We reexamine the evolution of thermal relic particle abundances for the case where the interaction rate depends on the particle velocities. For the case of Sommerfeld enhancement, we show that the standard analytic approximation, modified in a straightforward way, provides an estimate of the relic particle abundance that is accurate to within 10% (in comparison to less than 1% error for the non-Sommerfeld-enhanced case). We examine the effect of kinetic decoupling on relic particle abundances when the interaction rate depends on the velocity. For the case of pure p-wave annihilation, the effect of kinetic decoupling is an increase in the relic abundance, but the effect is negligible when the kinetic decoupling temperature is much less than the chemical decoupling temperature. For the case of Sommerfeld-enhanced s-wave annihilations, after kinetic decoupling occurs, annihilations continue to change the particle abundance down to arbitrarily low temperatures, until either matter domination begins or the Sommerfeld effect cuts off. We derive analytic approximations to give the final relic particle abundances for both of these cases.
The light relic density affects the thermal and expansion history of the early Universe leaving a number of observable imprints. We focus on the primordial abundances of light elements produced during the process of Big Bang nucleosynthesis which are influenced by the light relic density. Primordial abundances can be used to infer the density of light relics and thereby serve as a probe of physics beyond the Standard Model. We calculate the observational uncertainty on primordial light element abundances and associated quantities that would be required in order for these measurements to achiev…
We propose an analytic treatment for computing the relic abundances of non-relativistic particles whose annihilation rate at chemical decoupling is increased by Sommerfeld enhancement. We find approximate rational functions that closely fit the thermal average of Sommerfeld-enhanced cross sections in the massless limit of force carriers for s- and p-wave annihilations. We demonstrate that, with the approximate thermally-averaged cross sections implemented, the standard analytic method for the final relic abundances provides accuracy to within 1% even for the case of Sommerfeld enhancement.
We investigate the relic abundance of asymmetric Dark Matter particles that were in thermal equilibrium in the early universe. The standard analytic calculation of the symmetric Dark Matter is generalized to the asymmetric case. We calculate the asymmetry required to explain the observed Dark Matter relic abundance as a function of the annihilation cross section. We show that introducing an asymmetry always reduces the indirect detection signal from WIMP annihilation, although it has a larger annihilation cross section than symmetric Dark Matter. This opens new possibilities for the constructi…
Approximate analytical solutions of the Boltzmann equation for particles that are either extremely relativistic or non-relativistic when they decouple from the thermal bath are well established. However, no analytical formula for the relic density of particles that are semi-relativistic at decoupling is yet known. We propose a new ansatz for the thermal average of the annihilation cross sections for such particles, and find a semi-analytical treatment for calculating their relic densities. As examples, we consider Majorana- and Dirac-type neutrinos. We show that such semi-relativistic relics c…
We calculate the relic density of stau at the beginning of the Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) era in the coannihilation scenario of minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). In this scenario, stau can be long-lived and form bound states with nuclei. We put constraints on the parameter space of MSSM by connecting the calculation of the relic density of stau to the observation of the light elements abundance, which strongly depends on the relic density of stau. Consistency between the theoretical prediction and the observational result, both of the dark matter abundance and the light element…
We present a detailed discussion of Sommerfeld enhancements in neutralino dark matter relic abundance calculations for several popular benchmark scenarios in the general MSSM. Our analysis is focused on models with heavy wino- and higgsino-like neutralino LSP and models interpolating between these two scenarios. This work is the first phenomenological application of effective field theory methods that we have developed in earlier work and that allow for the consistent study of Sommerfeld enhancements in non-relativistic neutralino and chargino co-annihilation reactions within the general MSSM,…
Elastic self-scatterings do not change the number of dark matter particles and as such have been neglected in the calculation of its relic abundance. In this work we highlight the scenarios where the presence of self-scatterings has a significant impact on the effectiveness of annihilation processes through the modification of dark matter momentum distribution. We study a few example freeze-out scenarios involving resonant and sub-threshold annihilations, as well as a model with an additional source of dark matter particles from the decays of a heavier mediator state. Interestingly, when the c…
Dark matter (DM) as a thermal relic of the primordial plasma is increasingly pressured by direct and indirect searches, while the same production mechanism in a decoupled sector is much less constrained. We extend the standard treatment of the freeze-out process to such scenarios and perform precision calculations of the annihilation cross-section required to match the observed DM abundance. We demonstrate that the difference to the canonical value of this 'thermal cross-section' is generally sizeable, and can reach orders of magnitude. Our results directly impact the interpretation of DM sear…
The role of the dilaton field and its coupling to matter may result to a dilution of Dark Matter (DM) relic densities. This is to be contrasted with quintessence scenarios in which relic densities are augmented, due to modification of the expansion rate, since Universe is not radiation dominated at DM decoupling. Dilaton field, besides this, affects relic densities through its coupling to dust which tends to decrease relic abundances. Thus two separate mechanisms compete each other resulting, in general, to a decrease of the relic density. This feature may be welcome and can rescue the situati…
We analyze the validity of the theorems concerning the cancellation of the infrared and collinar divergences in the case of dark matter freeze-out in the early universe. In particular, we compute the electroweak logarithmic corrections of infrared origin to the annihilation cross section of a dark matter particle being the neutral component of a SU(2)_L multiplet. The inclusion of processes with final state W can modify significantly the cross sections computed with only virtual W exchange. Our results show that the inclusion of infrared logs is necessary for a precise computation of the dark …
We propose that the dark matter abundance is set by the decoupling of inelastic scattering instead of annihilations. This coscattering mechanism is generically realized if dark matter scatters against states of comparable mass from the thermal bath. Coscattering points to dark matter that is exponentially lighter than the weak scale and has a suppressed annihilation rate, avoiding stringent constraints from indirect detection. Dark matter upscatters into states whose late decays can lead to observable distortions to the blackbody spectrum of the cosmic microwave background.
We introduce DRAKE, a numerical precision tool for predicting the dark matter relic abundance also in situations where the standard assumption of kinetic equilibrium during the freeze-out process may not be satisfied. DRAKE comes with a set of three dedicated Boltzmann equation solvers that implement, respectively, the traditionally adopted equation for the dark matter number density, fluid-like equations that couple the evolution of number density and velocity dispersion, and a full numerical evolution of the phase-space distribution. We review the general motivation for these approaches and,…
If the annihilation products of dark matter (DM) are non-relativistic and if there is some long-range force between them, there can be Sommerfeld effect for the final state particles. We study this effect on DM relic abundance in the thermal freeze-out scenario. As a proof of concept, we consider the case of a DM pair annihilation into a final state pair, assuming that the mutual interactions between the two final state particles give rise to a Coulomb-like potential, and that the masses of the initial and final state particles are similar, so that both the initial and final state particles ar…
We find new and universal relations for the properties of dark matter particles consistent with standard relic abundances. Analysis is based on first characterizing the $s$-channel resonant annihilation process in great detail, keeping track of all velocity-dependence, the presence of multiple scales and treating each physical regime above, below, and close to thresholds separately. The resonant regime as well as extension to include non-resonant processes are then reduced to analytic formulas and inequalities that describe the full range of multi-dimensional numerical work. These results elim…
We discuss strategies to make inferences on the thermal relic abundance of a Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) when the same effective dimension-six operator that explains an experimental excess in direct detection is assumed to drive decoupling at freeze-out, and apply them to the proton-philic Spin-dependent Inelastic Dark Matter (pSIDM) scenario, a phenomenological set-up containing two states $χ_1$ and $χ_2$ with $m_{χ_2}>m_{χ_1}$ that we have shown in a previous paper to explain the DAMA effect in compliance with the constraints from other detectors. We update experimental constr…
Alternative cosmologies, based on extensions of General Relativity, predict modified thermal histories in the Early Universe during the pre Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) era, epoch which is not directly constrained by cosmological observations. When the expansion rate is enhanced with respect to the standard case, thermal relics typically decouple with larger relic abundances. The correct value of the relic abundance is therefore obtained for larger annihilation cross--sections, as compared to standard cosmology. A direct consequence is that indirect detection rates are enhanced. Extending pr…
The dark matter annihilation channels sometimes involve sharp resonances. In such cases the usual momentum averaged approximations for computing the DM abundance may not be accurate. We develop an easily accessible momentum dependent framework for computing the DM abundance accurately and efficiently near such features. We apply the method to the case of a singlet scalar dark matter $s$ interacting with SM through higgs portal $λ_{\rm hs}s^2 h^2$ and compare the results with different momentum averaged methods. The accuracy of the latter depend strongly on the strength of the elastic interacti…
We investigate how large lepton asymmetries affect the evolution of the early universe at times before big bang nucleosynthesis and in particular how they influence the relic density of WIMP dark matter. In comparison to the standard calculation of the relic WIMP abundance we find a decrease, depending on the lepton flavour asymmetry. We find an effect of up to 20 per cent for lepton flavour asymmetries $l_f= {\cal O}(0.1)$.
We study the early-universe cosmology of a Kaluza-Klein (KK) tower of scalar fields in the presence of a mass-generating phase transition, focusing on the time-development of the total tower energy density (or relic abundance) as well as its distribution across the different KK modes. We find that both of these features are extremely sensitive to the details of the phase transition and can behave in a variety of ways significant for late-time cosmology. In particular, we find that the interplay between the temporal properties of the phase transition and the mixing it generates are responsible …
We study the effective field theory (including operators up to dimension five) of models in which dark matter is composite, consisting of either an electroweak doublet Dirac fermion (`higgsino-like dark matter') or an electroweak triplet Majorana fermion (`wino-like dark matter'). Some of the dimension-five operators in the former case cause mass splittings between the neutralino and chargino states, leading to a depleted rate of coannihilations and viable thermal relic dark matter with masses of the order of tens to hundreds of GeV rather than the usual pure higgsino thermal relic mass of 1 T…
We examine the thermal evolution of particle number densities in the early universe when the particles have a finite diffusion length. Assuming that annihilations are impossible when the mean separation of the particles is larger than their diffusion length, we derive a version of the Boltzmann equation for freeze out in this scenario and an approximate solution, accurate to better than 2\%. The effect of a finite diffusion length is to increase the final relic freeze-out abundance over its corresponding value when diffusion effects are ignored. When diffusion is limited only by scattering off…
We fully explore the thermal freezeout histories of a vector-portal dark matter model, in the region of parameter space in which the ratio of masses of the dark photon $A^{\prime}$ and dark matter $χ$ is in the range $1 \lesssim m_{A^{\prime}}/m_χ \lesssim 2$. In this region $2 \rightarrow 2$ and $3 \rightarrow 2$ annihilation processes within the dark sector, as well as processes that transfer energy between the dark sector and the Standard Model, play important roles in controlling the thermal freezeout of the dark matter. We carefully track the temperatures of all species, relaxing the assu…
We study the effect of the elastic scattering on the non-thermal WIMP, which is produced by direct decay of heavy particles at the end of reheating. The non-thermal WIMP becomes important when the reheating temperature is well below the freeze-out temperature. Usually, two limiting cases have been considered. One is that the produced high energetic dark matter particles are quickly thermalized due to the elastic scattering with background radiations. The corresponding relic abundance is determined by the thermally averaged annihilation cross-section at the reheating temperature. The other one …
We study the impact of a strongly first-order electro-weak phase transition on the thermal relic abundance of particle species that could constitute the dark matter and that decoupled before the phase transition occurred. We define a dilution factor induced by generic first-order phase transitions, and we explore the parameter space of the minimal supersymmetric extension to the Standard Model to determine which phase transition temperatures and dilution factors are relevant for the lightest neutralino as a dark matter candidate. We then focus on a specific toy-model setup that could give rise…
We demonstrate the existence of a generic, efficient and purely gravitational channel producing a significant abundance of dark relics during reheating after the end of inflation. The mechanism is present for any inert scalar with the non-minimal curvature coupling $ξRχ^2$ and the relic production is efficient for natural values $ξ= {\cal O}(1)$. The observed dark matter abundance can be reached for a broad range of relic masses extending from $m \sim 1 {\rm k eV}$ to $m \sim 10^{8} {\rm GeV}$, depending on the scale of inflation and the dark sector couplings. Frustratingly, such relics escape…
A gamma-ray excess from the galactic center consistent with line emission around 130 GeV was recently found in the Fermi-LAT data. Although the Fermi-LAT Collaboration has not confirmed its significance, such a signal would be a clear signature of Dark Matter annihilation. Until now, there have been many attempts to explain the excess by Dark Matter. However these efforts tend to give too-small cross sections into photons if consistency with the correct thermal relic density of Dark Matter is required. In this letter, we consider a simple Yukawa interaction that can be compatible with both asp…
We propose to use the threshold-free process of neutrino capture on beta-decaying nuclei (NCB) using all available candidate nuclei in the Milky Way as target material in order to detect the presence of the Cosmic neutrino background. By integrating over the lifetime of the galaxy one might be able to see the effect of NCB processes as a slightly eschewed abundance ratio of selected beta-decaying nuclei. First, the candidates must be chosen so that both the mother and daughter nuclei have a lifetime comparable to that of the Milky Way or the signal could be easily washed out by additional deca…
In this letter, we consider a class of scenarios in which the dark matter is part of a heavy hidden sector that is thermally decoupled from the Standard Model in the early universe. The dark matter freezes-out by annihilating to a lighter, metastable state, whose subsequent abundance can naturally come to dominate the energy density of the universe. When this state decays, it reheats the visible sector and dilutes all relic abundances, thereby allowing the dark matter to be orders of magnitude heavier than the weak scale. For concreteness, we consider a simple realization with a Dirac fermion …
We present up to date cosmological bounds on the sum of active neutrino masses as well as on extended cosmological scenarios with additional thermal relics, as thermal axions or sterile neutrino species. Our analyses consider all the current available cosmological data in the beginning of year 2014, including the very recent and most precise Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) measurements from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. In the minimal three active neutrino scenario, we find Sum m_nu < 0.22 eV at 95% CL from the combination of CMB, BAO and Hubble Space Telescope measurements of…
Higgs portal models are the most minimal way to explain the relic abundance of the Universe. They add just a singlet that only couples to the Higgs through a single parameter that controls both the dark matter relic abundance and the direct detection cross-section. Unfortunately this scenario, either with scalar or fermionic dark matter, is almost ruled out by the latter. In this paper we analyze the Higgs-portal idea with fermionic dark matter in the context of a 2HDM. By disentangling the couplings responsible for the correct relic density from those that control the direct detection cross s…
The discovery by the IceCube experiment of a high-energy astrophysical neutrino flux with energies of the order of PeV, has opened new scenarios in astroparticles physics. A possibility to explain this phenomenon is to consider the minimal models of Dark Matter (DM) decay, the 4-dimensional operator $\sim y_{αχ}\overline{L_{L_α}}\, H\, χ$, which is also able to generate the correct abundance of DM in the Universe. Assuming that the cosmological background evolves according to the standard cosmological model, it follows that the rate of DM decay $Γ_χ\sim |y_{αχ}|^2$ needed to get the correct DM…
The cosmological consequences of $f(R)$ gravity are reviewed in the framework of recent data obtained by PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics) experiment. This collaboration has reported an excess of positron events that cannot be explained by conventional cosmology and particle physics, and are usually ascribed to the dark matter presence (in particular, weak interacting massive particles). The dark matter interpretation of PAMELA data has motivated the study of alternative cosmological models (with respect to the standard cosmology) owing to the fac…
If massive neutrinos are Dirac particles, the proposed PTOLEMY experiment will hopefully be able to discover cosmic neutrino background via $ν^{}_e + {^3}{\rm H} \to {^3}{\rm He} + e^-$ with a capture rate of $Γ^{}_{\rm D} \approx 4~{\rm yr}^{-1}$. Recently, it has been pointed out that right-handed components of Dirac neutrinos could also be copiously produced in the early Universe and become an extra thermal or nonthermal ingredient of cosmic relic neutrinos, enhancing the capture rate to $Γ^{}_{\rm D} \approx 5.1~{\rm yr}^{-1}$ or $Γ^{}_{\rm D} \approx 6.1~{\rm yr}^{-1}$. In this work, we i…
We point out that, for Dirac neutrinos, in addition to the standard thermal cosmic neutrino background (C$ν$B) there could also exist a non-thermal neutrino background with comparable number density. As the right-handed components are essentially decoupled from the thermal bath of standard model particles, relic neutrinos with a non-thermal distribution may exist until today. The relic density of the non-thermal (nt) background can be constrained by the usual observational bounds on the effective number of massless degrees of freedom $N_\mathrm{eff}$, and can be as large as $n_{ν_{\mathrm{nt}}…
If dark matter was produced in the early Universe by the decoupling of its annihilations into known particles, there is a sharp experimental target for the size of its coupling. We show that if dark matter was produced by inelastic scattering against a lighter particle from the thermal bath, then its coupling can be exponentially smaller than the coupling required for its production from annihilations. As an application, we demonstrate that dark matter produced by inelastic scattering against electrons provides new thermal relic targets for direct detection and fixed target experiments.
Thermal effects on Dark Matter production during cosmic reheating
Université catholique de Louvain（天主教鲁汶大学）；Technische Universität München（慕尼黑工业大学）；University of Tokyo（东京大学）；Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität（慕尼黑大学）；Max-Planck-Institut für Physik（马克斯·普朗克物理研究所）
The relic density of symmetric and asymmetric dark matter in a Gauss-Bonnet (GB) modified Randall-Sundrum (RS) type II braneworld cosmology is investigated. The existing study of symmetric dark matter in a GB braneworld (Okada and Okada, 2009) found that the expansion rate was reduced compared to that in standard General Relativity (GR), thereby delaying particle freeze-out and resulting in relic abundances which are suppressed by up to $\mathcal{O}(10^{-2})$. This is in direct contrast to the behaviour observed in RS braneworlds where the expansion rate is enhanced and the final relic abundan…
Non-thermal dark matter generation is an appealing alternative to the standard paradigm of thermal WIMP dark matter. We reconsider non-thermal production mechanisms in a systematic way, and develop a numerical code for accurate computations of the dark matter relic density. We discuss in particular scenarios with long-lived massive states decaying into dark matter particles, appearing naturally in several beyond the standard model theories, such as supergravity and superstring frameworks. Since non-thermal production favors dark matter candidates with large pair annihilation rates, we analyze …
In recent work we showed that the relic dark matter abundance of QCD axions can be altered when the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) field is coupled to very light scalar/s, rendering the effective axion mass dynamical in the early universe. In this work we develop this framework further, by introducing a new extended symmetry group to protect the new particles' mass. We find that with a new global $SO(N)$ symmetry, with large $N$, we can not only account for the lightness of the new scalars, but we can reduce the axion relic abundance in a technically natural way. This opens up the possibility of large PQ s…
We take into account a generic form of a Dirac fermionic dark matter (DM), which communicates with the Standard Model quarks via a scalar mediator, in a model-independent way. Four special interaction scenarios are investigated, where one is parity conserving and the other three are parity violating. Three of them result in the $v$ suppressed DM-nucleon cross sections, where $v \sim 10^{-3} c$ is the velocity of the DM in the laboratory frame. We constrain the masses of the dark matter and mediator as well as the couplings from the thermal relic abundance, and the recent results of the XENON10…
We perform a complete next-to-leading order calculation of the non-Abelian electric field correlator in a SU($N_c$) plasma, which encodes properties of the plasma relevant for heavy particle bound state formation and dissociation, and is different from the correlator for the heavy quark diffusion coefficient. The calculation is carried out in the real-time formalism of thermal field theory and includes both vacuum and finite temperature contributions. By working in the $R_ξ$ gauge, we explicitly show the results are gauge independent, infrared and collinear safe. The renormalization group equa…
If dark matter (DM) is a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) that is a thermal relic of the early Universe, then its total self-annihilation cross section is revealed by its present-day mass density. The canonical thermally averaged cross section for a generic WIMP is usually stated as 3*10^-26 cm^3s^-1, with unspecified uncertainty, and taken to be independent of WIMP mass. Recent searches for annihilation products of DM annihilation have just reached the sensitivity to exclude this canonical cross section for 100% branching ratio to certain final states and small WIMP masses. The ulti…
New Thermal-Relic Targets for sub-GeV Dark Matter Direct Detection
University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）；Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory（费米国家加速器实验室）；Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学卡弗里宇宙物理学研究所）
Axions, if realized in nature, can be copiously produced in the early universe via thermal processes, contributing to the mass-energy density of thermal hot relics. In light of the most recent cosmological observations, we analyze two different thermal processes within a realistic mixed hot-dark-matter scenario which includes also massive neutrinos. Considering the axion-gluon thermalization channel we derive our most constraining bounds on the hot relic masses $m_a < 7.46$ eV and $\sum m_ν< 0.114$ eV both at 95 per cent CL; while studying the axion-pion scattering, without assuming any specif…
Dark Matter particles with inelastic interactions are ubiquitous in extensions of the Standard Model, yet remain challenging to fully probe with existing strategies. We propose a series of powerful searches at hadron and lepton colliders that are sensitive to inelastic dark matter dynamics. In representative models featuring either a massive dark photon or a magnetic dipole interaction, we find that the LHC and BaBar could offer strong sensitivity to the thermal-relic dark matter parameter space for dark matter masses between ~100 MeV-100 GeV and fractional mass-splittings above the percent le…
We investigate the thermal relics as hot, warm and cold dark matter in $\mathscr{L}=\varepsilon^{2-2β}R^β+{16π}m_{\text{Pl}}^{-2}\mathscr{L}_m$ gravity, where $\varepsilon$ is a constant balancing the dimension of the field equation, and $1<β<(4+\sqrt{6})/5$ for the positivity of energy density and temperature. If light neutrinos serve as hot/warm relics, the entropic number of statistical degrees of freedom $g_{*s}$ at freeze-out and thus the predicted fractional energy density $Ω_ψh^2$ are $β-$dependent, which relaxes the standard mass bound $Σm_ν$. For cold relics, by exactly solve the simp…
By considering $f(R)$ gravity models, the cosmic evolution is modified with respect to the standard $Λ$CDM scenario. In particular, the thermal history of particles results modified. In this paper, we derive the evolution of relics particles (WIMPs) assuming a reliable $f(R)$ cosmological solution and taking into account observational constraints. The connection to the PAMELA experiment is also discussed. Results are consistent with constraints coming from BICEP2 and PLANCK experiments.
We show that the relic abundance of thermal dark matter annihilating via a long-range interaction, is significantly affected by the formation and decay of dark matter bound states in the early universe, if the dark matter mass is above a few TeV. We determine the coupling required to obtain the observed dark matter density, taking into account both the direct 2-to-2 annihilations and the formation of bound states, and provide an analytical fit. We argue that the unitarity limit on the inelastic cross-section is realized only if dark matter annihilates via a long-range interaction, and we deter…
The thermal spectrum of relic gravitational waves causes the new amplitude that called `modified amplitude'. Our analysis shows that, there exist some chances for detection of the thermal spectrum in addition to the usual spectrum by Adv.LIGO data of GW150914 and detector based on the maser light (Dml). The behavior of the inflation and reheating stages are often known as power law expansion like $ S(η)\propto η^{1+β}$, $S(η)\propto η^{1+β_s}$ respectively. The $β$ and $β_s$ have an unique effect on the shape of the spectrum. We find some upper bounds on the $β$ and $β_s$ by comparison the usu…
Thermal freeze-out is a prominent example of dark matter (DM) production mechanism in the early Universe that can yield the correct relic density of stable weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). At the other end of the mass scale, many popular extensions of the Standard Model predict the existence of ultra-light scalar fields. These can be coupled to matter, preferentially in a universal and shift-symmetry-preserving way. We study the impact of such conformal and disformal couplings on the relic density of WIMPs, without introducing modifications to the thermal history of the Universe. …
We investigate the impact of the post-inflationary thermal histories on the cosmic graviton spectrum caused by the inflationary variation of their refractive index. Depending on the frequency band, the spectral energy distribution can be mildly red, blue or even violet. Wide portions of the parameter space lead to potentially relevant signals both in the audio range (probed by the advanced generation of terrestrial interferometers) and in the mHz band (where space-borne detectors could be operational within the incoming score year). The description of the refractive index in conformally relate…
A thermal gravitational wave background can be produced in the early Universe if a radiation dominated epoch precedes the usual inflationary stage. This background provides a unique way to study the initial state of the Universe. We discuss the imprint of this thermal spectra of gravitons on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectra, and its possible detection by CMB observations. Assuming the inflationary stage is a pure de Sitter expansion we find that, if the number of e-folds of inflation is smaller than 65, the signal of this thermal spectrum can be detected by the observations …
We study effects of relic long-lived strongly interacting massive particles (X particles) on big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). The X particle is assumed to have existed during the BBN epoch, but decayed long before detected. The interaction strength between an X and a nucleon is assumed to be similar to that between nucleons. Rates of nuclear reactions and beta decay of X-nuclei are calculated, and the BBN in the presence of neutral charged X^0 particles is calculated taking account of captures of X^0 by nuclei. As a result, the X^0 particles form bound states with normal nuclei during a relativ…
