Enhanced Dark Matter Abundance in First-Order Phase Transitions

Abstract

We propose a novel scenario to obtain the correct relic abundance for thermally under-produced dark matter. This scenario utilizes a strongly first-order phase transition at temperature $T_{\mathrm{PT}}$ that gives rise to dark matter mass $m$. Freeze-out in the broken phase can yield the desired abundance in the entire region currently allowed by observational bounds and theoretical constraints for $10^2{T}_{\mathrm{PT}}\lesssim m\lesssim 10^4{T}_{\mathrm{PT}}$. We show that the accompanying gravitational waves are strong enough to be detected by many upcoming and proposed experiments. This, in tandem with dark matter indirect searches, provides a multi-messenger probe of such models. Positive signals in the future can help reconstruct the potential governing the phase transition and shed light on an underlying particle physics realization.

Comments: 8+4 pages, 4+1 figures; changes to figures 3 and 4, to be published in PRD