We study the imprints of secluded dark sectors with a mass gap and self-interactions on the matter power spectrum. When Dark Matter (DM) is sufficiently light, in the ballpark of a few KeV, and self-interacting we find qualitative difference with respect to $Λ$CDM and also to free streaming DM. In order to emphasize the role of interactions for the evolution of the primordial perturbations we discuss various regimes: ranging from the ideal case of a tightly coupled perfect fluid to the free case of Warm Dark Matter, including the realistic case of small but non-vanishing self-interactions. We compute the matter power spectrum in all these regimes with the aid of Boltzmann solvers. Light dark sectors with self-interactions are efficiently constrained by Lyman-$α$ data and we find that the presence of self-interactions relaxes the bound on the DM mass. As a concrete realization we study models with dark QCD-like sectors, where DM is made of light dark-pions.
The electroweak axion is identified with the fuzzy dark matter of a mass $m\simeq 10^{-20}$--$10^{-19}\,{\rm eV}$. The model predicts two components of dark matter, one is ultralight and the other is WIMP-like. The Chern-Simons-type interaction between the fuzzy dark matter and photon and the $B+L$ breaking proton decays are predicted.
One of the open questions in modern cosmology is the small scale crisis of the cold dark matter paradigm. Increasing attention has recently been devoted to self-interacting dark matter models as a possible answer. However, solving the so-called "missing satellites" problem requires in addition the presence of an extra relativistic particle (dubbed dark radiation) scattering with dark matter in the early universe. Here we investigate the impact of different theoretical models devising dark matter dark radiation interactions on large scale cosmological observables. We use cosmic microwave backgr…
Evidence has continued to accumulate over the last few decades as to the existence and nature of dark matter. Depending on the particle candidate, the dark matter can exhibit one of several cosmologically defined models: hot dark matter, cold dark matter, warm dark matter, self-interacting dark matter, and fuzzy dark matter. In this paper I review the relevance and status of these models, whether it is possible for more than one of these models to each constitute some fraction of the dark matter, and discuss the prospects for determining if any of these models can successfully describe the pro…
We present the cosmological constraints on the cross section of baryon-dark matter interactions for the dark matter mass below the MeV scale from the Planck CMB (cosmic microwave background) and SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) Lyman-$α$ forest data. To explore the dark matter mass $m_χ\lesssim 1$ MeV for which the dark matter's free-streaming effect can suppress the observable small scale density fluctuations, in addition to the acoustic oscillation damping in existence of the baryon-dark matter coupling, we apply the approximated treatment of dark matter free-streaming analogous to that of th…
Self-interacting dark matter may have striking astrophysical signatures, such as observable offsets between galaxies and dark matter in merging galaxy clusters. Numerical N-body simulations used to predict such observables typically treat the galaxies as collisionless test particles, a questionable assumption given that each galaxy is embedded in its own dark matter halo. To enable a more accurate treatment we develop an effective description of small dark matter haloes taking into account the two major effects due to dark matter self-scatterings: deceleration and evaporation. We point out tha…
A bevy of light dark matter direct detection experiments have been proposed, targeting spin-independent dark matter scattering. In order to be exhaustive, non-standard signatures that have been investigated in the WIMP window including spin-dependent dark matter scattering also need to be looked into in the light dark matter parameter space. In this work, we promote this endeavor by deriving indirect limits on sub-GeV spin-dependent dark matter through terrestrial and astrophysical limits on the forces that mediate this scattering.
Decaying cold dark matter (CDM) has been considered as a mechanism to tackle the tensions in the Hubble expansion rate and the clustering of matter. However, polarization measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) severely constrain the fraction of dark matter decaying before recombination, and lensing of the CMB anisotropies by large-scale structure set strong constraints on dark matter decaying after recombination. Together, these constraints make an explanation of the Hubble tension in terms of decaying dark matter unlikely. In response to this situation, we investigate whether a…
Directional dark matter detection attempts to measure the direction of motion of nuclei recoiling after having interacted with dark matter particles in the halo of our Galaxy. Due to Earth's motion with respect to the Galaxy, the dark matter flux is concentrated around a preferential direction. An anisotropy in the recoil direction rate is expected as an unmistakable signature of dark matter. The average nuclear recoil direction is expected to coincide with the average direction of dark matter particles arriving to Earth. Here we point out that for a particular type of dark matter, inelastic e…
As compact binary star systems move inside the halo of the galaxies, they interact with dark matter particles. The interaction between dark matter particles and baryonic matter causes dark matter particles to lose some part of their kinetic energy. Once dark matter particles lose part of their kinetic energy, they are gravitationally bound to stars, and stars start to absorb dark matter particles from the halo. The absorption of dark matter particles inside compact binary systems increases the mass of the binary components, and then the total mass of the binary systems increases as well. Accor…
The paper brings a novel approach to unification of dark matter and dark energy in terms of a cosmic fluid. A model is introduced in which the cosmic fluid speed of sound squared is defined as a function of its equation of state (EoS) parameter. It is shown how logarithmic part of this function results in dynamical regimes previously not observed in cosmic fluid models. It is shown that in a particular dynamical regime the model behaves as a unification of dark matter and phantom dark energy. Further, it is shown that the model may describe dark matter - dark energy unification in which dark e…
Modified dark matter (MDM) is a phenomenological model of dark matter, inspired by gravitational thermodynamics. For an accelerating Universe with positive cosmological constant ($Λ$), such phenomenological considerations lead to the emergence of a critical acceleration parameter related to $Λ$. Such a critical acceleration is an effective phenomenological manifestation of MDM, and it is found in correlations between dark matter and baryonic matter in galaxy rotation curves. The resulting MDM mass profiles, which are sensitive to $Λ$, are consistent with observational data at both the galactic…
We study the effects of dark matter self-interactions on the local dark matter distribution in selected Milky Way-like galaxies in the EAGLE hydrodynamical simulations. The simulations were run with two different self-interacting dark matter models, a constant and velocity-dependent self-interaction cross-section. We find that the local dark matter velocity distribution of the Milky Way-like halos in the simulations with dark matter self-interactions and baryons are generally similar to those extracted from cold collisionless dark matter simulations with baryons. In both cases, the local dark …
We study the cosmological consequences of co-decaying dark matter - a recently proposed mechanism for depleting the density of dark matter through the decay of nearly degenerate particles. A generic prediction of this framework is an early dark matter dominated phase in the history of the universe, that results in the enhanced growth of dark matter perturbations on small scales. We compute the duration of the early matter dominated phase and show that the perturbations are robust against washout from free-streaming. The enhanced small scale structure is expected to survive today in the form of…
The simplest renormalizable effective field theories with asymmetric dark matter bound states contain two additional gauge singlet fields one being the dark matter and the other a mediator particle that the dark matter annihilates into. We examine the physics of one such model with a Dirac fermion as the dark matter and a real scalar mediator. For a range of parameters the Yukawa coupling of the dark matter to the mediator gives rise to stable asymmetric dark matter bound states. We derive properties of the bound states including nuggets formed from $N\gg1$ dark matter particles. We also consi…
A massive astrophysical object deforms a local distribution of dark matter, resulting in a local overdensity of dark matter. This phenomenon is often referred to as gravitational focusing. In the solar system, the gravitational focusing due to the Sun induces modulations of dark matter signals on terrestrial experiments. We consider the gravitational focusing of a light bosonic dark matter with a mass of less than about 10 eV. The wave nature of such dark matter candidates leads to unique signatures both in the local overdensity and in the spectrum, both of which can be experimentally relevant…
We propose a model for dark matter and dark radiation, based on a strongly-coupled dark ${\rm SU}(5)$ gauge theory with fundamental and decuplet dark-quarks. The model supports light dark-baryons, respecting the chiral symmetry, which are electrically neutral but have electromagnetic form factors, and also a light dark-axion. Since the coupling of dark baryons to the standard model particles is inversely proportional to the square of the confinement scale, dark baryons become either hot dark matter or cold dark matter, depending on when the dark color confines. For the confinement scale $Λ\sim…
We discuss the possibility that the cold dark matter mass profiles contain information on the cosmological constant, and that such information constrains the nature of cold dark matter (CDM). We call this approach Modified Dark Matter (MDM). In particular, we examine the ability of MDM to explain the observed mass profiles of 13 galaxy clusters. Using general arguments from gravitational thermodynamics, we provide a theoretical justification for our MDM mass profile and successfully compare it to the NFW mass profiles both on cluster and galactic scales. Our results suggest that indeed the CDM…
Velocity distribution of dark matter is assumed to be isotropic in most cases, however, anisotropy is suggested in some simulations. Directional direct detection of dark matter is a hopeful way to discriminate the anisotropy of dark matter velocity distribution. We simulate the dark matter and target scattering in the directional direct detection, and investigate conditions required to discriminate the anisotropy. If dark matter mass is known, $O(10^3)-O(10^4)$ events are required for the discrimination if the dark matter mass is known by other experiments. We also study the case that the dark…
The rate of dark matter-electron scattering depends on the underlying velocity distribution of the dark matter halo. Importantly, dark matter-electron scattering is particularly sensitive to the high-velocity tail, which differs significantly amongst the various dark matter halo models. In this work, we summarize the leading halo models and discuss the various parameters which enter them. We recommend updated values for these parameters based on recent studies and measurements. Furthermore, we quantify the dependence of the dark matter-electron scattering rate on the choice of halo model and p…
A dark matter overdensity around a black hole may significantly alter the dynamics of the black hole's merger with another compact object. We consider here intermediate mass-ratio inspirals of stellar-mass compact objects with intermediate-mass black holes "dressed" with dark matter. We first demonstrate that previous estimates based on a fixed dark-matter dress are unphysical for a range of binaries and dark-matter distributions by showing that the total energy dissipated by the compact object through dynamical friction, as it inspirals through the dense dark matter environment towards the bl…
We explore the self-interacting dark matter scenario in a simple dark sector model where the dark matter interacts through a dark photon. Splitting a Dirac fermion dark matter into two levels using a small Majorana mass can evade strong direct detection constraints on the kinetic mixing between the dark and normal photons, thus allowing the dark sector to be more visible at high intensity and/or high energy experiments. It is pointed out that such a mass splitting has a strong impact on the dark matter self-interaction strength. We derive the new parameter space of a pseudo-Dirac self-interact…
We consider a self-interacting dark matter model in which the massive dark photon mediating the self-interaction decays to light dark fermions to avoid over-closing the universe. We find that if the model is constrained to explain the dark matter halos inferred for spiral galaxies and galaxy clusters simultaneously, there is a strong indication that dark matter is produced asymmetrically in the early universe. It also implies the presence of dark radiation, late kinetic decoupling for dark matter, and a suppressed linear power spectrum due to dark acoustic damping. The Lyman-$α$ forest power s…
We perform a numerical comparison between the fuzzy dark matter model and the cold dark matter model, focusing on formation of satellite galaxy planes around massive galaxies. Such galactic dynamics with controlled initial subhalo configurations are investigated using GADGET2 for the cold dark matter and PyUltraLight for the fuzzy dark matter, respectively. We demonstrate that satellite galaxies in the fuzzy dark matter side have a tendency to form more flattened and corotating satellite systems than in the cold dark matter side mainly due to the dissipation by the gravitational cooling effect…
The existence of dark matter and dark energy in cosmology is implied by various observations, however, they are still unclear because they have not been directly detected. In this Letter, an unified model of dark energy and dark matter that can explain the evolution history of the Universe later than inflationary era, the time evolution of the growth rate function of the matter density contrast, the flat rotation curves of the spiral galaxies, and the gravitational experiments in the solar system is proposed in mimetic matter model.
Since neither supersymmetry nor dark matter WIMPs have yet been observed, pessimism about their reality has been growing. Here we discuss a new supersymmetric theory and a new dark matter candidate which are naturally consistent with current experimental results, but which imply a plethora of new phenomena awaiting discovery within the foreseeable future.
We introduce an $SU(2)_X^{}$ dark sector without any fermions and then realize a non-abelian kinetic mixing between the dark $SU(2)_X^{}$ gauge fields and the standard model $SU(2)_L^{}\times U(1)_Y^{}$ gauge fields. While one of the dark gauge bosons becomes a dark photon, the others can keep stable to form a dark matter particle. The nearly degenerate masses of dark photon and dark matter could be tested if the dark photon and the dark matter are both observed in the future.
The predicted size of dark matter substructures in kilo-parsec scales is model-dependent. Therefore, if the correlations between dark matter mass densities as a function of the distances between them are measured via observations, we can scrutinize dark matter scenarios. In this paper, we present an assessment procedure of dark matter scenarios. First, we use Gaia's data to infer the single-body phase-space density of the stars in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy. The latter, together with the Jeans equation, after eliminating the gravitational potential using the Poisson equation, reveals t…
Majorana Neutrinos as the Dark Matters in the Cold plus Hot Dark Matter Model
在冷加热暗物质的宇宙学模型中，假设两个轻中微子是等质量的热暗物质，质量为2.4 eV，研究了具有跷跷板机制的Majorana中微子的一个简单模型.我们发现，重中微子，这是跷跷板的合作伙伴与其余的一个轻中微子，可以是冷暗物质，如果轻中微子是完全无质量。这种冷的暗物质中微子的质量可以在5.9 x 10^2 eV到2.2 x 10^7 eV的宽范围内。
What is the upper limit of the mass of the neutralino dark matter whose thermal relic is consistent with the observation? If the neutralino dark matter and colored sparticles are extremely degenerated in mass, with a mass difference less than the QCD scale, the dark matter annihilation is significantly increased and enjoys the "second freeze-out" after the QCD phase transition. In this case, the neutralino dark matter with a mass much greater than 100 TeV can realize the correct dark matter abundance. We study the dark matter abundance and its detection in the case of such highly degenerated m…
