Bosonic super-WIMPs as keV-scale dark matter

• Published in: arXiv.org
• Main Authors: Pospelov, Maxim, Ritz, Adam, Voloshin, Mikhail B
• Format: Paper Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 04.11.2008
• Subjects: Astronomical models; Cold dark matter; Constraint modelling; Cosmology; Couplings; Dark matter; Particle decay; Photoelectricity; Physics - Astrophysics of Galaxies; Physics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics; Physics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics; Physics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena; Physics - High Energy Physics - Phenomenology; Physics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics; Physics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics; Standard model (particle physics)
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.0807.3279

We consider models of light super-weakly interacting cold dark matter, with O(10-100) keV mass, focusing on bosonic candidates such as pseudoscalars and vectors. We analyze the cosmological abundance, the gamma-background created by particle decays, the impact on stellar processes due to cooling, and the direct detection capabilities in order to identify classes of models that pass all the constraints. In certain models, variants of photoelectric (or axioelectric) absorption of dark matter in direct-detection experiments can provide a sensitivity to the superweak couplings to the Standard Model which is superior to all existing indirect constraints. In all models studied, the annual modulation of the direct-detection signal is at the currently unobservable level of O(10^{-5}).