Non-thermal dark matter production from the electroweak phase transition: Multi-TeV WIMPs and "baby-zillas"

Abstract

Particle production at the end of a first-order electroweak phase transition may be rather generic in theories beyond the standard model. Dark matter may then be abundantly produced by this mechanism if it has a sizable coupling to the Higgs field. For an electroweak phase transition occuring at a temperature T EW ~ 50-100 GeV, non- thermally generated dark matter with mass M X > TeV will survive thermalization after the phase transition, and could then potentially account for the observed dark matter relic density in scenarios where a thermal dark matter component is either too small or absent. Dark matter in these scenarios could then either be multi-TeV WIMPs whose relic abundace is mostly generated at the electroweak phase transition, or "Baby-Zillas" with mass MGUT ≫ M X ≫ vEW that never reach thermal equilibrium in the early universe. © 2013 SISSA.