The Cosmological Evolution of Light Dark Photon Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper investigates the complex cosmological evolution of light dark photon dark matter, highlighting the importance of plasma effects and establishing new constraints that surpass previous bounds by over five orders of magnitude.

Contribution

It introduces the significance of non-resonant absorption and resonant conversion effects in constraining light dark photon dark matter, providing more stringent cosmological bounds.

Findings

Non-resonant absorption constrains dark photon masses as low as 10^{-22} eV.

Resonant conversion can cause early reionization, affecting Ly-alpha forest and CMB optical depth.

Constraints exceed previous bounds by over five orders of magnitude.

Abstract

Light dark photons are subject to various plasma effects, such as Debye screening and resonant oscillations, which can lead to a more complex cosmological evolution than is experienced by conventional cold dark matter candidates. Maintaining a consistent history of dark photon dark matter requires ensuring that the super-thermal abundance present in the early Universe $\textit{(i)}$ does not deviate significantly after the formation of the CMB, and $\textit{(ii)}$ does not excessively leak into the Standard Model plasma after BBN. We point out that the role of non-resonant absorption, which has previously been neglected in cosmological studies of this dark matter candidate, produces strong constraints on dark photon dark matter with mass as low as $10^{-22}$ eV. Furthermore, we show that resonant conversion of dark photons after recombination can produce excessive heating of the IGM which is capable of prematurely reionizing hydrogen and helium, leaving a distinct imprint on both the Ly$-\alpha$ forest and the integrated optical depth of the CMB. Our constraints surpass existing cosmological bounds by more than five orders of magnitude across a wide range of dark photon masses.