Long range dark matter self-interactions and plasma instabilities

DOI10.1088/1475-7516/2020/11/034MaRDI QIDQ5035286zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Robert Lasenby

Publication date 21 February 2022

Published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.00667

zbMATH Keywords

dark matter theorygalaxy dynamics

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Galactic and stellar dynamics (85A05) Perturbations in context of PDEs (35B20) Coherent states (81R30) (2)-body potential quantum scattering theory (81U05) Unified quantum theories (81V22) Statistical mechanics of plasmas (82D10) Dark matter and dark energy (83C56)

Abstract: So far, the observed effects of dark matter are compatible with it having purely gravitational interactions. However, in many models, dark matter has additional interactions with itself, with the Standard Model, and/or with additional hidden sector states. In this paper, we discuss models in which dark matter interacts through a light vector mediator, giving rise to a long-ranged force between dark matter particles. Coherent scattering effects through this force can lead to the exponential growth of small perturbations, in analogy to electromagnetic plasma instabilities. These instabilities can be significant at couplings many orders of magnitude below those for which the usual particle-by-particle constraints on dark matter self-interactions apply. While this possibility has been noted in the literature, we provide the first systematic study of such instabilities, including the case where the mediator has finite mass. The latter is relevant for models of kinetically mixed `dark photon' mediators, which represent an important target for proposed dark matter detection experiments. Our analyses are of the growth of small perturbations, so do not immediately provide observational constraints on dark matter models - however, they do motivate further study of large regions of parameter space.

Recommendations

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Cites work

• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5245629 (Why is no real title available?)
• Basics of plasma astrophysics
• Electrostatic Instabilities of a Uniform Non-Maxwellian Plasma
• MIRROR MATTER-TYPE DARK MATTER
• Make dark matter charged again
• New limits on charged dark matter from large-scale coherent magnetic fields
• The weak scale from weak gravity

Cited in

(4)

• Is there evidence for CIDER in the Universe?
• Dark photon vortex formation and dynamics
• Strong dark matter self-interaction from a stable scalar mediator
• Tritium beta decay with modified neutrino dispersion relations: KATRIN in the dark sea

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