Scalar field dark matter with spontaneous symmetry breaking and the 3.5 keV line

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2018

Authors

Cosme, C (Author) Other; Rosa, JG (Author) Other; Bertolami, O (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics

Vol. 781

Pages: 639-644

ISSN: 0370-2693

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 18 Citations

Scopus - 18 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00N-XQ8

DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2018.04.062

Abstract (EN): We show that the present dark matter abundance can be accounted for by an oscillating scalar field that acquires both mass and a non-zero expectation value from interactions with the Higgs field. The dark matter scalar field can be sufficiently heavy during inflation, due to a non-minimal coupling to gravity, so as to avoid the generation of large isocurvature modes in the CMB anisotropies spectrum. The field begins oscillating after reheating, behaving as radiation until the electroweak phase transition and afterwards as non-relativistic matter. The scalar field becomes unstable, although sufficiently long-lived to account for dark matter, due to mass mixing with the Higgs boson, decaying mainly into photon pairs for masses below the MeV scale. In particular, for a mass of similar to 7 keV, which is effectively the only free parameter, the model predicts a dark matter lifetime compatible with the recent galactic and extragalactic observations of a 3.5 keV X-ray line. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 6