Momentum distributions of cosmic relics: Improved analysis
Kalle Ala-Mattinen, Matti Heikinheimo, Kimmo Kainulainen, Kimmo Tuominen
备注：
14 pages, 11 figures, 1 table; Updated Binder et al. data in Fig. 1. and a better agreement is now found, updated discussion to reflect this, corrected Ref. [35], other minor clarifications added and typos corrected, published in PRD
We solve coupled momentum-dependent Boltzmann equations for the phase space distribution of cosmic relic particles, without resorting to approximations of assuming kinetic equilibrium or neglecting backscattering or elastic interactions. Our method is amendable to precision numerical computations. To test it, we consider two benchmark models where the momentum dependence of dark matter distribution function is potentially important: a real singlet scalar extension near the Higgs resonance and a sterile neutrino dark matter model with a singlet scalar mediator. The singlet scalar example shows that the kinetic equilibrium may hold surprisingly well even near sharp resonances. However, the integrated method may underestimate the relic density by up to 40% in extreme cases. In the sterile neutrino dark matter model, we studied how the inclusion of previously ignored elastic interactions and processes with initial state sterile neutrinos could affect the nonthermal nature of their resulting distributions. Here the effects turned out to be negligible, proving the robustness of the earlier predictions.
The standard model of cosmology predicts the existence of cosmic neutrino background in the present Universe. To detect cosmic relic neutrinos in the vicinity of the Earth, it is necessary to evaluate the gravitational clustering effects on relic neutrinos in the Milky Way. Here we introduce a reweighting technique in the N-one-body simulation method, so that a single simulation can yield neutrino density profiles for different neutrino masses and phase space distributions. In light of current experimental results that favor small neutrino masses, the neutrino number density contrast around th…
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 a unique mechanism to produce the relic abundance for glueball dark matter from a gauged $SU(N)_d$ hidden sector which is bridged to the standard model sector through heavy vectorlike quarks colored under gauge interactions from both sides. A necessary ingredient of our assumption is that the vectorlike quarks, produced either thermally or non-thermally, are abundant enough to dominate the universe for some time in the early universe. They later undergo dark color confinement and form unstable vectorlike-quarkonium states which annihilate decay and reheat the visible and dark sect…
The PTOLEMY experiment, implementing a $100~{\rm g}$ surface-deposition tritium target, is promising to detect cosmic neutrino background via $ν^{}_e + {^3}{\rm H} \to {^3}{\rm He} + e^-$. In this talk, I consider a thermal production of right-handed Dirac neutrinos in the early Universe, and investigate their impact on the capture rate of cosmic relic neutrinos at PTOLEMY.
Neutrinos mediate long range forces among macroscopic bodies in vacuum. When the bodies are placed in the neutrino cosmic background, these forces are modified. Indeed, at distances long compared to the scale $T^{-1}$, the relic neutrinos completely screen off the 2-neutrino exchange force, whereas for small distances the interaction remains unaffected.
Cosmological measurements of the radiation density in the early universe can be used as a sensitive probe of physics beyond the standard model. Observations of primordial light element abundances have long been used to place non-trivial constraints on models of new physics and to inform our understanding of the thermal history to the first few minutes of our present phase of expansion. Precision measurements of the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background temperature and polarization will drastically improve our measurement of the cosmic radiation density over the next decade.…
We search for extended regions of radio emission not associated with Active Galactic Nuclei, known as 'relics', 'halos' and 'mini halo's, in a sample of 70 Abell clusters for which we have radio, optical and X-ray data. AGN can produce particle bubbles of non-thermal emission, which can restrict cosmic rays. Hence radio relics and (mini) halos could be forming as a result of the confinement of cosmic rays by these bubbles. We are probing the role that intracluster mag- netic fields (using Faraday rotation measure and inverse compton arguments), mergers (through radio/X-ray interactions), cooli…
It is shown that high energy features of the cosmic ray spectrum, in particular the kink around 4 PeV and the corresponding change in spectral index, may be explained from interactions between highly energetic protons and relic Big Bang antineutrinos, if the latter have a rest mass of about 0.4 eV/$c^2$. This explanation is supported by experimental data from extensive air-shower experiments.
Dark matter with Sommerfeld-enhanced annihilation has been proposed to explain observed cosmic ray positron excesses in the 10 GeV to TeV energy range. We show that the required enhancement implies thermal relic densities that are too small to be all of dark matter. We also show that the dark matter is sufficiently self-interacting that observations of elliptical galactic dark matter halos exclude large Sommerfeld enhancement for light force carriers. Resonant Sommerfeld enhancement does not modify these conclusions, and the astrophysical boosts required to resolve these discrepancies are disf…
We analyze the prospects for testing the cosmic neutrino background and its interpretation as source of Neutrino Dark Energy with the radio telescope LOFAR.
I review the essentials of ultrahigh-energy neutrino interactions, show how neutral-current detection and flavor tagging can enhance the scientific potential of neutrino telescopes, and sketch new studies on neutrino encounters with dark matter relics and on gravitational lensing of neutrinos.
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…
In a previous work we investigated the propagation of fast moving charged particles in a spatially constant but slowly time dependent pseudoscalar background, such as the one provided by cold relic axions. The background induces cosmic rays to radiate in the low-energy spectrum. While the energy loss caused by this mechanism on the primary cosmic rays is negligible, we investigate the hypothetical detection of the photons radiated and how they could provide an indirect way of verifying the cosmological relevance of axions. Assuming that the cosmic ray flux is of the form J(E)~ E^-g we find tha…
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）
Pair annihilation of heavy stable particles that occurs in the early universe is reconsidered including the off-shell effect not properly taken into account by the conventional Boltzmann equation approach. Our new calculation of the time evolution shows that the off-shell effect prolongs the freeze-out, always with a larger final relic abundance. The final yield (number density/temperature^3) is insensitive to the effective coupling for the annihilation and of order (10^{- 8}\times (M/1 GeV)^{1/3}), with $M$ the heavy particle mass, if the coupling is not too small.
There are two processes of matter creation after inflation that may be relevant to the resolution of the puzzle of cosmic rays observed with energies beyond GZK cut-off: 1) gravitational creation of superheavy (quasi)stable particles, and 2) non-thermal phase transitions leading to formation of topological defects. We review both possibilities.
Relic neutrinos with mass 0.07 (+0.02/-0.04) eV, in the range consistent with Super-Kamiokande data, can explain the cosmic rays with energies in excess of the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff. The spectrum of ultra-high energy cosmic rays produced in this fashion has some distinctive features that may help identify their origin. Our mechanism does not require but is consistent with a neutrino density high enough to be a new kind of hot dark matter.
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 $n_{ν_{\mathrm{nt}}…
It is shown that high-energy features of the cosmic ray spectrum, in particular the kink around 4 PeV and the corresponding change in spectral index, may be explained from interactions between highly energetic cosmic protons and relic Big Bang antineutrinos, if the latter have a rest mass of about 0.4 eV/$c^2$. This explanation is supported by experimental data from extensive air-shower experiments, and in particular by the observation (Fly's Eye) of a second kink around 300 PeV, and by the abrupt change in the chemical composition of the cosmic ray spectrum that occurs at that energy. Both fa…
The current status of origin of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) is reviewed, with emphasis given to elementary particle solutions to UHECR problem, namely to Topological Defects and Super-Heavy Dark Matter (SHDM) particles. The relic superheavy particles are very efficiently produced at inflation. Being protected by gauge discrete symmetries, they can be long lived. They are clustering in the Galactic halo, producing thus UHECR without Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff. Topological Defects can naturally produce particles with energies as observed and much higher, but in most cases fail to p…
The cosmic neutrino background (CvB), produced about one second after the Big Bang, permeates the Universe today. New technological advancements make neutrino capture on beta-decaying nuclei (NCB) a clear path forward towards the detection of the CvB. We show that gravitational focusing by the Sun causes the expected neutrino capture rate to modulate annually. The amplitude and phase of the modulation depend on the phase-space distribution of the local neutrino background, which is perturbed by structure formation. These results also apply to searches for sterile neutrinos at NCB experiments. …
We consider the possibility that a large fraction of the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays are decay products of Z bosons which were produced in the scattering of ultrahigh energy cosmic neutrinos on cosmological relic neutrinos. We compare the observed ultrahigh energy cosmic ray spectrum with the one predicted in the above Z-burst scenario and determine the mass of the heaviest relic neutrino as well as the necessary ultrahigh energy cosmic neutrino flux via a maximum likelihood analysis.
We propose that the cold dark matter (CDM) is composed entirely of quark matter, arising from a cosmic quark-hadron transition. We show that compact gravitational objects, with masses around 0.5 (M_{\odot}), could have evolved out of the such CDM.
Many scenarios of physics beyond the standard model predict new light, weakly coupled degrees of freedom, populated in the early universe and remaining as cosmic relics today. Due to their high abundances, these relics can significantly affect the evolution of the universe. For instance, massless relics produce a shift $ΔN_{\rm eff}$ to the cosmic expectation of the effective number of active neutrinos. Massive relics, on the other hand, additionally become part of the cosmological dark matter in the later universe, though their light nature allows them to freely stream out of potential wells.…
We derive constraints on the relic abundance of a generic particle of mass $\sim~1-10^{14}$ TeV which decays into neutrinos at cosmological epochs, using data from the Fréjus and IMB nucleon decay detectors and the Fly's Eye air shower array. The lifetime of such unstable particles which may constitute the dark matter today is bounded to be greater than $\sim~10^{14}-10^{18}$ yr, depending on the mass. For lifetimes shorter than the age of the universe, neutrino energy losses due to scattering and the expansion redshift become important and set limits to the ability of neutrino observatories t…
We calculate the spectrum of ultra high energy cosmic rays produced by the decay of a superheavy dark matter population clustered in the galactic halo. To perform this calculation we start with fragmentation functions measured at LEP and evolve them to the cosmic ray energy scale using the QCD DGLAP equations. We consider Standard Model evolution and supersymmetric evolution. We also take into account many-body final states in the decay of the dark matter particles.
The existence of big bang relic neutrinos - exact analogues of the big bang relic photons comprising the cosmic microwave background radiation - is a basic prediction of standard cosmology. At present, the observational evidence for their existence rests entirely on cosmological measurements, such as the light elemental abundances, anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background, and the large-scale matter power spectrum. In this review, we concentrate on the prospects of more direct, weak interaction based relic neutrino detection techniques which are sensitive to the cosmic neutrino backgrou…
Decays of superheavy relic particles may produce extremely energetic neutrinos. Their annihilations on the relic neutrinos can be the origin of the cosmic rays with energies beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff. The red shift acts as a cosmological filter selecting the sources at some particular value z_e, for which the present neutrino energy is close to the Z pole of the annihilation cross section. We predict no directional correlation of the ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays with the galactic halo. At the same time, there can be some directional correlations in the data, reflecting the dist…
We use the formalism of finite-temperature field theory to study the interactions of ultra-high energy (UHE) cosmic neutrinos with the thermal background of relic neutrinos. From the imaginary part of the neutrino self-energy, calculated in terms of the Z boson propagator near the resonance, we derive general expressions for the UHE neutrino transmission probability. This allows us to take into account the thermal effects introduced by the momentum distribution of the relic neutrinos. We compare our results with the approximate expressions existing in the literature and discuss the influence o…
It has been speculated that the recently detected ultra-high energy cosmic rays may originate from the decays of relic particles with mass of order $10^{12}$ GeV clustered in the halo of our Galaxy. This hypothesis can be tested through forthcoming measurements of the spectra of both high energy cosmic nucleons and neutrinos, which are determined in this model by the physics of QCD fragmentation, with no astrophysical uncertainties. We evolve fragmentation spectra measured at LEP energies up to the scale of the decaying particle mass by numerical solution of the DGLAP equations. This enables i…
Improved Big Bang Nucleosynthesis constraints on decaying massive relics
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY（德国电子同步加速器）；Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma & Sezione INFN Roma1（罗马第一大学物理系与INFN罗马一分部）；Service de Physique Théorique, Université Libre de Bruxelles（布鲁塞尔自由大学理论物理服务处）；CP3-Origins, University of Southern Denmark（南丹麦大学CP3起源中心）
Recently the possibility was widely discussed that a large fraction of the highest energy cosmic rays may be decay products of Z bosons which were produced in the resonant annihilation of ultrahigh energy cosmic neutrinos on cosmological relic neutrinos. If one takes this so-called Z-burst scenario seriously, one may infer the mass of the heaviest relic neutrino as well as the necessary ultrahigh energy cosmic neutrino flux from a comparison of the predicted Z-burst spectrum with the observed cosmic ray spectrum.
An effective interaction approach is used to describe the interactions between the spin 0 or spin 1/2 dark matter particle and the degrees of freedom of the standard model. This approach is applicable to those models in which the dark matter particles do not experience the standard-model interactions, e.g., hidden-sector models. We explore the effects of these effective interaction operators on (i) dark matter relic density, (ii) spin-independent and spin-dependent dark matter-nucleon scattering cross sections, (iii) cosmic antiproton and gamma ray fluxes from the galactic halo due to dark mat…
We are looking for radio `relics' and `halos' in an X-ray selected sample of clusters of galaxies. These radio features are not a product of the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN)-mechanism, but more likely are associated with past cluster merger events. AGN hosts of cooling flow clusters contain particle bubbles that show non-thermal radio emission. These bubbles could explain the presence of radio relics and halos if they can restrict cosmic rays efficiently. Intracluster magnetic fields and cluster environments can reveal the acceleration mechanisms of cosmic rays. Using radio/X-ray data and anal…
The generation of an early kination dominated era within a tracking quintessential model is investigated, the relic density of the Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) is calculated and we show that it can be enhanced with respect to its value in the standard cosmology. By adjusting the parameters of the quintessential scenario, the cold dark matter abundance in the universe can become compatible with large values for the annihilation cross section times the velocity of the WIMPs. Using these values and assuming that the WIMPs annihilate predominantly to $μ^+μ^-$, we calculate the indu…
In light of the mounting evidence that the highest energy cosmic rays are dominated by protons and not gamma-rays, we discuss the prospect that these cosmic rays are generated in the decay or annihilation of superheavy relic particles. We calculate the high energy neutrino spectrum which results and normalize our results to the ultra-high energy cosmic ray spectrum. We show that most scenerios are already constrained by present limits placed by the AMANDA experiment.
We consider the possibility that a large fraction of the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays are decay products of Z bosons which were produced in the scattering of ultrahigh energy cosmic neutrinos on cosmological relic neutrinos. We compare the observed ultrahigh energy cosmic ray spectrum with the one predicted in the above Z-burst scenario and determine the required mass of the heaviest relic neutrino as well as the necessary ultrahigh energy cosmic neutrino flux via a maximum likelihood analysis. We show that the value of the neutrino mass obtained in this way is fairly robust against variations…
The existence of compact gravitational lenses, with masses around 0.5 (M_{\odot}), has been reported in the halo of the Milky Way. The nature of these dark lenses is as yet obscure, particularly because these objects have masses well above the threshold for nuclear fusion. In this work, we show that they find a natural explanation as being the evolutionary product of the metastable false vacuum domains (the so-called strange quark nuggets) formed in a first order cosmic quark-hadron transition.
The Cosmic Neutrino Background is a prediction of the standard cosmological model, but it has been never observed directly. Experiments with the aim of detecting relic CNB neutrinos are under development. For such experiments, the expected event rate depends on the local number density of relic neutrinos. Since massive neutrinos can be attracted by the gravitational potential of our galaxy and cluster locally, a local overdensity of relic neutrinos should exist at Earth. We report the status of our knowledge on the clustering of neutrinos and the consequences for future direct detection experi…
Despite many efforts to find a reasonable explanation, the origin of the "knee" in the cosmic ray spectrum at energy around 10**15.5 eV remains mysterious. In this letter we suggest that the "knee" may be due to a GZK-like effect of cosmic rays interacting with massive neutrinos in the galactic halo. Simple kinematics connects the location of the "knee" with the mass of the neutrinos, and, while the required interaction cross section is larger than that predicted by the Standard Model, it can be accommodated by a small neutrino magnetic dipole moment. The values for the neutrino parameters obt…
We analyze the possibility of detection of cosmological relic neutrinos via neutrino capture on beta decaying nuclei. This reaction has no threshold in neutrino energy, which is crucial for searching for relic neutrinos possessing very low energies. We focus on tritium (3H) and rhenium (187Re) beta radioactive isotopes to be used in KATRIN and MARE experiments dedicated to measurement of the electron neutrino mass at sub-eV scale. We examine these experiments from the viewpoint of searching for the cosmological neutrinos via neutrino capture. We conclude that even with possible gravitational c…
The existence of a scaling network of current-carrying cosmic strings in our Universe is expected to continuously create loops endowed with a conserved current during the cosmological expansion. These loops radiate gravitational waves and may stabilise into centrifugally supported configurations. We show that this process generates an irreducible population of vortons which has not been considered so far. In particular, we expect vortons to be massively present today even if no loops are created at the time of string formation. We determine their cosmological distribution, and estimate their r…
The origin of the highest-energy cosmic rays remains elusive. The decay of a superheavy particle (X) into an ultra-energetic neutrino which scatters from a relic (anti-)neutrino at the Z-resonance has attractive features. Given the necessary X mass of $10^{14\sim15}$ GeV, the required lifetime, $10^{15\sim16}$ y, renders model-building a serious challenge but three logical possibilities are considered: (i) X is a Higgs scalar in SU(15) belonging to high-rank representation, leading to {\it power}-enhanced lifetime; (ii) a global X quantum number has {\it exponentially}-suppressed symmetry-brea…
The expected proton and neutrino fluxes from decays of massive metastable relic particles is calculated using the HERWIG QCD event generator. The predicted proton spectrum can account for the observed flux of extremely high energy cosmic rays beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff, for a decaying particle mass of O(10^{12}) GeV. The lifetime required is of O(10^{20}) yr if such particles constitute all of the dark matter (with a proportionally shorter lifetime for a smaller contribution). Such values are plausible if the metastable particles are hadron-like bound states from the hidden sect…
It is argued that large-scale ($>7^o$) cosmic microwave background anisotropy detected in COBE cosmic experiment can be considered as a trace of the quantum gravity fractal structure.
We describe SuperIso Relic, a public program for the calculation of dark matter relic density and direct and indirect detection rates, which includes in addition the SuperIso routines for the calculation of flavour physics observables. SuperIso Relic v4 incorporates many new features, namely the possibility of multiprocessor calculation of the relic density, new cosmological models, and the implementations of the calculation of the observables related to direct and indirect detection experiments. Furthermore, the new version includes an implementation of the nuclear and astrophysical uncertain…
It remains to be determined experimentally if massive neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac particles. In this connection, it has been recently suggested that the detection of cosmic neutrino background of left-handed neutrinos $ν^{}_{\rm L}$ and right-handed antineutrinos $\overlineν^{}_{\rm R}$ in future experiments of neutrino capture on beta-decaying nuclei (e.g., $ν^{}_e + {^3{\rm H}} \to {^3}{\rm He} + e^-$ for the PTOLEMY experiment) is likely to distinguish between Majorana and Dirac neutrinos, since the capture rate is twice larger in the former case. In this paper, we investigate the possi…
Annihilation of high energy, $\sim 10^{21}$eV, neutrinos on big bang relic neutrinos of $\sim 1$eV mass, clustered in the Galactic halo or in a nearby galaxy cluster halo, has been suggested to generate, through hadronic Z decay, high energy nucleons and photons which may account for the detected flux of >10^{20}eV cosmic-rays. We show that the flux of high energy nucleons and photons produced by this process is dominated by annihilation on the uniform, non-clustered, neutrino background, and that the energy generation rate of 10^{21}eV neutrinos required to account for the detected flux of >1…
