Early Universe cosmology with mirror dark matter

TL;DR

Mirror matter, a stable self-collisional dark matter candidate, could explain various cosmological observations and is compatible with experimental signals, making it a promising dark matter candidate.

Contribution

This paper reviews the cosmological implications of mirror dark matter and discusses its compatibility with observations and experiments, highlighting its viability as a dark matter candidate.

Findings

Mirror matter affects Big Bang nucleosynthesis and structure formation.

It is compatible with cosmic microwave background and large scale structure data.

Mirror matter can explain the DAMA annual modulation signal.

Abstract

Mirror matter is a stable self-collisional dark matter candidate. If exact mirror parity is a conserved symmetry of nature, there could exist a parallel hidden (mirror) sector of the Universe which has the same kind of particles and the same physical laws of our (visible) sector. The two sectors interact each other predominantly via gravity, therefore mirror matter is naturally "dark". Here I briefly review the cosmological signatures of mirror dark matter, as Big Bang nucleosynthesis, primordial structure formation and evolution, cosmic microwave background and large scale structure power spectra, together with its compatibility with the interpretation of the DAMA annual modulation signal in terms of photon--mirror-photon kinetic mixing. Summarizing the present status of research and comparing theoretical results with observations/experiments, it emerges that mirror matter is not just a viable, but a promising dark matter candidate.