Enhancement of dark matter relic density from the late time dark matter conversions

Abstract

We demonstrate that if the dark matter (DM) in the Universe contains multiple components,the interactions between the DM components may induce DM conversions. It is then possible that the lightest DM component with an annihilation cross section much larger than that of the typical weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) can obtain a relic density in consistent with the cosmological observations, due to an enhancement from the DM conversion process at late time after the thermal decoupling. This provides an alternative source of large boost factor required to explain the excesses reported by the recent DM indirect search experiments.