Successful Freeze-Out of Strongly Interacting Dark Matter with Even-Numbered Interactions.

Strongly interacting massive particles π have been advocated as prominent dark matter candidates when they regulate their relic abundance through odd-numbered 3π→2π annihilation. We show that successful freeze-out may also be achieved through even-numbered interactions XX→ππ once bound states X among the particles of the low-energy spectrum exist. In addition, X-formation hosts the potential of also catalyzing odd-numbered 3π→2π annihilation processes, turning them into effective two-body processes πX→ππ. Bound states are often a natural consequence of strongly interacting theories. We calculate the dark matter freeze-out and comment on the cosmic viability and possible extensions. Candidate theories can encompass confining sectors without a mass gap, glueball dark matter, or ϕ^{3} and ϕ^{4} theories with strong Yukawa or self-interactions.

Relation between the Migdal Effect and Dark Matter-Electron Scattering in Isolated Atoms and Semiconductors.

A key strategy for sub-GeV dark matter direct detection is searches for small ionization signals that arise from dark matter-electron scattering or from the "Migdal" effect in dark matter-nucleus scattering. We show that the theoretical description of both processes is closely related, allowing for a principal mapping between them. We explore this for noble-liquid targets and, for the first time, estimate the Migdal effect in semiconductors using a crystal form factor. We present new constraints using XENON10, XENON100, and SENSEI data, and give projections for proposed experiments.

Directly Detecting MeV-Scale Dark Matter Via Solar Reflection.

If dark matter (DM) particles are lighter than a few MeV/c^{2} and can scatter off electrons, their interaction within the solar interior results in a considerable hardening of the spectrum of galactic dark matter received on Earth. For a large range of the mass versus cross section parameter space, {m_{e},σ_{e}}, the "reflected" component of the DM flux is far more energetic than the end point of the ambient galactic DM energy distribution, making it detectable with existing DM detectors sensitive to an energy deposition of 10-10^{3} eV. After numerically simulating the small reflected component of the DM flux, we calculate its subsequent signal due to scattering on detector electrons, deriving new constraints on σ_{e} in the MeV and sub-MeV range using existing data from the XENON10/100, LUX, PandaX-II, and XENON1T experiments, as well as making projections for future low threshold direct detection experiments.

Room for New Physics in the Rayleigh-Jeans Tail of the Cosmic Microwave Background.

We show that, despite stringent constraints on the shape of the main part of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectrum, there is considerable room for its modification within its Rayleigh-Jeans (RJ) end, ω≪T_{CMB}. We construct explicit new physics models that give an order one (or larger) increase of photon count in the RJ tail, which can be tested by existing and upcoming experiments aiming to detect the cosmological 21 cm emission or absorption signal. This class of models stipulates the decay of unstable particles to dark photons A^{'} that have a small mass, m_{A^{'}}∼10^{-14}-10^{-9} eV, nonvanishing mixing angle ε with electromagnetism, and energies much smaller than T_{CMB}. The nonthermal number density of dark photons can be many orders of magnitude above the number density of CMB photons, and even a small probability of A^{'}→A oscillations, for values as small as ε∼10^{-9}, can significantly increase the number of RJ photons. In particular, we show that resonant oscillations of dark photons into regular photons in the interval of redshifts 20

Erratum: Directly Detecting MeV-Scale Dark Matter via Solar Reflection [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 141801 (2018)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.141801.

Probing Sub-GeV Dark Matter with Conventional Detectors.

The direct detection of dark matter particles with mass below the GeV scale is hampered by soft nuclear recoil energies and finite detector thresholds. For a given maximum relative velocity, the kinematics of elastic dark matter nucleus scattering sets a principal limit on detectability. Here, we propose to bypass the kinematic limitations by considering the inelastic channel of photon emission from bremsstrahlung in the nuclear recoil. Our proposed method allows us to set the first limits on dark matter below 500 MeV in the plane of dark matter mass and cross section with nucleons. In situations where a dark-matter-electron coupling is suppressed, bremsstrahlung may constitute the only path to probe low-mass dark matter awaiting new detector technologies with lowered recoil energy thresholds.

Light Particle Solution to the Cosmic Lithium Problem.

We point out that the cosmological abundance of ^{7}Li can be reduced down to observed values if during its formation, big bang nucleosynthesis is modified by the presence of light electrically neutral particles X that have substantial interactions with nucleons. We find that the lithium problem can be solved without affecting the precisely measured abundances of deuterium and helium if the following conditions are satisfied: the mass (energy) and lifetimes of such particles are bounded by 1.6 MeV≤m_{X}(E_{X})≤20 MeV and few100s≲τ_{X}≲10^{4} s, and the abundance times the absorption cross section by either deuterium or ^{7}Be are comparable to the Hubble rate, n_{X}σ_{abs}v∼H, at the time of ^{7}Be formation. We include X-initiated reactions into the primordial nucleosynthesis framework, observe that it leads to a substantial reduction of the freeze-out abundances of ^{7}Li+^{7}Be, and find specific model realizations of this scenario. Concentrating on the axionlike-particle case, X=a, we show that all these conditions can be satisfied if the coupling to d quarks is in the range of f_{d}^{-1}∼TeV^{-1}, which can be probed at intensity frontier experiments.

Dark energy from the string axiverse.

String theories suggest the existence of a plethora of axionlike fields with masses spread over a huge number of decades. Here, we show that these ideas lend themselves to a model of quintessence with no super-Planckian field excursions and in which all dimensionless numbers are order unity. The scenario addresses the "Why now?" problem-i.e., Why has accelerated expansion begun only recently?-by suggesting that the onset of dark-energy domination occurs randomly with a slowly decreasing probability per unit logarithmic interval in cosmic time. The standard axion potential requires us to postulate a rapid decay of most of the axion fields that do not become dark energy. The need for these decays is averted, though, with the introduction of a slightly modified axion potential. In either case, a universe like ours arises in roughly 1 in 100 universes. The scenario may have a host of observable consequences.

Silk damping at a redshift of a billion: new limit on small-scale adiabatic perturbations.

We study the dissipation of small-scale adiabatic perturbations at early times when the Universe is hotter than T≃0.5 keV. When the wavelength falls below the damping scale k(D)(-1), the acoustic modes diffuse and thermalize, causing entropy production. Before neutrino decoupling, k(D) is primarily set by the neutrino shear viscosity, and we study the effect of acoustic damping on the relic neutrino number, primordial nucleosynthesis, dark-matter freeze-out, and baryogenesis. This sets a new limit on the amplitude of primordial fluctuations of Δ(R)(2)<0.007 at 10(4) Mpc(-1)≲k≲10(5) Mpc(-1) and a model-dependent limit of Δ(R)(2)≲0.3 at k≲10(20-25) Mpc(-1).

Dark matter detectors as dark photon helioscopes.

Light new particles with masses below 10 keV, often considered as a plausible extension of the standard model, will be emitted from the solar interior and can be detected on Earth with a variety of experimental tools. Here, we analyze the new "dark" vector state V, a massive vector boson mixed with the photon via an angle κ, that in the limit of the small mass mV has its emission spectrum strongly peaked at low energies. Thus, we utilize the constraints on the atomic ionization rate imposed by the results of the XENON10 experiment to set the limit on the parameters of this model: κ×mV<3×10(-12) eV. This makes low-threshold dark matter experiments the most sensitive dark vector helioscopes, as our result not only improves current experimental bounds from other searches by several orders of magnitude but also surpasses even the most stringent astrophysical and cosmological limits in a seven-decade-wide interval of mV. We generalize this approach to other light exotic particles and set the most stringent direct constraints on "minicharged" particles.

Direct constraints on charged excitations of dark matter.

If the neutral component of weak-scale dark matter is accompanied by a charged excitation separated by a mass gap of less than ~20 MeV, weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) can form stable bound states with nuclei. We show that the recent progress in experiments searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay sets the first direct constraint on the exoergic reaction of WIMP-nucleus bound state formation. We calculate the rate for such a process in representative models and show that the double-beta decay experiments provide unique sensitivity to a large fraction of parameter space of the WIMP doublet model, complementary to constraints imposed by cosmology and direct collider searches.

Primordial beryllium as a big bang calorimeter.

Many models of new physics including variants of supersymmetry predict metastable long-lived particles that can decay during or after primordial nucleosynthesis, releasing significant amounts of nonthermal energy. The hadronic energy injection in these decays leads to the formation of 9Be via the chain of nonequilibrium transformations: Energy(h)→T, ³He→6He, 6Li→9Be. We calculate the efficiency of this transformation and show that if the injection happens at cosmic times of a few hours the release of O(10 MeV) per baryon can be sufficient for obtaining a sizable 9Be abundance. The absence of a plateau structure in the 9Be/H abundance down to a O(10⁻¹4) level allows one to use beryllium as a robust constraint on new physics models with decaying or annihilating particles.