Impact of non-thermal phase-space distributions on dark matter abundance in secluded sectors
Journal
The European Physical Journal C
Journal Volume
84
Journal Issue
9
Start Page
950
ISSN
1434-6052
Date Issued
2024-09-20
Author(s)
Hugues Beauchesne
Abstract
Many new physics models include secluded sectors that interact little with the Standard Model and whose internal interactions control the dark matter abundance. If these same interactions are responsible for maintaining kinematic equilibrium within the secluded sector, it is possible that the phase-space distributions will differ considerably from their thermal values during freeze-out. This can potentially result in deviations of the dark matter abundance from that computed under the assumption of thermal distributions. In this paper, we revisit dark matter abundance computations for a benchmark secluded sector by numerically tracking the phase-space distributions. Namely, we show that the dark matter abundance can deviate considerably from standard results during the freeze-out process, but that a longer period of annihilation ultimately leaves only a slight excess.
Subjects
Dark Matter; Phase space methods
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Type
journal article