Scalar field dark matter with spontaneous symmetry breaking and the $3.5$ keV line

Abstract

We show that the present dark matter abundance can be accounted for by an oscillating scalar field that acquires both mass and a non-zero expectation value from interactions with the Higgs field. The dark matter scalar field can be sufficiently heavy during inflation, due to a non-minimal coupling to gravity, so as to avoid the generation of large isocurvature modes in the CMB anisotropies spectrum. The field begins oscillating after reheating, behaving as radiation until the electroweak phase transition and afterwards as non-relativistic matter. The scalar field becomes unstable, although sufficiently long-lived to account for dark matter, due to mass mixing with the Higgs boson, decaying mainly into photon pairs for masses below the MeV scale. In particular, for a mass of $\sim 7$ keV, which is effectively the only free parameter, the model predicts a dark matter lifetime compatible with the recent galactic and extragalactic observations of a 3.5 keV X-ray line.

Version to match the one published in Physics Letters B

References in corpus (14)

• Searching for dilaton dark matter with atomic clocks
• Dark matter production in the early Universe: beyond the thermal WIMP paradigm
• Searching for dark matter and variation of fundamental constants with laser and maser interferometry
• Heavy Dark Matter Through the Higgs Portal
• Primordial Curvature Fluctuation and Its Non-Gaussianity in Models with Modulated Reheating
• The Poker Face of the Majoron Dark Matter Model: LUX to keV Line
• Discovery of a 3.5 keV line in the Galactic Center and a Critical Look at the Origin of the Line Across Astronomical Targets
• Cold keV dark matter from decays and scatterings
• The 7 keV axion dark matter and the X-ray line signal
• Self-Interacting Dark Matter through the Higgs Portal
• Generating X-ray lines from annihilating dark matter
• Comment on "Dark matter searches going bananas: the contribution of Potassium (and Chlorine) to the 3.5 keV line"
• Comment on the paper "Dark matter searches going bananas: the contribution of Potassium (and Chlorine) to the 3.5 keV line" by T. Jeltema and S. Profumo
• Anomalous gauge boson couplings, 125 GeV Higgs and singlet scalar dark matter

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Hidden Inflaton Dark Matter
• Spectator Dark Matter
• Dark matter from scalar field fluctuations
• Trans-Planckian Censorship, Inflation and Dark Matter
• Lightish but clumpy: scalar dark matter from inflationary fluctuations
• Scale-invariant scalar field dark matter through the Higgs portal
• Non-thermal production of Dark Matter after Inflation
• Explaining the 3.5 keV X-ray Line in a $L_{\mu }-L_{\tau }$ Extension of the Inert Doublet Model
• Standard model Higgs field and hidden sector cosmology
• Enlightening the dark ages with dark matter
• Thick Branes in Extra Dimensions and Suppressed Dark Couplings
• Spectator dark matter in non-standard cosmologies
• Complex Scalar fields in Scalar-Tensor and Scalar-Torsion theories
• Can dark matter drive electroweak symmetry breaking?
• Gravitational waves from a curvature-induced phase transition of a Higgs-portal dark matter sector
• $\nu$-Inflaton Dark Matter