Quantum Field Theory of Interacting Dark Matter/Dark Energy: Dark Monodromies

TL;DR

This paper develops a quantum field theory framework for interacting dark matter and dark energy, highlighting conditions for stability and decoupling, and exploring axion-based models with observable signatures.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum field theory formulation for dark sector interactions, emphasizing axion models with stable mixings compatible with cosmological constraints.

Findings

Heavy particle dark matter models are strongly constrained.

Axion-based models can have stable mixings and observable signatures.

Decoupling of dark matter and dark energy is required for stability.

Abstract

We discuss how to formulate a quantum field theory of dark energy interacting with dark matter. We show that the proposals based on the assumption that dark matter is made up of heavy particles with masses which are very sensitive to the value of dark energy are strongly constrained. Quintessence-generated long range forces and radiative stability of the quintessence potential require that such dark matter and dark energy are completely decoupled. However, if dark energy and a fraction of dark matter are very light axions, they can have significant mixings which are radiatively stable and perfectly consistent with quantum field theory. Such models can naturally occur in multi-axion realizations of monodromies. The mixings yield interesting signatures which are observable and are within current cosmological limits but could be constrained further by future observations.