Dark matter transient annihilations in the early Universe

TL;DR

This paper explores how early Universe conditions can cause transient dark matter annihilation channels, especially involving dark photons, which help reconcile null detection results with theoretical models.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of transient annihilation channels in the early Universe, focusing on vector portal dark matter and dark photon mass evolution, providing new ways to evade detection constraints.

Findings

Transient annihilation channels can open during early Universe cooling.

Dark photon mass evolution enables resonant annihilations without fine-tuning.

Scenario predicts a light dark scalar detectable by future experiments.

Abstract

The cosmological evolution can modify the dark matter (DM) properties in the early Universe to be vastly different from the properties today. Therefore, the relation between the relic abundance and the DM constraints today needs to be revisited. We propose novel \textit{transient} annihilations of DM which helps to alleviate the pressure from DM null detection results. As a concrete example, we consider the vector portal DM and focus on the mass evolution of the dark photon. When the Universe cools down, the gauge boson mass can increase monotonically and go across several important thresholds; opening new transient annihilation channels in the early Universe. Those channels are either forbidden or weakened at the late Universe which helps to evade the indirect searches. In particular, the transient resonant channel can survive direct detection (DD) without tuning the DM to be half of the dark photon mass and can be soon tested by future DD or collider experiments. A feature of the scenario is the existence of a light dark scalar.