while the upper bound ensures that the density from thermal relics is not too large. Big-Bang nucleosynthesis constrains the temperature of decoupling to the scale of the QCD phase transition or above. This requires large dark matter-to-photon ratios and very weak interactions with standard model particles. Finally, we argue that a given boson particle that was in thermal equilibrium in the early universe may be in a condensate, or in the form of thermal relics, but we cannot have a combination of both contributing significantly to the mass density today.
A. Aguirre and A. Diez-Tejedor
Fri, 27 Feb 15
8/60
Comments: 35 pages, 1 figure
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