We present a complete numerical study of cosmological models with a time dependent coupling between the dark energy component driving the present accelerated expansion of the Universe and the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) fluid. Depending on the functional form of the coupling strength, these models show a range of possible intermediate behaviors between the standard LCDM background evolution and the widely studied case of interacting dark energy models with a constant coupling. These different background evolutions play a crucial role in the growth of cosmic structures, and determine strikingly different effects of the coupling on the internal dynamics of nonlinear objects. By means of a suitable modification of the cosmological N-body code GADGET-2 we have performed a series of high-resolution N-body simulations of structure formation in the context of interacting dark energy models with variable couplings. Depending on the type of background evolution, the halo density profiles are found to be either less or more concentrated with respect to LCDM, contrarily to what happens for constant coupling models where concentrations can only decrease. However, for some specific choice of the interaction function the reduction of halo concentrations can be larger than in constant coupling scenarios. In general, we find that time dependent interactions between dark energy and CDM can in some cases determine stronger effects on structure formation as compared to the constant coupling case, with a significantly weaker impact on the background evolution of the Universe, and might therefore provide a more viable possibility to alleviate the tensions between observations and the LCDM model on small scales than the constant coupling scenario. [Abridged]
We present a general formalism to study the growth of dark matter perturbations when dark energy perturbations and interactions between dark sectors are present. We show that dynamical stability of the growth of structure depends on the type of coupling between dark sectors. By taking the appropriate coupling to ensure the stable growth of structure, we observe that the effect of the dark sectors' interaction overwhelms that of dark energy perturbation on the growth function of dark matter perturbation. Due to the influence of the interaction, the growth index can differ from the value without…
Perfect fluids are modeled by using an effective field theory approach which naturally gives a self-consistent and unambiguous description of the intrinsic non-adiabatic contribution to pressure variations. We study the impact of intrinsic entropy perturbation on the superhorizon dynamics of the curvature perturbation ${\cal R}$ in the dark sector. The dark sector, made of dark matter and dark energy is described as a single perfect fluid. The non-perturbative vorticity's dynamics and the Weinberg theorem violation for perfect fluids are also studied.
We introduce darkons as fluid particles of a Galilean massless self-gravitating fluid. This fluid exhibits anisotropic scaling with $z=5/3$. The minimal gravitational coupling dynamically generates a gravitational mass density of either sign. Hence such fluid may serve as a model for the dark sector of the Universe. Its cosmological solutions give a deceleration phase for the early Universe and an acceleration phase for the late Universe. Will the steady flow solutions lead to a confining potential and so a possible model for halos?
Interactions inside the cosmological dark sector influence the cosmological dynamics. As a consequence, the future evolution of the Universe may be different from that predicted by the $Λ$CDM model. We review main features of several recently studied models with nongravitational couplings between dark matter and dark energy.
In a previous paper it was shown that a minimally coupled scalar field of mass $M \sim H_0$ can describe both components of the dark sector in a unified way. In the solution found, the dark energy component decays linearly with the Hubble parameter, with a homogeneous creation of dark matter. In the present note we show that a $Λ$CDM dark sector can also be modeled by such a single field. More generally, we show that the system of Klein-Gordon and Einstein equations admits a uniparametric family of solutions that is equivalent to a non-adiabatic (with zero sound speed) generalised Chaplygin ga…
We examine the conformal equivalence between the $f(R)$ gravity and the interacting dark sector model. We review the well-known result that the conformal transformation physically corresponds to the mass dilation which marks the strength of interaction between dark sectors. Instead of modeling f(R) gravity in the Jordan frame, we construct the $f(R)$ gravity in terms of mass dilation function in the Einstein frame. We find that the condition to keep $f(R)$ gravity consistent with CMB observations ensures the energy flow from dark energy to dark matter in the corresponding interacting model, wh…
Dark energy interacting with dark matter is a promising model to solve the cosmic coincidence problem. We study the signature of such interaction on large scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies. Based on the detail analysis in perturbation equations of dark energy and dark matter when they are in interaction, we find that the large scale CMB, especially the late Integrated Sachs Wolfe effect, is a useful tool to measure the coupling between dark sectors. We also discuss the possibility to detect the coupling by cross-correlating CMB maps with tracers of the large scal…
Based on perturbation theory, we study the dynamics of how dark matter and dark energy in the collapsing system approach dynamical equilibrium while interacting. We find that the interaction between dark sectors cannot ensure the dark energy to fully cluster along with dark, leading to the energy non-conservation problem in the collapsing system We examine the cluster number counts dependence on the interaction between dark sectors. Furthermore, we analyze how dark energy inhomogeneities affect cluster abundances. It is shown that cluster number counts can provide specific signature of dark se…
An embedding of a unified dark sector model into string theory with the following features is proposed: The model-independent axion descending from the Kalb-Ramond 2-form field is identified with the dark-matter field, and the real part of a Kähler modulus field -- the ``radius'' of one of the extra spatial dimensions -- accounts for dark energy. The expectation value of the dilaton field is stabilized by a gaugino condensation mechanism. A dark-energy potential corresponding to a realistic low energy scale results from some gentle tuning of the stabilized expectation value of the dilaton. The…
I present some new perspectives on Dark Matter, Dark Energy and the origin of structure in the Universe. First, I argue that in order to understand the two latter issues, one needs to go beyond a standard point particle effective field theory analysis. Next, I review recent work attempting to construct a unified dark sector model from Heterotic superstring theory. I finish by discussing a new research effort to obtain early Universe cosmology directly from a non-perturbative definition of superstring theory.
We propose a scenario that explains the comparable abundances of dark matter (DM) and baryons without any coincidence in the corresponding particle masses. Here, DM corresponds to heavy "dark baryons" in a hidden MSSM-like dark sector, where the supersymmetry breaking scale can be several orders of magnitude larger than in the visible sector. In both sectors a baryon asymmetry is generated via the Affleck-Dine mechanism, and the smaller dark baryon-to-entropy ratio partially compensates the larger dark baryon masses to give similar densities in the two sectors. The large mass hierarchy also na…
There is no unique way to describe the dark energy-dark matter interaction, as we have little information about the nature and dynamics of the dark sector. Hence, in many of the phenomenological dark matter fluid interaction models in the literature, the interaction strength $Q_ν$ in the dark sector is introduced by hand. Demanding that the interaction strength $Q_ν$ in the dark sector must have a field theory description, we obtain a unique form of interaction strength. We show the equivalence between the fields and fluids for the $f(R,χ)$ model where $f$ is an arbitrary, smooth function of $…
Dark energy in General Relativity is typically non-interacting with other matter. However, it is possible that the dark energy interacts with the dark matter, and in this case, the dark matter can violate the universality of free fall (the weak equivalence principle). We show that some forms of the dark sector interaction do not violate weak equivalence. For those interactions that do violate weak equivalence, there are no available laboratory experiments to probe this violation for dark matter. But cosmology provides a test for violations of the equivalence principle between dark matter and b…
We outline a gauge-invariant framework to calculate cosmological perturbations in dark energy models consisting of a scalar field interacting with dark matter via energy and momentum exchanges. Focusing on three well-known models of quintessence and three common types of dark-sector interactions, we calculate the matter and dark energy power spectra as well as the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect in these models. We show how the presence of dark-sector interactions can produce a large-scale enhancement in the matter power spectrum and a boost in the low multipoles of the cosmic microwave ba…
We investigate the impact on the classical dynamics of dark matter particles and dark energy of a non-minimal coupling in the dark sector, assuming that the mass of the dark matter particles is coupled to a dark energy scalar field. We show that standard results can only be recovered if the space-time variation of the dark energy scalar field is sufficiently smooth on the characteristic length scale of the dark matter particles, and we determine the associated constraint dependent on both the mass and radius of the dark matter particles and the coupling to the dark energy scalar field. We furt…
It is shown that the concept of "negative mass" introduced by Farnes (2018) to describe the dark sector within a unifying theory with the negative cosmological constant contradicts both the essence of the General Relativity and the available observational data. A viable model with modified weak-field General Relativity is mentioned.
We show that the gravitational waves generated by the perturbations of general relativistic black holes can be considered as a direct probe of the existence of dark sector interactions. Working within the framework of Horndeski theory and linear perturbations, we show that dark sector interactions effectively reduce to an interaction charge that influences both scalar and tensor waveforms. Furthermore, we show that the total dark matter field, including the effects of dark sector interactions, satisfies a conservation equation embodying the equivalence principle. We exploit this realization to…
We investigate the thermodynamics of general fluids that have the constriction that their pressure is constant. For example, this happens in the case of pure dust matter, for which the pressure vanishes and also in the case of standard dark matter phenomenology. Assuming a finite non-zero pressure, the corresponding dynamics is richer than one naively would expect. In particular, it can be considered as a unified description of dark energy and dark matter. We first consider the more general thermodynamic properties of this class of fluids finding the important result that for them adiabatic an…
Both scalar fields and (generalized) Chaplygin gases have been widely used separately to characterize the dark sector of the Universe. Here we investigate the cosmological background dynamics for a mixture of both these components and quantify the fractional abundances that are admitted by observational data from supernovae of type Ia and from the evolution of the Hubble rate. Moreover, we study how the growth rate of (baryonic) matter perturbations is affected by the dark-sector perturbations.
I consider couplings between the dark energy and dark matter sectors. I describe how the existence of an adiabatic regime, in which the dark energy field instantaneously tracks the minimum of its effective potential, opens the door for a catastrophic instability. This {\it adiabatic instability} tightly constrains a wide class of interacting dark sector models. This talk was presented at, and will appear in the proceedings of the DPF-2009 conference.
Five-dimensional braneworld constructions in anti-de Sitter space naturally lead to dark sector scenarios in which parts of the dark sector vanish at high 4d momentum or temperature. In the language of modified gravity, such feature implies a new mechanism for hiding light scalars, as well as the possibility of UV-completing chameleon-like effective theories. In the language of dark matter phenomenology, the high-energy behaviour of the mediator sector changes dark matter observational complementarity. A multitude of signatures---including exotic ones---are present from laboratory to cosmologi…
In the era of precision cosmology, we investigate an novel method to probe the Dark Universe. By studying the fractality of the universe, we estimate a characteristic scale of homogeneity. Using a fisher analysis, we investigate the potential impact of this scale to the cosmological information we can gain from the Euclid satellite, and therefore understand the nature of Dark Energy and Dark matter of our universe.
While the origin and composition of dark matter and dark energy remains unknown, it is possible that they might represent two manifestations of a single entity, as occurring in unified dark sector models. On the other hand, advances in our understanding of the dark sector of the Universe might arise from Cosmic Dawn, the epoch when the first stars formed. In particular, the first detection of the global 21-cm absorption signal at Cosmic Dawn from the EDGES experiment opens up a new arena wherein to test models of dark matter and dark energy. Here, we consider generalized and modified Chaplygin…
We study the interaction between dark sectors by considering the momentum transfer caused by the dark matter scattering elastically within the dark energy fluid. Describing the dark scattering analogy to the Thomson scattering which couples baryons and photons, we examine the impact of the dark scattering in CMB observations. Performing global fitting with the latest observational data, we find that for a dark energy equation of state $w<-1$, the CMB gives tight constraints on dark matter-dark energy elastic scattering. Assuming a dark matter particle of proton mass, we derive an elastic scatt…
The recently sharpened H_0 tension is argued not to be a result of data calibration or other systematic but an indication for the common nature of dark matter and dark energy. This conclusion is devised within modified weak-field General Relativity where the accelerated expansion of the Universe and the dynamics of galaxy groups and clusters are described by the same parameter, the cosmological constant. The common nature of the dark sector hence will result in intrinsic discrepancy/tension between the local and global determinations of values of the Hubble constant.
We study a model of interacting dark matter and dark energy, in which the two components are coupled. We calculate the predictions for the 21-cm intensity mapping power spectra, and forecast the detectability with future single-dish intensity mapping surveys (BINGO, FAST and SKA-I). Since dark energy is turned on at $z\sim 1$, which falls into the sensitivity range of these radio surveys, the HI intensity mapping technique is an efficient tool to constrain the interaction. By comparing with current constraints on dark sector interactions, we find that future radio surveys will produce tight an…
The well-known tensions on the cosmological parameters $H_0$ and $σ_8$ within the $Λ$CDM cosmology shown by the Planck-CMB and LSS data are possibly due to the systematics in the data or our ignorance of some new physics beyond the $Λ$CDM model. In this letter, we focus on the second possibility, and investigate a minimal extension of the $Λ$CDM model by allowing a coupling between its dark sector components (dark energy and dark matter). We analyze this scenario with Planck-CMB, KiDS and HST data, and find that the $H_0$ and $σ_8$ tensions disappear at 68\% CL. In the joint analyzes with Plan…
Dark sectors with purely gravitational couplings to the Standard Model are unavoidably populated from the SM plasma by graviton exchange, and naturally provide DM candidates. We examine the production in the relativistic regime where the dark sector is approximately scale invariant, providing general analytical formulas that depend solely on the central charge of the dark sector. We then assess the relevance of interactions that can lead to a variety of phenomena including thermalisation, nonperturbative mass gaps, out-of-equilibrium phase transitions and cannibalism in the dark sector. As an …
We investigate the properties of a dark matter sector where supersymmetry is a good symmetry. In this context we find that the stability of the dark matter candidate is possible even when R-parity is broken in the visible sector. In order to illustrate the idea we investigate a simple scenario where the dark matter candidate is the lightest scalar field in the dark sector which annihilates mainly into two sfermions when these channels are available. We study the relic density constraints and the predictions for the dark matter detection experiments.
Hot new early dark energy describes a supercooled, first-order phase transition that takes place at sub-eV temperatures in the dark sector. It lowers the sound horizon, which provides a possible solution to the Hubble tension, and, at the same time, it can explain the neutrino masses through the inverse seesaw mechanism by making a set of sterile Majorana fermions massive. First, we argue that this scenario strengthens existing cosmological bounds on the heaviest neutrino mass. This, in turn, constrains the dark sector temperature, which provides us in total with two falsifiable predictions. I…
Is Dark Matter part of a Dark Sector? The possibility of a dark sector neutral under Standard Model (SM) forces furnishes an attractive explanation for the existence of Dark Matter (DM), and is a compelling new-physics direction to explore in its own right, with potential relevance to fundamental questions as varied as neutrino masses, the hierarchy problem, and the Universe's matter-antimatter asymmetry. Because dark sectors are generically weakly coupled to ordinary matter, and because they can naturally have MeV-to-GeV masses and respect the symmetries of the SM, they are only mildly constr…
In general, non-minimal models of the dark sector such as Dynamical Dark Matter posit the existence of an ensemble of individual dark components with differing masses, cosmological abundances, and couplings to the Standard Model. Perhaps the most critical among these features is the spectrum of masses, as this goes a long way towards determining the cosmological abundances and lifetimes of the corresponding states. Many different underlying theoretical structures can be imagined for the dark sector, each giving rise to its own mass spectrum and corresponding density of states. In this paper, b…
The dark sector, composed of the fields neutral under the Standard Model (SM) gauge group, can couple to the SM through the Higgs, hypercharge and neutrino portals, and pull the SM towards its scale by loop corrections. This instability, not possible to prevent in the known SM completions like supersymmetry due to their sizable couplings to the SM, calls for alternative mechanisms which can neutralize sensitivities of the SM to the dark sector scale and to the ultraviolet cutoff above it. Here we review such a mechanism in which incorporation of gravity into the SM predicts the existence of a …
The gravitational waves from compact binary systems are viewed as a standard siren to probe the evolution of the universe. This paper summarizes the potential and ability to use the gravitational waves to constrain the cosmological parameters and the dark sector interaction in the Gaussian process methodology. After briefly introducing the method to reconstruct the dark sector interaction by the Gaussian process, the concept of standard sirens and the analysis of reconstructing the dark sector interaction with LISA are outlined. Furthermore, we estimate the constraint ability of the gravitatio…
The Starobinsky inflation model is one of the simplest inflation models that is consistent with the cosmic microwave background observations. In order to explain dark matter of the universe, we consider a minimal extension of the Starobinsky inflation model with introducing the dark sector which communicates with the visible sector only via the gravitational interaction. In Starobinsky inflation model, a sizable amount of dark-sector particle may be produced by the inflaton decay. Thus, a scalar, a fermion or a vector boson in the dark sector may become dark matter. We pay particular attention…
If supersymmetry exists at any scale, regardless of whether it is restored around the weak scale, it may be a good symmetry of the dark sector, enforcing a degeneracy between its lowest lying fermions and bosons. We explore the implications of this scenario for the early universe and dark matter, as well as the corresponding signatures. In particular we show that the thermal history of the dark sector results in co-decaying dark matter in much of the parameter space. This implies new phenomenological signatures and presents a new way to discover high scale supersymmetry.
Dark sectors provide a compelling theoretical framework for thermally producing sub-GeV dark matter, and motivate an expansive new accelerator and direct-detection experimental program. We demonstrate the power of constraining such dark sectors using the measured effective number of neutrino species, $N_\text{eff}$, from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and primordial elemental abundances from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). As a concrete example, we consider a dark matter particle of arbitrary spin that interacts with the Standard Model via a massive dark photon, accounting for an arbitr…
If dark energy and dark matter interact via exchange of energy and momentum, then this may affect the galaxy power spectrum on large scales. When this happens, it may be degenerate with the signal from primordial non-Gaussianity via scale-dependent bias. We consider a class of interacting dark energy models and show that the matter overdensity is scale-dependent on large scales. We estimate the effective non-Gaussianity arising from the large-scale effects of interaction in the dark sector. The signal of dark sector interaction can be disentangled from a primordial non-Gaussian signal by measu…
Despite the observational success of the standard model of cosmology, present-day observations do not tightly constrain the nature of dark matter and dark energy and modifications to the theory of general relativity. Here, we will discuss some of the ongoing and upcoming surveys that will revolutionize our understanding of the dark sector.
In this paper we study the consequences of relaxing the hypothesis of the pressureless nature of the dark matter component when determining constraints on dark energy. To this aim we consider simple generalized dark matter models with constant equation of state parameter. We find that present-day low-redshift probes (type-Ia supernovae and baryonic acoustic oscillations) lead to a complete degeneracy between the dark energy and the dark matter sectors. However, adding the cosmic microwave background (CMB) high-redshift probe restores constraints similar to those on the standard $Λ$CDM model. W…
We extend previous studies of big bang nucleosynthesis, with the assumption that ordinary matter and dark matter sectors are entangled through the number of degrees of freedom entering the Friedmann equations. This conjecture allows us to find a relation between the temperatures of the weakly interacting matter and dark-matter sectors. The constraints imposed by observations are studied by comparison with calculations of big bang nucleosynthesis for the abundance of light elements. It is found that these constraints are compatible with cold dark matter and a wide range number of dark sectors.
Stochastic gravitational wave (GW) backgrounds from first-order phase transitions are an exciting target for future GW observatories and may enable us to study dark sectors with very weak couplings to the Standard Model. In this work we show that such signals may be significantly enhanced for hot dark sectors with a temperature larger than the one of the SM thermal bath. The need to transfer the entropy from the dark sector to the SM after the phase transition can however lead to a substantial dilution of the GW signal. We study this dilution in detail, including the effect of number-changing …
We consider a non-Abelian dark SU(2)$_{\rm D}$ model where the dark sector couples to the Standard Model (SM) through a Higgs portal. We investigate two different scenarios of the dark sector scalars with $Z_2$ symmetry, with Higgs portal interactions that can introduce mixing between the SM Higgs boson and the SM singlet scalars in the dark sector. We utilize the existing collider results of the Higgs signal rate, direct heavy Higgs searches, and electroweak precision observables to constrain the model parameters. The $\text{SU(2)}_{\text{D}}$ partially breaks into $\text{U(1)}_{\text{D}}$ ga…
(Abridged) Present cosmological constraints and the absence of a direct detection and identification of any dark matter particle candidate leave room to the possibility that the dark sector of the Universe be actually more complex than it is normally assumed. In particular, more than one new fundamental particle could be responsible for the observed dark matter density in the Universe, and possible new interactions between dark energy and dark matter might characterize the dark sector. In the present work, we investigate the possibility that two dark matter particles exist in nature, with iden…
We investigate the interacting dark sector composed of dark matter, dark energy, and dark radiation for a spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) background by introducing a three-dimensional internal space spanned by the interaction vector $\mathbf{Q}$ and solve the source equation for a linear transversal interaction. Then, we explore a realistic model with dark matter coupled to a scalar field plus a decoupled radiation term, analyze the amount of dark energy in the radiation era and find that our model is consistent with the recent measurements of cosmic microwave background anisot…
The cosmological origin of both dark and baryonic matter can be explained through a unified mechanism called hylogenesis where baryon and antibaryon number are divided between the visible sector and a GeV-scale hidden sector, while the Universe remains net baryon symmetric. The "missing" antibaryons, in the form of exotic hidden states, are the dark matter. We study model-building, cosmological, and phenomenological aspects of this scenario within the framework of supersymmetry, which naturally stabilizes the light hidden sector and electroweak mass scales. Inelastic dark matter scattering on …
A hidden sector that kinetically mixes with the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model provides simple and well-motivated dark matter candidates that possess many of the properties of a traditional weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP). These supersymmetric constructions can also provide a natural explanation for why the dark matter is at the weak scale - even if it resides in a hidden sector. In the hidden sector, a natural pattern of symmetry breaking generally makes particles and their superpartners lie around the same mass scale, opening novel possibilities for a variety of cosmologica…
It has recently been shown that if the dark matter is in thermal equilibrium with a sector that is highly decoupled from the Standard Model, it can freeze-out with an acceptable relic abundance, even if the dark matter is as heavy as ~1-100 PeV. In such scenarios, both the dark and visible sectors are populated after inflation, but with independent temperatures. The lightest particle in the dark sector will be generically long-lived, and can come to dominate the energy density of the universe. Upon decaying, these particles can significantly reheat the visible sector, diluting the abundance of…
We study constraints from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis on inert particles in a dark sector which contribute to the Hubble rate and therefore change the predictions of the primordial nuclear abundances. We pay special attention to the case of MeV-scale particles decaying into dark radiation, which are neither fully relativistic nor non-relativistic during all temperatures relevant to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. As an application we discuss the implications of our general results for models of self-interacting dark matter with light mediators.
In most multi-component dark-matter scenarios, two classes of processes generically contribute to event rates at experiments capable of probing the nature of the dark sector. The first class consists of "diagonal" processes involving only a single species of dark-matter particle -- processes analogous to those which arise in single-component dark-matter scenarios. By contrast, the second class consists of "off-diagonal" processes involving dark-matter particles of different species. Such processes include inelastic scattering at direct-detection experiments, asymmetric production at colliders,…
Unless some unknown symmetry in Nature prevents or suppresses a non-minimal coupling in the dark sector, the dark energy field may interact with the pressureless component of dark matter. In this paper, we investigate some cosmological consequences of a general model of interacting dark matter-dark energy characterized by a dimensionless parameter $ε$. We derive a coupled scalar field version for this general class of scenarios and carry out a joint statistical analysis involving SNe Ia data ({Legacy} and {Constitution} sets), measurements of baryon acoustic oscillation peak at $z = 0.20$ (2dF…
In a broad class of theories, the relic abundance of dark matter is determined by interactions internal to a thermalized dark sector, with no direct involvement of the Standard Model (SM). We point out that these theories raise an immediate cosmological question: how was the dark sector initially populated in the early universe? Motivated in part by the difficulty of accommodating large amounts of entropy carried in dark radiation with cosmic microwave background measurements of the effective number of relativistic species at recombination, $N_{\mathrm{eff}}$, we aim to establish which admissi…
A thermally decoupled hidden sector of particles, with a mass gap, generically enters a phase of cannibalism in the early Universe. The Standard Model sector becomes exponentially colder than the hidden sector. We propose the Cannibal Dark Matter framework, where dark matter resides in a cannibalizing sector with a relic density set by 2-to-2 annihilations. Observable signals of Cannibal Dark Matter include a boosted rate for indirect detection, new relativistic degrees of freedom, and warm dark matter.
