Bernal, N., Donini, A., Folgado, M. G., & Rius, N. (2021). FIMP Dark Matter in Clockwork/Linear Dilaton extra-dimensions. J. High Energy Phys., 04(4), 061–29pp.
Abstract: We study the possibility that Dark Matter (DM) is made of Feebly Interacting Massive Particles (FIMP) interacting just gravitationally with the Standard Model particles in the framework of a Clockwork/Linear Dilaton (CW/LD) model. We restrict here to the case in which the DM particles are scalar fields. This paper extends our previous study of FIMP's in Randall-Sundrum (RS) warped extra-dimensions. As it was the case in the RS scenario, also in the CW/LD model we find a significant region of the parameter space in which the observed DM relic abundance can be reproduced with scalar DM mass in the MeV range, with a reheating temperature varying from 10 GeV to 10(9) GeV. We comment on the similarities of the results in both extra-dimensional models.
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Bennett, J. J., Buldgen, G., de Salas, P. F., Drewes, M., Gariazzo, S., Pastor, S., et al. (2021). Towards a precision calculation of the effective number of neutrinos N-eff in the Standard Model. Part II. Neutrino decoupling in the presence of flavour oscillations and finite-temperature QED. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 04(4), 073–33pp.
Abstract: We present in this work a new calculation of the standard-model benchmark value for the effective number of neutrinos, N-eff(SM), that quantifies the cosmological neutrinoto-photon energy densities. The calculation takes into account neutrino flavour oscillations, finite-temperature effects in the quantum electrodynamics plasma to O(e(3)), where e is the elementary electric charge, and a full evaluation of the neutrino-neutrino collision integral. We provide furthermore a detailed assessment of the uncertainties in the benchmark N(eff)(SM )value, through testing the value's dependence on (i) optional approximate modelling of the weak collision integrals, (ii) measurement errors in the physical parameters of the weak sector, and (iii) numerical convergence, particularly in relation to momentum discretisation. Our new, recommended standard-model benchmark is N-eff(SM) 3.0440 +/- 0.0002, where the nominal uncertainty is attributed predominantly to errors incurred in the numerical solution procedure (vertical bar delta N-eff vertical bar similar to 10(-4)), augmented by measurement errors in the solar mixing angle sin(2) theta(12) (vertical bar delta N-eff vertical bar similar to 10(-4)).
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Beneke, M., Hellmann, C., & Ruiz-Femenia, P. (2015). Heavy neutralino relic abundance with Sommerfeld enhancements – a study of pMSSM scenarios. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 162–37pp.
Abstract: We present a detailed discussion of Sommerfeld enhancements in neutralino dark matter relic abundance calculations for several popular benchmark scenarios in the general MSSM. Our analysis is focused on models with heavy wino- and higgsino-like neutralino LSI' and models interpolating between these two scenarios. This work is the first phenomenological application of effective field theory methods that we have developed in earlier work and that allow for the consistent study of Sommerfeld enhancements in nonrelativistic neutralino and chargino co-annihilation reactions within the general MSSM, away from the pure-wino and pure-higgsino limits.
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Beneke, M., Hellmann, C., & Ruiz-Femenia, P. (2015). Non-relativistic pair annihilation of nearly mass degenerate neutralinos and charginos III. Computation of the Sommerfeld enhancements. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 115–57pp.
Abstract: This paper concludes the presentation of the non-relativistic effective field theory formalism designed to calculate the radiative corrections that enhance the pair-annihilation cross sections of slowly moving neutralinos and charginos within the general minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). While papers I and II focused on the computation of the tree-level annihilation rates that feed into the short-distance part, here we describe in detail the method to obtain the Sommerfeld factors that contain the enhanced long-distance corrections. This includes the computation of the potential interactions in the MSSM, which are provided in compact analytic form, and a novel solution of the multi-state Schrodinger equation that is free from the numerical instabilities generated by large mass splittings between the scattering states. Our results allow for a precise computation of the MSSM neutralino dark matter relic abundance and pair-annihilation rates in the present Universe, when Sommerfeld enhancements are important.
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Beltran Jimenez, J., Heisenberg, L., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2018). Born-Infeld inspired modifications of gravity. Phys. Rep., 727, 1–129.
Abstract: General Relativity has shown an outstanding observational success in the scales where it has been directly tested. However, modifications have been intensively explored in the regimes where it seems either incomplete or signals its own limit of validity. In particular, the breakdown of unitarity near the Planck scale strongly suggests that General Relativity needs to be modified at high energies and quantum gravity effects are expected to be important. This is related to the existence of spacetime singularities when the solutions of General Relativity are extrapolated to regimes where curvatures are large. In this sense, Born-Infeld inspired modifications of gravity have shown an extraordinary ability to regularise the gravitational dynamics, leading to non-singular cosmologies and regular black hole spacetimes in a very robust manner and without resorting to quantum gravity effects. This has boosted the interest in these theories in applications to stellar structure, compact objects, inflationary scenarios, cosmological singularities, and black hole and wormhole physics, among others. We review the motivations, various formulations, and main results achieved within these theories, including their observational viability, and provide an overview of current open problems and future research opportunities.
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Bellomo, N., Bellini, E., Hu, B., Jimenez, R., Pena-Garay, C., & Verde, L. (2017). Hiding neutrino mass in modified gravity cosmologies. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 02(2), 043–12pp.
Abstract: Cosmological observables show a dependence with the neutrino mass, which is partially degenerate with parameters of extended models of gravity. We study and explore this degeneracy in Horndeski generalized scalar-tensor theories of gravity. Using forecasted cosmic microwave background and galaxy power spectrum datasets, we find that a single parameter in the linear regime of the effective theory dominates the correlation with the total neutrino mass. For any given mass, a particular value of this parameter approximately cancels the power suppression due to the neutrino mass at a given redshift. The extent of the cancellation of this degeneracy depends on the cosmological large-scale structure data used at different redshifts. We constrain the parameters and functions of the effective gravity theory and determine the influence of gravity on the determination of the neutrino mass from present and future surveys.
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Barenboim, G., & Panotopoulos, G. (2011). Direct neutralino searches in the NMSSM with gravitino LSP in the degenerate scenario. J. High Energy Phys., 08(8), 027–16pp.
Abstract: In the present work a two-component dark matter model is studied adopting the degenerate scenario in the R-parity conserving NMSSM. The gravitino LSP and the neutralino NLSP are extremely degenerate in mass, avoiding the BBN bounds and obtaining a high reheating temperature for thermal leptogenesis. In this model both gravitino (absolutely stable) and neutralino (quasi-stable) contribute to dark matter, and direct detection searches for neutralino are discussed. Points that survive all the constraints correspond to a singlino-like neutralino.
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Barenboim, G., & Panotopoulos, G. (2010). Gravitino dark matter in the constrained next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model with neutralino next-to-lightest superpartner. J. High Energy Phys., 09, 011–20pp.
Abstract: The viability of a possible cosmological scenario is investigated. The theoretical framework is the constrained next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model (cNMSSM), with a gravitino playing the role of the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) and a neutralino acting as the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP). All the necessary constraints from colliders and cosmology have been taken into account. For gravitino we have considered the two usual production mechanisms, namely out-of equillibrium decay from the NLSP, and scattering processes from the thermal bath. The maximum allowed reheating temperature after inflation, as well as the maximum allowed gravitino mass are determined.
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Barenboim, G., Blinov, N., & Stebbins, A. (2021). Smallest remnants of early matter domination. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 12(12), 026–50pp.
Abstract: The evolution of the universe prior to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis could have gone through a phase of early matter domination which enhanced the growth of small-scale dark matter structure. If this period was long enough, self-gravitating objects formed prior to reheating. We study the evolution of these dense early halos through reheating. At the end of early matter domination, the early halos undergo rapid expansion and eventually eject their matter. We find that this process washes out structure on scales much larger than naively expected from the size of the original halos. We compute the density profiles of the early halo remnants and use them to construct late-time power spectra that include these non-linear effects. We evolve the resulting power spectrum to estimate the properties of microhalos that would form after matter-radiation equality. Surprisingly, cosmologies with a short period of early matter domination lead to an earlier onset of microhalo formation compared to those with a long period. In either case, dark matter structure formation begins much earlier than in the standard cosmology, with most dark matter bound in microhalos in the late universe.
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Barenboim, G., & Rasero, J. (2012). Electroweak baryogenesis window in non standard cosmologies. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 028–20pp.
Abstract: In this work we show that the new bounds on the Higgs mass are more than difficult to reconcile with the strong constraints on the physical parameters of the Standard Model and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model imposed by the preservation of the baryon asymmetry. This bound can be weakened by assuming a nonstandard cosmology at the time of the electroweak phase transition, reverting back to standard cosmology by BBN time. Two explicit examples are an early period of matter dominated expansion due to a heavy right handed neutrino (see-saw scale), or a nonstandard braneworld expansion.
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