A 0.233 g silicon athermal phonon detector with 361.5 MeV/c² rms resolution sets the strongest direct-detection limits on dark matter-nucleon cross sections for masses 44–87 MeV/c² after 12 hours of exposure.
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Freeze-In Production of FIMP Dark Matter
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abstract
We propose an alternate, calculable mechanism of dark matter genesis, "thermal freeze-in," involving a Feebly Interacting Massive Particle (FIMP) interacting so feebly with the thermal bath that it never attains thermal equilibrium. As with the conventional "thermal freeze-out" production mechanism, the relic abundance reflects a combination of initial thermal distributions together with particle masses and couplings that can be measured in the laboratory or astrophysically. The freeze-in yield is IR dominated by low temperatures near the FIMP mass and is independent of unknown UV physics, such as the reheat temperature after inflation. Moduli and modulinos of string theory compactifications that receive mass from weak-scale supersymmetry breaking provide implementations of the freeze-in mechanism, as do models that employ Dirac neutrino masses or GUT-scale-suppressed interactions. Experimental signals of freeze-in and FIMPs can be spectacular, including the production of new metastable coloured or charged particles at the LHC as well as the alteration of big bang nucleosynthesis.
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UNVERDICTED 27representative citing papers
Non-supersymmetric spin-3/2 dark matter with baryon-violating portals can explain the relic abundance through UV and Boltzmann-suppressed freeze-in, with viable parameter space constrained by indirect detection, direct detection, and LHC monojet searches.
Freeze-in dark matter produced by kaons in low-reheating cosmologies requires larger couplings at lower reheating temperatures, directly linking the relic density to observable rates in rare kaon decay experiments.
The cS2HDM unifies a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone dark matter candidate with electroweak baryogenesis in a two-Higgs-doublet plus complex singlet setup, featuring naturally suppressed DM-nucleon scattering and CP-violating Higgs interactions under flavour alignment.
Asymmetric reheating in Dark QED produces dark matter via a new channel where DM particles annihilate while still being created by inflaton decay, with the hidden-to-visible temperature ratio tied to the square root of the Yukawa coupling ratio.
Weyl x SU(2)L x U(1)Y gauge theory with quadratic curvature generates Einstein-Hilbert action, Higgs potential, and Standard Model masses via spontaneous Weyl symmetry breaking.
Bose-Einstein condensate formation in neutron stars enhances dark matter annihilation by 10^15-10^20, allowing freeze-in models to produce observable heating and probe neutrino-fog scattering cross-sections.
Freeze-in at low reheating temperatures allows MeV-scale dark matter in vector portal models to be probed by future direct detection experiments in nuclear recoils for 50-500 MeV masses and via enhanced solar neutrino coherent scattering.
Gravitational scalar production yields reheating-dependent constraints on dark matter scalars, with dilution preserving viability for k<4 low-temperature reheating and factorization in multi-stage cases.
Sequential freeze-in dark matter with a dark photon mediator of mass 0.01-10 GeV fixes the dark charge at 1.3e-12 and restricts mixing to 10^{-11} to ~10^{-8}, with SHiP excluding most of this range except near 10^{-11}.
Lepton parity stabilizes a Majorana fermion as freeze-in dark matter produced via right-handed neutrino or Higgs decays, yielding detectable gravitational waves or ΔN_eff depending on scalar couplings.
A dark U(1)_D model with dark Higgs inflation and low reheating allows dark photon dark matter to achieve the observed relic density for a wider range of couplings, with inflation predictions matching Planck, BICEP/Keck and ACT data.
Dark matter freezes in from non-thermal Z' decays before reheating ends in an inflationary model with a secluded U(1)_D gauge sector, Z' reheaton, and lattice treatment of non-perturbative effects, opening viable parameter space with GW probes.
Lepton parity stabilizes a Majorana fermion dark matter candidate while an accidental Z2 symmetry in the scalar potential creates unstable domain walls whose decay produces observable gravitational waves.
Spontaneous wash-in leptogenesis in Type II Seesaw with Majoron pNGB background enables baryon asymmetry generation alongside dark matter cogenesis for specific v_T, v_sigma and m_j ranges.
For sub-GeV dark matter, the light and heavy mediator mass limits in direct detection are separated by up to three orders of magnitude in mediator mass, enabling precise sensitivity calculations for Si, Ge, and DAMIC-M targets.
Order-of-magnitude estimates exclude a self-interaction cross section of 1 cm²/g for dark matter in isolated low-surface-brightness galaxies while favoring 0.1 cm²/g.
Bubble collisions during a first-order phase transition at the end of inflation can generate the observed dark matter abundance in a restricted region of parameter space via direct production and spectator decays.
Ultrarelativistically decoupling dark matter in Z' portal models has direct detection cross sections that existing experiments like LZ and XENONnT have already excluded over large regions, leaving testable space above the neutrino fog for 0.4 GeV to 1 TeV masses.
In a vector dark matter extension of the Higgs portal, far detectors at colliders can probe otherwise inaccessible parameter space and set novel bounds on the reheating temperature.
The 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos supplies a natural sub-MeV dark matter candidate as a gravitationally massive pseudo-Goldstone boson whose relic density is set by freeze-in at low reheating temperatures.
In the minimal Majoron model the particle can explain all dark matter with mass below about 10 MeV from misalignment or freeze-in, and remains compatible with thermal leptogenesis when misalignment dominates or with mild tuning.
Variations in pre-nucleosynthesis cosmology produce distinct seasons in the phase-space distribution of freeze-in dark matter, directly affecting its warmness and mass bounds.
In an E6-derived ψ'SM extension, a singlet fermion acts as freeze-in dark matter with relic density set by scalar decays for masses from a few MeV to hundreds of GeV, while type-I seesaw neutrinos simultaneously produce the observed baryon asymmetry via leptogenesis.
citing papers explorer
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First Limits on Light Dark Matter Interactions in a Low Threshold Two Channel Athermal Phonon Detector from the TESSERACT Collaboration
A 0.233 g silicon athermal phonon detector with 361.5 MeV/c² rms resolution sets the strongest direct-detection limits on dark matter-nucleon cross sections for masses 44–87 MeV/c² after 12 hours of exposure.
-
Decaying spin-3/2 dark matter from baryon number violation
Non-supersymmetric spin-3/2 dark matter with baryon-violating portals can explain the relic abundance through UV and Boltzmann-suppressed freeze-in, with viable parameter space constrained by indirect detection, direct detection, and LHC monojet searches.
-
Kaon Portal to Freeze-in Dark Matter
Freeze-in dark matter produced by kaons in low-reheating cosmologies requires larger couplings at lower reheating temperatures, directly linking the relic density to observable rates in rare kaon decay experiments.
-
Towards a Unified Framework for Pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone Dark Matter and Electroweak Baryogenesis
The cS2HDM unifies a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone dark matter candidate with electroweak baryogenesis in a two-Higgs-doublet plus complex singlet setup, featuring naturally suppressed DM-nucleon scattering and CP-violating Higgs interactions under flavour alignment.
-
Asymmetric Reheating of Dark QED
Asymmetric reheating in Dark QED produces dark matter via a new channel where DM particles annihilate while still being created by inflaton decay, with the hidden-to-visible temperature ratio tied to the square root of the Yukawa coupling ratio.
-
Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking and the Emergent Einstein-Standard Model: From Weyl x SU (2)L x U (1)Y Gauge Theory to Geometric Mass Generation
Weyl x SU(2)L x U(1)Y gauge theory with quadratic curvature generates Einstein-Hilbert action, Higgs potential, and Standard Model masses via spontaneous Weyl symmetry breaking.
-
Probing freeze-in dark matter using Bose-Einstein condensate in neutron star
Bose-Einstein condensate formation in neutron stars enhances dark matter annihilation by 10^15-10^20, allowing freeze-in models to produce observable heating and probe neutrino-fog scattering cross-sections.
-
New benchmarks for direct detection of freeze-in dark matter in vector portal models
Freeze-in at low reheating temperatures allows MeV-scale dark matter in vector portal models to be probed by future direct detection experiments in nuclear recoils for 50-500 MeV masses and via enhanced solar neutrino coherent scattering.
-
Gravitational scalar production with a generic reheating scenario
Gravitational scalar production yields reheating-dependent constraints on dark matter scalars, with dilution preserving viability for k<4 low-temperature reheating and factorization in multi-stage cases.
-
Illuminating sequential freeze-in dark matter with dark photon signal at the CERN SHiP experiment
Sequential freeze-in dark matter with a dark photon mediator of mass 0.01-10 GeV fixes the dark charge at 1.3e-12 and restricts mixing to 10^{-11} to ~10^{-8}, with SHiP excluding most of this range except near 10^{-11}.
-
Cosmological Probes of Lepton Parity Freeze-in Dark Matter: $\Delta N_{\rm eff}$ & Gravitational Waves
Lepton parity stabilizes a Majorana fermion as freeze-in dark matter produced via right-handed neutrino or Higgs decays, yielding detectable gravitational waves or ΔN_eff depending on scalar couplings.
-
Low-reheating scenario in dark Higgs inflation and its impact on dark photon dark matter production
A dark U(1)_D model with dark Higgs inflation and low reheating allows dark photon dark matter to achieve the observed relic density for a wider range of couplings, with inflation predictions matching Planck, BICEP/Keck and ACT data.
-
Dark Matter Freeze-in from a $Z^\prime$ Reheaton
Dark matter freezes in from non-thermal Z' decays before reheating ends in an inflationary model with a secluded U(1)_D gauge sector, Z' reheaton, and lattice treatment of non-perturbative effects, opening viable parameter space with GW probes.
-
Lepton parity dark matter and naturally unstable domain walls
Lepton parity stabilizes a Majorana fermion dark matter candidate while an accidental Z2 symmetry in the scalar potential creates unstable domain walls whose decay produces observable gravitational waves.
-
Type II Seesaw Leptogenesis in a Majoron background
Spontaneous wash-in leptogenesis in Type II Seesaw with Majoron pNGB background enables baryon asymmetry generation alongside dark matter cogenesis for specific v_T, v_sigma and m_j ranges.
-
Electronic Direct Detection of Light Dark Matter with Intermediate-Mass Mediators
For sub-GeV dark matter, the light and heavy mediator mass limits in direct detection are separated by up to three orders of magnitude in mediator mass, enabling precise sensitivity calculations for Si, Ge, and DAMIC-M targets.
-
Self-interacting dark matter and core formation in field low-surface-brightness galaxies
Order-of-magnitude estimates exclude a self-interaction cross section of 1 cm²/g for dark matter in isolated low-surface-brightness galaxies while favoring 0.1 cm²/g.
-
Dark Matter Production from Bubble Collisions during a First-Order Phase Transition at the End of Inflation
Bubble collisions during a first-order phase transition at the end of inflation can generate the observed dark matter abundance in a restricted region of parameter space via direct production and spectator decays.
-
Searching for UFOs from the early universe: direct detection prospects for relativistically decoupling dark matter
Ultrarelativistically decoupling dark matter in Z' portal models has direct detection cross sections that existing experiments like LZ and XENONnT have already excluded over large regions, leaving testable space above the neutrino fog for 0.4 GeV to 1 TeV masses.
-
Can LLP detectors probe the reheating temperature? A case study of vector dark matter
In a vector dark matter extension of the Higgs portal, far detectors at colliders can probe otherwise inaccessible parameter space and set novel bounds on the reheating temperature.
-
The 3-3-1 Model: a natural framework for sub-MeV dark matter
The 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos supplies a natural sub-MeV dark matter candidate as a gravitationally massive pseudo-Goldstone boson whose relic density is set by freeze-in at low reheating temperatures.
-
Minimal Majoron Dark Matter
In the minimal Majoron model the particle can explain all dark matter with mass below about 10 MeV from misalignment or freeze-in, and remains compatible with thermal leptogenesis when misalignment dominates or with mild tuning.
-
Seasons of Dark Matter Freeze-In Shaped by the Weather of the Early Universe
Variations in pre-nucleosynthesis cosmology produce distinct seasons in the phase-space distribution of freeze-in dark matter, directly affecting its warmness and mass bounds.
-
Freeze-In Dark Matter and Leptogenesis: a $\psi'$SM route
In an E6-derived ψ'SM extension, a singlet fermion acts as freeze-in dark matter with relic density set by scalar decays for masses from a few MeV to hundreds of GeV, while type-I seesaw neutrinos simultaneously produce the observed baryon asymmetry via leptogenesis.
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In-depth analysis of the clustering of dark matter particles around primordial black holes. Part III: CMB constraints
CMB data limits the s-wave annihilation cross section of thermal dark matter particles to ≲ 10^{-30} cm³/s scaled by PBH fraction and mass for PBHs heavier than ~10^{-10} solar masses.
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Thermal effects on Dark Matter production during cosmic reheating
Thermal corrections to reheating and freeze-in DM production rates are generally small in the computable regime but can be large in constructed counter-examples.
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Light neutrinos, Dark matter and leptogenesis near electroweak scale and $Z_4$ symmetry
Z4-symmetric Type I seesaw fits neutrino data with minimal parameters and enables freeze-in dark matter plus resonant leptogenesis via soft symmetry breaking.