Scalar relics from the hot Big Bang

TL;DR

This paper shows that scalar fields with specific couplings can account for the entire dark matter abundance across a wide mass range, linking cosmology and laboratory tests.

Contribution

It demonstrates that scalar fields with certain coupling strengths can explain dark matter over a broad mass spectrum, with minimal dependence on coupling details.

Findings

Scalar fields can produce observed dark matter abundance across 10^{-12} to 10^{14} eV.

Couplings of order 10^{-6}(m_
)^{-1/4} are sufficient.

Results connect fifth force experiments with dark matter searches.

Abstract

In this Letter, we motivate the fact that couplings between a scalar field and the Standard Model with strengths $10^{-6}(m_\phi/{\rm eV})^{-1/4}$ relative to gravity yield the total measured cosmological dark matter abundance over a broad mass range of $10^{-12}$ to $10^{14}\ \rm{eV}$. Remarkably, this result holds with minimal sensitivity to whether the scalar couples to electrons, photons, hadrons, or other particles at laboratory energy scales, thereby linking fifth force experiments to the search for dark matter.