Boltzmann equation for non-equilibrium particles and its application to non-thermal dark matter production

TL;DR

This paper derives a Boltzmann equation from the Kadanoff-Baym equations to accurately describe non-thermal dark matter production via decay in a thermal bath, highlighting significant thermal effects on relic abundance.

Contribution

It introduces a formalism incorporating thermal bath effects into the Boltzmann equation for non-equilibrium particles, improving dark matter relic abundance calculations.

Findings

Thermal effects can alter dark matter relic abundance by 10-100%.

The derived Boltzmann equation accounts for quasi-particle dispersion relations.

Negligible quasi-particle widths simplify the evolution equations.

Abstract

We consider a scalar field (called $\phi$) which is very weakly coupled to thermal bath, and study the evolution of its number density. We use the Boltzmann equation derived from the Kadanoff-Baym equations, assuming that the degrees of freedom in the thermal bath are well described as "quasi-particles." When the widths of quasi-particles are negligible, the evolution of the number density of $\phi$ is well governed by a simple Boltzmann equation, which contains production rates and distribution functions both evaluated with dispersion relations of quasi-particles with thermal masses. We pay particular attention to the case that dark matter is non-thermally produced by the decay of particles in thermal bath, to which the above mentioned formalism is applicable. When the effects of thermal bath are properly included, the relic abundance of dark matter may change by $O(10-100%)$ compared to the result without taking account of thermal effects.