Astrophysical probes of inelastic dark matter with a light mediator

Abstract

We consider an inelastic dark matter model, where a fermion is charged under a broken U(1) gauge symmetry, and introduce a tiny Majorana mass term to split the fermion into two states with the light one being a dark matter candidate. If the gauge boson is light, it can mediate both elastic and inelastic dark matter self-interactions in dark halos, leading to observational consequences. Using a numerical technique based on partial wave analysis, we accurately calculate the elastic and inelastic self-scattering cross sections. We assume a thermal freeze-out scenario and fix the gauge coupling constant using the relic density constraint. Then, we focus on six benchmark masses of dark matter, covering a wide range from $10\mathrm{MeV}$ to $160\mathrm{GeV}$ and map parameter regions where the elastic scattering cross section per unit mass is within $1\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^2/g-5\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^2/g$, favored to solve small-scale issues of cold dark matter. If the heavy state can decay to the light state and a massless species, the inelastic up-scattering process can cool the halo and lead to core collapse. Taking galaxies with evidence of dark matter density cores, we further derive constraints on the parameter space. For dark matter masses below $10\mathrm{GeV}$, the mass splitting must be large enough to forbid up scattering in the dwarf halo for evading the core-collapse constraint; while for higher masses, the up-scattering process can still be allowed. Our results show astrophysical observations can provide powerful tests for dark matter models with large elastic and inelastic self-interactions.

arXiv comment11 pages, 4 figures

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• Gravothermal evolution of dark matter halos with differential elastic scattering
• The Structure of Dissipative Dark Matter Halos
• Direct Detection of Mirror Matter in Twin Higgs Models
• Self-interacting Inelastic Dark Matter in the light of XENON1T excess
• Endothermic self-interacting dark matter in Milky Way-like dark matter haloes
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• Dark Black Holes in the Mass Gap
• A Stringent Upper Limit on Dark Matter Self-Interaction Cross Section from Cluster Strong Lensing
• Diversifying halo structures in two-component self-interacting dark matter models via mass segregation
• Revisiting Puffy Dark Matter with Novel Insights: Partial Wave Analysis