Interacting Scalar Radiation and Dark Matter in Cosmology

Abstract

We investigate possible cosmological effects of interacting scalar radiation and dark matter. After its decoupling, scalar radiation can stream freely as neutrinos or self-interact strongly as perfect fluid, highly depending on the magnitude of its self-couplings. We obtain the general and novel structure for self-scattering rate and compare it with the expansion rate of our Universe. If its trilinear/cubic coupling is non-zero, scalar radiation can be eventually treated as perfect fluid. Possible effects on CMB are also discussed. When this scalar also mediates interaction among dark matter particles, the linear matter power spectrum for large scale structure can be modified differently from other models. We propose to use Debye shielding to avoid the singularity appearing in the scattering between scalar radiation and dark matter.