Search results for " Dark Matter"
showing 10 items of 159 documents
Decaying warm dark matter and neutrino masses
2007
Neutrino masses may arise from spontaneous breaking of ungauged lepton number. Due to quantum gravity effects the associated Goldstone boson - the majoron - will pick up a mass. We determine the lifetime and mass required by cosmic microwave background observations so that the massive majoron provides the observed dark matter of the Universe. The majoron DDM scenario fits nicely in models where neutrino masses arise a la seesaw, and may lead to other possible cosmological implications.
Theories relating baryon asymmetry and dark matter
2014
The nature of dark matter and the origin of the baryon asymmetry are two of the deepest mysteries of modern particle physics. In the absence of hints regarding a possible solution to these mysteries, many approaches have been developed to tackle them simultaneously leading to very diverse and rich models. We give a short review where we describe the general features of some of these models and an overview on the general problem. We also propose a diagrammatic notation to label the different models.
Search for Ultralight Scalar Dark Matter with Atomic Spectroscopy
2015
We report new limits on ultralight scalar dark matter (DM) with dilaton-like couplings to photons that can induce oscillations in the fine-structure constant alpha. Atomic dysprosium exhibits an electronic structure with two nearly degenerate levels whose energy splitting is sensitive to changes in alpha. Spectroscopy data for two isotopes of dysprosium over a two-year span is analyzed for coherent oscillations with angular frequencies below 1 rad/s. No signal consistent with a DM coupling is identified, leading to new constraints on dilaton-like photon couplings over a wide mass range. Under the assumption that the scalar field comprises all of the DM, our limits on the coupling exceed tho…
Type-II Supernovae and Neutrino Magnetic Moment
1998
The present solar and atmospheric neutrino data together with the LSND results and the presence of hot dark matter (HDM) suggest the existence of a sterile neutrino at the eV scale. We have reanalysed the effect of resonant {\sl sterile} neutrino conversions induced by neutrino magnetic moments in a type-II supernova. We analyse the implications of $\nu_e-\nu_s$ and $\bar{\nu}_e-\bar{\nu}_s$ ($\nu_s$ denotes sterile neutrino) conversions for the supernova shock re-heating, the detected $\bar\nu_e$ signal from SN1987A and the $r$-process nucleosynthesis hypothesis. Using reasonable magnetic field profiles we determine the sensitivity of these three arguments to the relevant neutrino paramete…
Scaling laws in the distribution of galaxies
2004
Research done during the previous century established our Standard Cosmological Model. There are many details still to be filled in, but few would seriously doubt the basic premise. Past surveys have revealed that the large-scale distribution of galaxies in the Universe is far from random: it is highly structured over a vast range of scales. To describe cosmic structures, we need to build mathematically quantifiable descriptions of structure. Identifying where scaling laws apply and the nature of those scaling laws is an important part of understanding which physical mechanisms have been responsible for the organization of clusters, superclusters of galaxies and the voids between them. Find…
Learning from observations of the microwave background at small angular scales
1996
In this paper, we focus our attention on the following question: How well can we recover the power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background from the maps of a given experiment?. Each experiment is described by a a pixelization scale, a beam size, a noise level and a sky coverage. We use accurate numerical simulations of the microwave sky and a cold dark matter model for structure formation in the universe. Angular scales smaller than those of previous simulations are included. The spectrum obtained from the simulated maps is appropriately compared with the theoretical one. Relative deviations between these spectra are estimated. Various contributions to these deviations are analyzed. The…
Possibility of a dark matter interpretation for the excess in isotropic radio emission reported by ARCADE.
2011
The ARCADE 2 Collaboration has recently measured an isotropic radio emission which is significantly brighter than the expected contributions from known extra-galactic sources. The simplest explanation of such excess involves a ``new'' population of unresolved sources which become the most numerous at very low (observationally unreached) brightness. We investigate this scenario in terms of synchrotron radiation induced by weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) annihilations or decays in extra-galactic halos. Intriguingly, for light-mass WIMPs with a thermal annihilation cross section, the level of expected radio emission matches the ARCADE observations.
Light majoron cold dark matter from topological defects and the formation of boson stars
2019
We show that for a relatively light majoron ($\ll 100 $ eV) non-thermal production from topological defects is an efficient production mechanism. Taking the type I seesaw as benchmark scheme, we estimate the primordial majoron abundance and determine the required parameter choices where it can account for the observed cosmological dark matter. The latter is consistent with the scale of unification. Possible direct detection of light majorons with future experiments such as PTOLEMY and the formation of boson stars from the majoron dark matter are also discussed.
Neutrino probes of the nature of light dark matter
2011
Dark matter particles gravitationally trapped inside the Sun may annihilate into Standard Model particles, producing a flux of neutrinos. The prospects of detecting these neutrinos in future multi-\kton{} neutrino detectors designed for other physics searches are explored here. We study the capabilities of a 34/100 \kton{} liquid argon detector and a 100 \kton{} magnetized iron calorimeter detector. These detectors are expected to determine the energy and the direction of the incoming neutrino with unprecedented precision allowing for tests of the dark matter nature at very low dark matter masses, in the range of 5-50 GeV. By suppressing the atmospheric background with angular cuts, these t…
TeV particle direct detection in space - Recent results from the DAMPE mission
2019
Since its successful launch to a Low Earth Orbit in December 2015, the DAMPE (DArk Matter Particle Explorer) satellite mission has been preforming excellently, which allows the experiment to collect a large high quality data sample of high energy cosmic rays directly in space. With a relatively large acceptance, a thick BGO homogeneous calorimeter, and a precise silicon tracker, DAMPE is designed to measure multi-TeV particles in space with unprecedented precision. A first measurement of electron plus positron total flux up to 4.6 TeV based on the first 18 months of data has been published. Other results, including proton and Helium fluxes up to 100 TeV/nucleon, are becoming available. In t…