HEP Theory Journal Club

ROMP through Dark Matter

Saniya Heeba

McGill University

The mechanism of Dark Matter (DM) production provides key insights into DM phenomenology at late times. In most models, DM is produced through annihilation or scattering processes which can be studied by using a classical Boltzmann equation. However, a wide class of DM models (such as axions, dark photons and sterile neutrinos) include a mixing between DM and another field giving rise to oscillations: an inherently quantum phenomenon. Additionally, the microphysical properties of DM, such as its mass and interactions strength, can deviate substantially from their vacuum values in the hot and dense plasma of the early universe further modifying DM production.

In this talk, I will discuss DM production in the context of such Rapidly Oscillating Massive Particles (ROMPs). I will detail a general framework for calculating DM abundance in such a setup, in the presence and absence of a resonance and accounting for the impact of the cosmological plasma. I will discuss the viable parameter space for such a production mechanism and the associated phenomenology.