Oscillating Asymmetric Dark Matter

Abstract

We study the dynamics of dark matter (DM) particle-antiparticle oscillations within the context of asymmetric DM. Oscillations arise due to small DM number-violating Majorana-type mass terms, and can lead to recoupling of annihilation after freeze-out and washout of the DM density. We derive the density matrix equations for DM oscillations and freeze-out from first principles using nonequilibrium field theory, and our results are qualitatively different than in previous studies. DM dynamics exhibits particle-vs-antiparticle "flavor" effects, depending on the interaction type, analogous to neutrino oscillations in a medium. "Flavor-sensitive" DM interactions include scattering or annihilation through a new vector boson, while "flavor-blind" interactions include scattering or s-channel annihilation through a new scalar boson, or annihilation to pairs of bosons. In particular, we find that flavor-sensitive annihilation does not recouple when coherent oscillations begin, and that flavor-blind scattering does not lead to decoherence.