Major
Physics
Anticipated Graduation Year
2024
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
We study the phenomenology of a dark matter mechanism, the Feebly Interacting Massive Particle (FIMP). In this mechanism, a heavy baryonic matter particle (the FIMP) decays into a dark matter particle, χ, which is assumed to have no initial abundance. This process is called freeze-in; while the universe is expanding and cooling down, χ's abundance starts to increase. Because of the feeble interaction, the FIMP never exists in thermal equilibrium with the thermal bath around it. The yield of the dark matter particle increases with a larger FIMP mass (m_(B_1 )) and a stronger interaction coupling constant (λ).
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Walter Tangarife, PhD
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Phenomenology of the Feebly Interacting Massive Particle (FIMP)
We study the phenomenology of a dark matter mechanism, the Feebly Interacting Massive Particle (FIMP). In this mechanism, a heavy baryonic matter particle (the FIMP) decays into a dark matter particle, χ, which is assumed to have no initial abundance. This process is called freeze-in; while the universe is expanding and cooling down, χ's abundance starts to increase. Because of the feeble interaction, the FIMP never exists in thermal equilibrium with the thermal bath around it. The yield of the dark matter particle increases with a larger FIMP mass (m_(B_1 )) and a stronger interaction coupling constant (λ).