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Joint CMB and BBN Constraints on Light Dark Sectors with Dark Radiation

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arxiv 2109.03246 v2 pith:WTJ6PAXF submitted 2021-09-07 hep-ph astro-ph.CO

classification hep-phastro-ph.CO
keywords darkmatterconstraintslightsectorsarbitrarybelowdegrees
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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abstract

Dark sectors provide a compelling theoretical framework for thermally producing sub-GeV dark matter, and motivate an expansive new accelerator and direct-detection experimental program. We demonstrate the power of constraining such dark sectors using the measured effective number of neutrino species, $N_\text{eff}$, from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and primordial elemental abundances from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). As a concrete example, we consider a dark matter particle of arbitrary spin that interacts with the Standard Model via a massive dark photon, accounting for an arbitrary number of light degrees of freedom in the dark sector. We exclude dark matter masses below $\sim$ 4 MeV at 95% confidence for all dark matter spins and dark photon masses. These bounds hold regardless of additional new light, inert degrees of freedom in the dark sector, and for dark matter-electron scattering cross sections many orders of magnitude below current experimental constraints. The strength of these constraints will only continue to improve with future CMB experiments.

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Cited by 4 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. Migdal Ionization as a Probe of Light Dark Matter from Nuclear Transition

    hep-ph 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Migdal ionization of reactor-produced sub-MeV dark matter in TEXONO germanium yields new 95% C.L. limits on the reference DM–proton cross section for 0.01 MeV ≤ mχ ≲ 2.6 MeV.

  2. Light Vector Dark Matter via a Magnetic Dipole Portal: Bridging Direct Detection and Fixed-Target Searches

    hep-ph 2025-11 reject novelty 6.0 of 10

    A sub-GeV vector DM model with a magnetic dipole portal is studied at LDMX/NA64, but the claimed viable region relies on an unjustified thermal equilibrium assumption.

  3. Cosmic-ray boosted inelastic dark matter from neutrino-emitting active galactic nuclei

    hep-ph 2025-08 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    A cosmic-ray boosted, inelastic dark matter flux from two neutrino-emitting AGNs gives new Super-K and XENONnT limits that reach part of the thermal freeze-out target for sub-GeV dark matter.

  4. Sub-GeV Dark Matter Under Pressure from Direct Detection

    hep-ph 2025-07 conditional novelty 4.0 of 10

    PandaX-4T S2-only data yields world-leading sub-GeV dark matter-electron scattering limits for heavy mediators in the 20-200 MeV range, although the result largely overlaps with the collaboration's own just-released analysis.

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