Non-Abelian Dark Forces and the Relic Densities of Dark Glueballs

TL;DR

This paper explores the cosmological relic densities of dark glueballs from a non-Abelian dark gauge force, analyzing their formation, interactions, and potential as dark matter candidates.

Contribution

It provides a detailed calculation of dark glueball relic abundances and examines their stability and decay channels in relation to Standard Model interactions.

Findings

Lightest glueball abundance set by 3 to 2 processes

Heavier glueballs have smaller relic densities due to transfer reactions

Long-lived or stable glueballs can serve as dark matter candidates

Abstract

Our understanding of the Universe is known to be incomplete and new gauge forces beyond those of the Standard Model might be crucial to describing its observed properties. A minimal and well-motivated possibility is a pure Yang-Mills non-Abelian dark gauge force with no direct connection to the Standard Model. We determine here the relic abundances of the glueball bound states that arise in such theories and investigate their cosmological effects. Glueballs are first formed in a confining phase transition, and their relic densities are set by a network of annihilation and transfer reactions. The lightest glueball has no lighter states to annihilate into, and its yield is set mainly by 3 to 2 number-changing processes which persistently release energy into the glueball gas during freeze-out. The abundances of the heavier glueballs are dominated by 2 to 2 transfer reactions, and tend to be much smaller than the lightest state. We also investigate potential connectors between the dark force and the Standard Model that allow some or all of the dark glueballs to decay. If the connection is weak, the lightest glueball can be very long-lived or stable and is a viable dark matter candidate. For stronger connections, the lightest glueball will decay quickly but other heavier glueball states can remain stable and contribute to the dark matter density.