Big-bang nucleosynthesis constraints on dark-matter sectors revisited

TL;DR

This paper revisits big bang nucleosynthesis constraints considering entangled ordinary and dark matter sectors, deriving temperature relations and analyzing observational bounds to accommodate various dark matter models.

Contribution

It introduces a new framework linking dark and ordinary matter temperatures via degrees of freedom, expanding constraints on dark matter sectors during nucleosynthesis.

Findings

Constraints are compatible with cold dark matter models.

A wide range of dark sector numbers is allowed.

The approach refines previous nucleosynthesis bounds.

Abstract

We extend previous studies of big bang nucleosynthesis, with the assumption that ordinary matter and dark matter sectors are entangled through the number of degrees of freedom entering the Friedmann equations. This conjecture allows us to find a relation between the temperatures of the weakly interacting matter and dark-matter sectors. The constraints imposed by observations are studied by comparison with calculations of big bang nucleosynthesis for the abundance of light elements. It is found that these constraints are compatible with cold dark matter and a wide range number of dark sectors.