Beyond freeze-in: Dark Matter via inverse phase transition and gravitational wave signal

Abstract

We propose a novel scenario of Dark Matter production naturally connected with generation of gravitational waves. Dark Matter is modelled as a real scalar, which interacts with the hot primordial plasma through a portal coupling to another scalar field. For a particular sign of the coupling, this system exhibits an inverse second order phase transition. The latter leads to an abundant Dark Matter production, even if the portal interaction is so weak that the freeze-in mechanism is inefficient. The model predicts domain wall formation in the Universe, long time before the inverse phase transition. These domain walls have a tension decreasing with time, and completely disappear at the inverse phase transition, so that the problem of overclosing the Universe is avoided. The domain wall network emits gravitational waves with characteristics defined by those of Dark Matter. In particular, the peak frequency of gravitational waves is determined by the portal coupling constant, and falls in the observable range for currently planned gravitational wave detectors.

arXiv comment6 pages, 2 figures; matches journal version

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Cited by in corpus (19)

• The Science of the Einstein Telescope
• Nano-Hertz gravitational waves from collapsing domain walls associated with freeze-in dark matter in light of pulsar timing array observations
• Ultra-relativistic bubbles from the simplest Higgs portal and their cosmological consequences
• NANOGrav spectral index $\gamma =3$ from melting domain walls
• Gravitational shine of dark domain walls
• Expansion history-dependent oscillations in the scalar-induced gravitational wave background
• Revisiting evolution of domain walls and their gravitational radiation with CosmoLattice
• Cosmologically Varying Kinetic Mixing
• Gravitational waves from melting cosmic strings
• A model of persistent breaking of continuous symmetry
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• Gravitational waves from dark domain walls
• Finite size effects in the phase transition patterns of coupled scalar field systems
• On gravitational preheating
• Caustic formation in DBI models: Wave propagation on planar domain walls
• WIMP Meets ALP: Coherent Freeze-Out of Dark Matter