Co-Interacting Dark Matter

Abstract

We propose a novel mechanism with two component dark matter models. The subdominant dark matter can thermalize the dominant one in galaxies, and leads to core density profiles. Using ultralight dark photons and $\mathrm{GeV}$-$\mathrm{TeV}$ Dirac fermions as an example, we couple the two dark matter candidates with a $U(1)$ interaction. This mechanism differs from self-interacting dark matter, due to three effects: (1) higher occupation numbers, (2) forward-backward scattering cancellation, and (3) the multiple scatterings required for the heavy dark matter. Furthermore, the Bullet Cluster bound is evaded due to the reduced Bose enhancement factor. Unlike the fuzzy dark matter solution to the small structure problems which have tension with Lyman-$\alpha$, the ultralight dark photons with mass $\gtrsim 10^{-21}$ eV can have a core profile through interactions with $\psi$ and are not constrained by other astrophysical observations.

8 pages; version published in PRD

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Scattering searches for dark matter in subhalos: neutron stars, cosmic rays, and old rocks
• Cosmic implications of a low-scale solution to the axion domain wall problem
• Co-interacting dark matter and conformally coupled light scalars