Theory of Dark Matter

We discuss the hypothesis that the constituents of dark matter in the galactic halo are Primordial Intermediate-Mass Black Holes (PIMBHs). The status of axions and WIMPs is discussed, as are the methods for detecting PIMBHs with emphasis on microlensing. The role of the angular momentum J of the PIMBHs in their escaping previous detection is considered.Comment: 17 pages LaTeX. Talk at Conference on Cosmology, Gravitational Waves and Particles. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. February 6-10, 2017. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1510.00400, arXiv:1608.0500

M-theory dark matter

The phenomenological implications of the eleven dimensional limit of $M$-theory (strongly coupled $E_8\times E_8$) are investigated. In particular we calculate the supersymmetric particle spectrum subject to constraints of correct electroweak symmetry breaking and the requirement that the lightest supersymmetric particle provides the dark matter of the universe. We also calculate direct detection event rates of the lightest neutralino relevant for non-baryonic dark matter experiments. The modulation effect, due to Earth's annual motion is also calculated.Comment: LaTeX file, 30 pages including 12 figures;v2 typos fixed and references adde

Theory of Dark Matter

The search for dark matter is a very wide and active field of research. Many potential hints of dark matter have appeared recently which led to a burst of theoretical activity and model building. I necessarily concentrate here only in some aspects of it. I review here some recent hints and some of the ways in which they could be explained.Comment: Plenary review talk at "Physics at the LHC 2010", 7-12 June 2010, DESY, Hamburg, Germany; 6 pages, no figures, desyproc.cls file needed to typese

Wave Dark Matter and the Tully-Fisher Relation

We investigate a theory of dark matter called wave dark matter, also known as scalar field dark matter (SFDM) and boson star dark matter or Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) dark matter, in spherical symmetry and its relation to the Tully-Fisher relation. We show that fixing the oscillation frequency of wave dark matter near the edge of dark galactic halos implies a Tully-Fisher-like relation for those halos. We then describe how this boundary condition, which is roughly equivalent to fixing the half-length of the exponentially decaying tail of each galactic halo mass profile, may yield testable predictions for this theory of dark matter.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Prospects for direct detection of dark matter in an effective theory approach

We perform the first comprehensive analysis of the prospects for direct detection of dark matter with future ton-scale detectors in the general 11-dimensional effective theory of isoscalar dark matter-nucleon interactions mediated by a heavy spin-1 or spin-0 particle. The theory includes 8 momentum and velocity dependent dark matter-nucleon interaction operators, besides the familiar spin-independent and spin-dependent operators. From a variegated sample of 27 benchmark points selected in the parameter space of the theory, we simulate independent sets of synthetic data for ton-scale Germanium and Xenon detectors. From the synthetic data, we then extract the marginal posterior probability density functions and the profile likelihoods of the model parameters. The associated Bayesian credible regions and frequentist confidence intervals allow us to assess the prospects for direct detection of dark matter at the 27 benchmark points. First, we analyze the data assuming the knowledge of the correct dark matter nucleon-interaction type, as it is commonly done for the familiar spin-independent and spin-dependent interactions. Then, we analyze the simulations extracting the dark matter-nucleon interaction type from the data directly, in contrast to standard analyses. This second approach requires an extensive exploration of the full 11-dimensional parameter space of the dark matter-nucleon effective theory. Interestingly, we identify 5 scenarios where the dark matter mass and the dark matter-nucleon interaction type can be reconstructed from the data simultaneously. We stress the importance of extracting the dark matter nucleon-interaction type from the data directly, discussing the main challenges found addressing this complex 11-dimensional problem.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, replaced to match the published versio

Dark galactic halos without dark matter

Using standard Einstein theory, baryonic mass cannot account for observed galactic rotation velocities and gravitational lensing, attributed to galactic dark matter halos. In contrast, theory constrained by Weyl conformal scaling symmetry explains observed galactic rotation in the halo region without invoking dark matter. An explanation of dark halos, gravitational lensing, and structural stabilization, without dark matter and consistent with conformal theory, is proposed here. Condensation of uniform primordial matter into a material cloud or galaxy vacates a large surrounding spherical halo. Within such an extended vacancy in the original cosmic background mass-energy density, conformal theory predicts centripetal acceleration of the observed magnitude.Comment: 5 pages, updated text, recent references added, accepted for Europhysics Letter

ETHOS - An Effective Theory of Structure Formation: From dark particle physics to the matter distribution of the Universe

We formulate an effective theory of structure formation (ETHOS) that enables cosmological structure formation to be computed in almost any microphysical model of dark matter physics. This framework maps the detailed microphysical theories of particle dark matter interactions into the physical effective parameters that shape the linear matter power spectrum and the self-interaction transfer cross section of non-relativistic dark matter. These are the input to structure formation simulations, which follow the evolution of the cosmological and galactic dark matter distributions. Models with similar effective parameters in ETHOS but with different dark particle physics would nevertheless result in similar dark matter distributions. We present a general method to map an ultraviolet complete or effective field theory of low energy dark matter physics into parameters that affect the linear matter power spectrum and carry out this mapping for several representative particle models. We further propose a simple but useful choice for characterizing the dark matter self-interaction transfer cross section that parametrizes self-scattering in structure formation simulations. Taken together, these effective parameters in ETHOS allow the classification of dark matter theories according to their structure formation properties rather than their intrinsic particle properties, paving the way for future simulations to span the space of viable dark matter physics relevant for structure formation.Comment: 16 pages + Appendix, 4 figures. Published in Phys. Rev. D. This paper is part of a series of papers on constructing an effective theory of structure formation (ETHOS) that maps almost any microphysical model of dark matter physics to effective parameters for cosmological structure formation. v3: Matches accepted version. v4: Updated definition of dark radiation perturbation variable

Dark Nuclei I: Cosmology and Indirect Detection

In a companion paper (to be presented), lattice field theory methods are used to show that in two-color, two-flavor QCD there are stable nuclear states in the spectrum. As a commonly studied theory of composite dark matter, this motivates the consideration of possible nuclear physics in this and other composite dark sectors. In this work, early Universe cosmology and indirect detection signatures are explored for both symmetric and asymmetric dark matter, highlighting the unique features that arise from considerations of dark nuclei and associated dark nuclear processes. The present day dark matter abundance may be composed of dark nucleons and/or dark nuclei, where the latter are generated through it dark nucleosynthesis. For symmetric dark matter, indirect detection signatures are possible from annihilation, dark nucleosynthesis, and dark nuclear capture and we present a novel explanation of the galactic center gamma ray excess based on the latter. For asymmetric dark matter, dark nucleosynthesis may alter the capture of dark matter in stars, allowing for captured particles to be processed into nuclei and ejected from the star through dark nucleosynthesis in the core. Notably, dark nucleosynthesis realizes a novel mechanism for indirect detection signals of asymmetric dark matter from regions such as the galactic center, without having to rely on a symmetric dark matter component.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figure

On the way from matter-dominated era to dark energy universe

We develop the general program of the unification of matter-dominated era with acceleration epoch for scalar-tensor theory or dark fluid. The general reconstruction of single scalar-tensor theory is fulfilled. The explicit form of scalar potential for which the theory admits matter-dominated era, transition to acceleration and (asymptotically deSitter) acceleration epoch consistent with WMAP data is found. The interrelation of the epochs of deceleration-acceleration transition and matter dominance-dark energy transition for dark fluids with general EOS is investigated. We give several examples of such models with explicit EOS (using redshift parametrization) where matter-dark energy domination transition may precede the deceleration-acceleration transition. As some by-product, the reconstruction scheme is applied to scalar-tensor theory to define the scalar potentials which may produce the dark matter effect. The obtained modification of Newton potential may explain the rotation curves of galaxies.Comment: LaTeX 12 pages, 1 figure, extended version to appear in PR

Non-relativistic effective theory of dark matter direct detection

Dark matter direct detection searches for signals coming from dark matter scattering against nuclei at a very low recoil energy scale ~ 10 keV. In this paper, a simple non-relativistic effective theory is constructed to describe interactions between dark matter and nuclei without referring to any underlying high energy models. It contains the minimal set of operators that will be tested by direct detection. The effective theory approach highlights the set of distinguishable recoil spectra that could arise from different theoretical models. If dark matter is discovered in the near future in direct detection experiments, a measurement of the shape of the recoil spectrum will provide valuable information on the underlying dynamics. We bound the coefficients of the operators in our non-relativistic effective theory by the null results of current dark matter direct detection experiments. We also discuss the mapping between the non-relativistic effective theory and field theory models or operators, including aspects of the matching of quark and gluon operators to nuclear form factors.Comment: 35 pages, 3 figures, Appendix C.3 revised, acknowledgments and references adde