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Gravitational-Wave Induced Freeze-In of Fermionic Dark Matter
Azadeh Maleknejad1, Joachim Kopp2
1Universität Hamburg, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Swansea University, Centre for Quantum Fields and Gravity, Swansea SA2 8PP, United Kingdom, Notkestraße 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany, and Institute of Theoretical Physics, 22761 Hamburg, Germany.
Abstract:
The minimal coupling of massless fermions to gravity does not allow for their gravitational production solely based on the expansion of the Universe. We argue that this changes in the presence of realistic and potentially detectable stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds. We compute the resulting energy density of Weyl fermions at 1-loop using in-in formalism. If the initially massless fermions eventually acquire mass, this mechanism can explain the dark matter abundance in the Universe. Remarkably, it may be more efficient than conventional gravitational production of superheavy fermions.
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