Nonthermal heavy dark matter from a first-order phase transition
Abstract We study nonthermal production of heavy dark matter from the dynamics of the background scalar field during a first-order phase transition, predominantly from bubble collisions. In scenarios where bubble walls achieve runaway behavior and get boosted to very high energies, we find that it i...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SpringerOpen
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of High Energy Physics |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2024)190 |
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| author | Gian F. Giudice Hyun Min Lee Alex Pomarol Bibhushan Shakya |
| author_facet | Gian F. Giudice Hyun Min Lee Alex Pomarol Bibhushan Shakya |
| author_sort | Gian F. Giudice |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract We study nonthermal production of heavy dark matter from the dynamics of the background scalar field during a first-order phase transition, predominantly from bubble collisions. In scenarios where bubble walls achieve runaway behavior and get boosted to very high energies, we find that it is possible to produce dark matter with mass several orders of magnitude above the symmetry breaking scale or the highest temperature ever reached by the thermal plasma. We also demonstrate that the existing formalism for calculating particle production from bubble dynamics in a first-order phase transition is not gauge invariant, and can lead to spurious results. While a rigorous and complete resolution of this problem is still lacking, we provide a practical prescription for the computation that avoids unphysical contributions and should provide reliable order-of-magnitude estimates of this effect. Furthermore, we point out the importance of three-body decays of the background field excitations into scalars and gauge bosons, which provide the dominant contributions at energy scales above the scale of symmetry breaking. Using our improved results, we find that scalar, fermion, and vector dark matter are all viable across a large range of mass scales, from O $$ \mathcal{O} $$ (10) TeV to a few orders of magnitude below the Planck scale, and the corresponding phase transitions can be probed with current and future gravitational wave experiments. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-918fdb3be50b4be1b03b68774a531496 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1029-8479 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | SpringerOpen |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of High Energy Physics |
| spelling | doaj-art-918fdb3be50b4be1b03b68774a5314962025-01-12T12:05:45ZengSpringerOpenJournal of High Energy Physics1029-84792024-12-0120241214410.1007/JHEP12(2024)190Nonthermal heavy dark matter from a first-order phase transitionGian F. Giudice0Hyun Min Lee1Alex Pomarol2Bibhushan Shakya3CERN, Theory DepartmentDepartment of Physics, Chung-Ang UniversityIFAE and BIST, Universitat Aut‘onoma de BarcelonaDeutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESYAbstract We study nonthermal production of heavy dark matter from the dynamics of the background scalar field during a first-order phase transition, predominantly from bubble collisions. In scenarios where bubble walls achieve runaway behavior and get boosted to very high energies, we find that it is possible to produce dark matter with mass several orders of magnitude above the symmetry breaking scale or the highest temperature ever reached by the thermal plasma. We also demonstrate that the existing formalism for calculating particle production from bubble dynamics in a first-order phase transition is not gauge invariant, and can lead to spurious results. While a rigorous and complete resolution of this problem is still lacking, we provide a practical prescription for the computation that avoids unphysical contributions and should provide reliable order-of-magnitude estimates of this effect. Furthermore, we point out the importance of three-body decays of the background field excitations into scalars and gauge bosons, which provide the dominant contributions at energy scales above the scale of symmetry breaking. Using our improved results, we find that scalar, fermion, and vector dark matter are all viable across a large range of mass scales, from O $$ \mathcal{O} $$ (10) TeV to a few orders of magnitude below the Planck scale, and the corresponding phase transitions can be probed with current and future gravitational wave experiments.https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2024)190Phase Transitions in the Early UniverseEarly Universe Particle PhysicsParticle Nature of Dark Matter |
| spellingShingle | Gian F. Giudice Hyun Min Lee Alex Pomarol Bibhushan Shakya Nonthermal heavy dark matter from a first-order phase transition Journal of High Energy Physics Phase Transitions in the Early Universe Early Universe Particle Physics Particle Nature of Dark Matter |
| title | Nonthermal heavy dark matter from a first-order phase transition |
| title_full | Nonthermal heavy dark matter from a first-order phase transition |
| title_fullStr | Nonthermal heavy dark matter from a first-order phase transition |
| title_full_unstemmed | Nonthermal heavy dark matter from a first-order phase transition |
| title_short | Nonthermal heavy dark matter from a first-order phase transition |
| title_sort | nonthermal heavy dark matter from a first order phase transition |
| topic | Phase Transitions in the Early Universe Early Universe Particle Physics Particle Nature of Dark Matter |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2024)190 |
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