Emergent Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper proposes that dark matter could be an emergent phenomenon arising from a three-form gauge field coupled to cosmic fluids, offering a unified framework for dark sector physics without relying on new particles.

Contribution

It introduces a field-theoretic model where a three-form gauge field coupled to matter produces an emergent dark matter state, challenging traditional particle-based dark matter models.

Findings

Emergent dark matter arises from a three-form gauge field coupled to cosmic fluids.

The model unifies dark energy and dark matter within a single gauge field framework.

Conventional dark matter detection methods may be ineffective if this scenario is correct.

Abstract

We entertain the possibility that the phenomena typically attributed to dark matter may have a fundamentally emergent nature, rather than arising from new particle degrees of freedom. To illustrate this idea, we consider a field-theoretic model of a three-form gauge field coupled to a cosmological fluid composed of ordinary matter and radiation. In the absence of interactions, the 3-form gauge theory describes only a global, non-propagating state, which can be associated with dark energy. However, when coupled to the cosmic fluid, the theory gives rise to an emergent, dynamical in-medium state. We identify this emergent state of the 3-form gauge field with dark matter. Thus, our proposal provides a unified framework for the dark sector of the universe within the context of an interacting three-form gauge theory. Furthermore, we speculate that the three-form field may have a gravitational origin, potentially supported by the lepton-number asymmetry in the primordial plasma. If this scenario is correct, conventional direct and indirect searches for dark matter would likely be futile.