Scalar field dark matter and the Higgs field

We discuss the possibility that dark matter corresponds to an oscillating scalar field coupled to the Higgs boson. We argue that the initial field amplitude should generically be of the order of the Hubble parameter during inflation, as a result of its quasi-de Sitter fluctuations. This implies that...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: O. Bertolami, Catarina Cosme, João G. Rosa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2016-08-01
Series:Physics Letters B
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269316301940
Description
Summary:We discuss the possibility that dark matter corresponds to an oscillating scalar field coupled to the Higgs boson. We argue that the initial field amplitude should generically be of the order of the Hubble parameter during inflation, as a result of its quasi-de Sitter fluctuations. This implies that such a field may account for the present dark matter abundance for masses in the range 10−6–10−4eV, if the tensor-to-scalar ratio is within the range of planned CMB experiments. We show that such mass values can naturally be obtained through either Planck-suppressed non-renormalizable interactions with the Higgs boson or, alternatively, through renormalizable interactions within the Randall–Sundrum scenario, where the dark matter scalar resides in the bulk of the warped extra-dimension and the Higgs is confined to the infrared brane.
ISSN:0370-2693
1873-2445