Viability of complex self-interacting scalar field as dark matter

Abstract

We study the viability of a complex scalar field $\chi$ with self-interacting potential $ V = m^\chi_0/2 \, |\chi|^2 + h \, |\chi|^4$ as dark matter. The scalar field is produced at reheating through the decay of the inflaton field and then, due to the self-interaction, a Bose-Einstein condensate of $\chi$ particles forms. The condensate represents dark matter in that model. We analyze the cosmological evolution of the model, stressing how, due to the presence of the self-interaction, the model naturally admits dark matter domination at late times, thus avoiding any fine tuning on the energy density of the scalar field at early times. Finally we give a lower bound for the size of dark matter halos at present time and we show that our model is compatible with dark matter halos greater than $0.1 \, Kpc$ and with BBN and CMB bounds on the effective number of extra neutrinos $\Delta_\nu^{eff}$. Therefore, the model is viable and for $h\simeq 10^{-4}-10^{-12}$ one obtains a mass $m^\chi \simeq m^{\chi}_0 \simeq 1-10^{-2} \, eV$ for dark matter particles from radiation-matter equality epoch to present time, but at temperatures $T_\gamma \gg 10 \, eV$, where $T_\gamma$ is the photons temperature, thermal corrections to $m^\chi_0$ due to the self-coupling $h$ are dominant.