Superconducting Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper proposes a gauged scalar field model for dark matter that gives photons a mass proportional to dark matter density, allowing for screening effects and modeling superconductivity phenomena in cosmology.

Contribution

It introduces a U(1)-charged extension of mimetic dark matter models, linking photon mass to dark matter density and enabling new cosmological screening and superconductivity analogies.

Findings

Photon mass is proportional to dark matter density.

Dense dark matter environments can screen dark vector forces.

The model can replicate the London equation of superconductivity.

Abstract

We extend recently proposed mimetic dark matter (DM) and dust of dark energy (DE) models to a U(1)-charged gauged scalar field. This extension yields a mass to the photon via the Higgs mechanism. The square of this photon mass is proportional to the DM energy density. Thus dense DM environments can screen the dark vector force. There is a substantial freedom in this gauged extension of the irrotational fluid-like DM. This freedom enables one to model the classical London equation of superconductivity or to obtain the photon mass which remains constant during the matter-dominated \'epoque.