Could massive gravitons be viable dark matter candidates?

Ingrid Fadelli is a writer for Phys.org.

Dark matter is an invisible substance that is believed to account for most of the matter in the universe. Its presence has been revealed through its interactions with visible matter.

The most promising dark matter candidates are axions, neutrinos, and weakly interacting massive particles. Some physicists are looking into the possibility that another type of hypothetical particles, massive gravitons, could be viable dark matter candidates.

In the few instants following the Big Bang, theory suggests that massive gravitons were produced when particles collide in the hot and dense environment of the early Universe. These particles have never been directly detected.

Researchers at Korea University and University of Lyon have recently carried out a theoretical study about the possibility of dark matter candidates. Their theoretical calculations were published in a paper.

The study began by looking at extra dimensions, which have been studied a lot in the past 20 years, according to one of the researchers. Their relationship to ordinary matter is very weak.

It is extremely rare for a process to produce massive gravitons. The rate at which these particles are produced would be lower than the rate of production of ordinary particles. Cacciapaglia and his colleagues wondered if enough massive gravitons were produced in the early universe for them to be considered a good dark matter candidate.

Cacciapaglia said that they discovered that some processes are enhanced below the scale where the mass of the ordinary particles is generated.

The calculations done by Cai, Lee and Cacciapaglia show that the production of massive graviton is most effective below the energy scale in which the Higgs bosons reside. The field that gives mass to fundamental particles such as electrons and quarks is called the Higgs field.

Cacciapaglia said that the results show that dark matter is produced 1 second after the Big bang.

In the future, the results gathered by this team of researchers could inspire new studies and calculations. Cacciapaglia and his colleagues plan to build on the theoretical model introduced in their paper while also evaluating other dark matter candidates.

Cacciapaglia said that they plan to investigate other features of a warped model that they sketch in the article.

More information: Haiying Cai et al, Massive Gravitons as Feebly Interacting Dark Matter Candidates, Physical Review Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.081806 Journal information: Physical Review Letters

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