A cosmologically consistent millicharged dark matter solution to the EDGES anomaly of possible string theory origin

TL;DR

This paper proposes a string theory-inspired model with millicharged dark matter in a hidden sector that can explain the anomalously strong 21-cm absorption signal observed by EDGES, by enabling baryon cooling through dark matter interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel particle physics model with a Stueckelberg mechanism for millicharged dark fermions, providing a cosmologically consistent explanation for the EDGES anomaly.

Findings

Model reproduces EDGES 21-cm signal strength

Identifies parameter space compatible with observations

Links millicharge to string theory origins

Abstract

Analysis of EDGES data shows an absorption signal of the redshifted 21-cm line of atomic hydrogen at $z\sim 17$ which is stronger than expected from the standard $\Lambda$CDM model. The absorption signal interpreted as brightness temperature $T_{21}$ of the 21-cm line gives an amplitude of $-$500$_{-500}^{+200}$ mK at 99\% C.L. which is a 3.8$\sigma$ deviation from what the standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmology gives. We present a particle physics model for the baryon cooling where a fraction of the dark matter resides in the hidden sector with a $U(1)$ gauge symmetry and a Stueckelberg mechanism operates mixing the visible and the hidden sectors with the hidden sector consisting of dark Dirac fermions and dark photons. The Stueckelberg mass mixing mechanism automatically generates a millicharge for the hidden sector dark fermions providing a theoretical basis for using millicharged dark matter to produce the desired cooling of baryons seen by EDGES by scattering from millicharged dark matter. We compute the relic density of the millicharged dark matter by solving a set of coupled equations for the dark fermion and dark photon yields and for the temperature ratio of the hidden sector and the visible sector heat baths. For the analysis of baryon cooling, we analyze the evolution equations for the temperatures of baryons and millicharged dark matter as a function of the redshift. We exhibit regions of the parameter space which allow consistency with the EDGES data. We note that the Stueckelberg mechanism arises naturally in strings and the existence of a millicharge would point to its string origin.