New stellar constraints on dark photons
TL;DR: In this article, the stellar production of vector states V within the minimal model of "dark photons" was studied and it was shown that when the Stuckelberg mass of the dark vector becomes smaller than plasma frequency, the emission rate is dominated by the production of the longitudinal modes of V, and scales as κ 2 m V 2, where κ and m V are the mixing angle with the photon and the mass of a dark state.
About: This article is published in Physics Letters B.The article was published on 2013-10-01 and is currently open access. It has received 294 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Dark photon & Dark state.
Citations
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Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics1, Niigata University2, CERN3, University of Connecticut4, Leiden University5, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute6, Federico Santa María Technical University7, University of California, Santa Barbara8, University of Maryland, College Park9, University of Lyon10, Claude Bernard University Lyon 111, Northwestern University12, University of Victoria13, University of Manchester14, University of Bonn15, Technische Universität München16, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne17, Stony Brook University18, Autonomous University of Madrid19, University of Paris20, Centre national de la recherche scientifique21, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology22, Autonomous University of Barcelona23, University of Copenhagen24, Université libre de Bruxelles25, University of La Serena26, University of Valencia27, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv28, Heidelberg University29, Yonsei University30, Princeton University31, University of Geneva32, Harvard University33, University of Tübingen34, Tomsk Polytechnic University35, Tomsk State University36, University of Washington37, University of Florida38, University of Hamburg39, TRIUMF40, University of Iowa41, University of Grenoble42, International Centre for Theoretical Physics43, Hokkai Gakuen University44, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign45, Durham University46, University of Melbourne47, University of Naples Federico II48, York University49, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory50, University of California, Berkeley51
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the SHiP experiment has a unique potential to discover new physics and can directly probe a number of solutions of beyond the standard model puzzles, such as neutrino masses, baryon asymmetry of the Universe, dark matter, and inflation.
Abstract: This paper describes the physics case for a new fixed target facility at CERN SPS. The SHiP (search for hidden particles) experiment is intended to hunt for new physics in the largely unexplored domain of very weakly interacting particles with masses below the Fermi scale, inaccessible to the LHC experiments, and to study tau neutrino physics. The same proton beam setup can be used later to look for decays of tau-leptons with lepton flavour number non-conservation, $\tau \to 3\mu $ and to search for weakly-interacting sub-GeV dark matter candidates. We discuss the evidence for physics beyond the standard model and describe interactions between new particles and four different portals—scalars, vectors, fermions or axion-like particles. We discuss motivations for different models, manifesting themselves via these interactions, and how they can be probed with the SHiP experiment and present several case studies. The prospects to search for relatively light SUSY and composite particles at SHiP are also discussed. We demonstrate that the SHiP experiment has a unique potential to discover new physics and can directly probe a number of solutions of beyond the standard model puzzles, such as neutrino masses, baryon asymmetry of the Universe, dark matter, and inflation.
842 citations
Cites background from "New stellar constraints on dark pho..."
...If mV becomes smaller than the characteristic plasma frequency all processes with emission or absorption of dark photons decouple as ∼ m(2)V [42]....
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TL;DR: The SHiP (Search for Hidden Particles) experiment at CERN as discussed by the authors was designed to search for new physics in the largely unexplored domain of very weakly interacting particles with masses below the Fermi scale, inaccessible to the LHC experiments.
Abstract: This paper describes the physics case for a new fixed target facility at CERN SPS. The SHiP (Search for Hidden Particles) experiment is intended to hunt for new physics in the largely unexplored domain of very weakly interacting particles with masses below the Fermi scale, inaccessible to the LHC experiments, and to study tau neutrino physics. The same proton beam setup can be used later to look for decays of tau-leptons with lepton flavour number non-conservation, $\tau\to 3\mu$ and to search for weakly-interacting sub-GeV dark matter candidates. We discuss the evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model and describe interactions between new particles and four different portals - scalars, vectors, fermions or axion-like particles. We discuss motivations for different models, manifesting themselves via these interactions, and how they can be probed with the SHiP experiment and present several case studies. The prospects to search for relatively light SUSY and composite particles at SHiP are also discussed. We demonstrate that the SHiP experiment has a unique potential to discover new physics and can directly probe a number of solutions of beyond the Standard Model puzzles, such as neutrino masses, baryon asymmetry of the Universe, dark matter, and inflation
592 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an overview of scenarios where the observed dark matter (DM) abundance consists of Feebly Interacting Massive Particles (FIMPs), produced nonthermally by the so-called freeze-in mechanism.
Abstract: We present an overview of scenarios where the observed Dark Matter (DM) abundance consists of Feebly Interacting Massive Particles (FIMPs), produced nonthermally by the so-called freeze-in mechanism. In contrast to the usual freeze-out scenario, frozen-in FIMP DM interacts very weakly with the particles in the visible sector and never attained thermal equilibrium with the baryon–photon fluid in the early Universe. Instead of being determined by its annihilation strength, the DM abundance depends on the decay and annihilation strengths of particles in equilibrium with the baryon–photon fluid, as well as couplings in the DM sector. This makes frozen-in DM very difficult but not impossible to test. In this review, we present the freeze-in mechanism and its variations considered in the literature (dark freeze-out and reannihilation), compare them to the standard DM freeze-out scenario, discuss several aspects of model building, and pay particular attention to observational properties and general testability o...
491 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors calculate the production of a massive vector boson by quantum fluctuations during inflation and show that the vector inherits the usual adiabatic, nearly scale-invariant perturbations of the inflaton, allowing it to be a good dark matter candidate.
Abstract: We calculate the production of a massive vector boson by quantum fluctuations during inflation. This gives a novel dark-matter production mechanism quite distinct from misalignment or thermal production. While scalars and tensors are typically produced with a nearly scale-invariant spectrum, surprisingly the vector is produced with a power spectrum peaked at intermediate wavelengths. Thus dangerous, long-wavelength, isocurvature perturbations are suppressed. Further, at long wavelengths the vector inherits the usual adiabatic, nearly scale-invariant perturbations of the inflaton, allowing it to be a good dark-matter candidate. The final abundance can be calculated precisely from the mass and the Hubble scale of inflation, ${H}_{I}$. Saturating the dark-matter abundance we find a prediction for the mass $m\ensuremath{\approx}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}({10}^{14}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}/{H}_{I}{)}^{4}$. High-scale inflation, potentially observable in the cosmic microwave background, motivates an exciting mass range for recently proposed direct-detection experiments for hidden photon dark matter. Such experiments may be able to reconstruct the distinctive, peaked power spectrum, verifying that the dark matter was produced by quantum fluctuations during inflation and providing a direct measurement of the scale of inflation. Thus a detection would not only be the discovery of dark matter, it would also provide an unexpected probe of inflation itself.
357 citations
Cites background from "New stellar constraints on dark pho..."
...These bounds include stellar production of the vector [51, 52], precision tests of electromagnetism [29, 30, 53], and distortion of the CMB due to conversion of photons into the vector [54]....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors apply the full constraining power of experimental bounds derived for a hidden photon of a secluded U(1)X and translate them to the considered gauge groups.
Abstract: We explore constraints on gauge bosons of a weakly coupled U(1)B − L, $$ \mathrm{U}{(1)}_{L_{\mu }-{L}_e},\kern0.5em \mathrm{U}{(1)}_{L_e-{L}_{\tau }}\kern0.5em \mathrm{and}\kern0.5em \mathrm{U}{(1)}_{L_{\mu }-{L}_{\tau }} $$
. To do so we apply the full constraining power of experimental bounds derived for a hidden photon of a secluded U(1)X and translate them to the considered gauge groups. In contrast to the secluded hidden photon that acquires universal couplings to charged Standard Model particles through kinetic mixing with the photon, for these gauge groups the couplings to the different Standard Model particles can vary widely. We take finite, computable loop-induced kinetic mixing effects into account, which provide additional sensitivity in a range of experiments. In addition, we collect and extend limits from neutrino experiments as well as astrophysical and cosmological observations and include new constraints from white dwarf cooling. We discuss the reach of future experiments in searching for these gauge bosons.
348 citations
References
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TL;DR: If new particles are gauged by a new U(1) then their electromagnetic charges may be shifted by a calculable amount as mentioned in this paper, which is the case in the case of the current article.
2,095 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed a light boson invoked by XDM to mediate a large inelastic scattering cross section for the DAMA annual modulation signal at low velocities at redshift, which could produce observable effects on the ionization history of the universe.
Abstract: � > 1GeV 1 . The long range allows a Sommerfeld enhancement to boost the annihilation cross section as required, without altering the weak-scale annihilation cross section during dark matter freeze-out in the early universe. If the dark matter annihilates into the new force carrier φ, its low mass can make hadronic modes kinematically inaccessible, forcing decays dominantly into leptons. If the force carrier is a non-Abelian gauge boson, the dark matter is part of a multiplet of states, and splittings between these states are naturally generated with size αm� � MeV, leading to the eXciting dark matter (XDM) scenario previously proposed to explain the positron annihilation in the galactic center observed by the INTEGRAL satellite; the light boson invoked by XDM to mediate a large inelastic scattering cross section is identified with the φ here. Somewhat smaller splittings would also be expected, providing a natural source for the parameters of the inelastic dark matter (iDM) explanation for the DAMA annual modulation signal. Since the Sommerfeld enhancement is most significant at low velocities, early dark matter halos at redshift � 10 potentially produce observable effects on the ionization history of the universe. Because of the enhanced cross section, detection of substructure is more probable than with a conventional WIMP. Moreover, the low velocity dispersion of dwarf galaxies and Milky Way subhalos can increase the substructure annihilation signal by an additional order of magnitude or more.
1,682 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, a generic mechanism via which thermal relic WIMP dark matter may be decoupled from the Standard Model, namely through a combination of WIMPs annihilation to metastable mediators with subsequent delayed decay to Standard Model states, is considered.
1,033 citations
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TL;DR: Most embeddings of the Standard Model into a more unified theory, in particular those based on supergravity or superstrings, predict the existence of a hidden sector of particles that have only very weak interactions with visible-sector Standard Model particles.
Abstract: Most embeddings of the Standard Model into a more unified theory, in particular those based on supergravity or superstrings, predict the existence of a hidden sector of particles that have only very weak interactions with visible-sector Standard Model particles. Some of these exotic particle candidates [for instance, axions, axion-like particles, and hidden U(1) gauge bosons] may be very light, with masses in the subelectronvolt range, and may have very weak interactions with photons. Correspondingly, these very weakly interacting subelectronvolt particles (WISPs) may lead to observable effects in experiments (as well as in astrophysical and cosmological observations) searching for light shining through a wall, for changes in laser polarization, for nonlinear processes in large electromagnetic fields, and for deviations from Coulomb's law. We present the physics case and a status report of this emerging low-energy frontier of fundamental physics.
950 citations
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TL;DR: Very weakly interacting slim particles (WISPs) such as axion-like particles (ALPs) or hidden photons (HPs), may be non-thermally produced via the misalignment mechanism in the early universe and survive as a cold dark matter population until today as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Very weakly interacting slim particles (WISPs), such as axion-like particles (ALPs) or hidden photons (HPs), may be non-thermally produced via the misalignment mechanism in the early universe and survive as a cold dark matter population until today. We nd that, both for ALPs and HPs whose dominant interactions with the standard model arise from couplings to photons, a huge region in the parameter spaces spanned by photon coupling and ALP or HP mass can give rise to the observed cold dark matter. Remarkably, a large region of this parameter space coincides with that predicted in well motivated models of fundamental physics. A wide range of experimental searches { exploiting haloscopes (direct dark matter searches exploiting microwave cavities), helioscopes (searches for solar ALPs or HPs), or light-shining-through-a-wall techniques { can probe large parts of this parameter space in the foreseeable future.
757 citations