Long range dark matter self-interactions and plasma instabilities

DOI10.1088/1475-7516/2020/11/034zbMATH Open1486.85005arXiv2007.00667OpenAlexW3040676252MaRDI QIDQ5035286FDOQ5035286

Authors: Robert Lasenby 

Publication date: 21 February 2022

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

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.

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

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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)

Cites Work

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Cited In (4)

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

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