Petter Taule, Miguel Escudero, Mathias Garny
Neutrinos are expected to freestream (i.e. not interact with anything) since they decouple in the early Universe at a temperature $T\sim 2~{\rm MeV}$. However, there are many relevant particle physics scenarios that can make neutrinos interact at $T< 2~{\rm MeV}$. In this work, we take a global perspective and aim to identify the temperature range in which neutrinos can interact given current cosmological observations. We consider a generic set of rates parametrizing neutrino interactions and by performing a full Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) analysis we find that neutrinos cannot interact significantly for redshifts $2000 \lesssim z \lesssim 10^5$, which we refer to as the freestreaming window. We also derive a redshift dependent upper bound on a suitably defined interaction rate $Γ_\text{nfs}(z)$, finding $Γ_\text{nfs}(z)/H(z)\lesssim 1-10$ within the freestreaming window. We show that these results are largely model independent under some broad assumptions, and contextualize them in terms of neutrino decays, neutrino self-interactions, neutrino annihilations, and majoron models. We provide examples of how to use our model independent approach to obtain bounds in specific scenarios, and demonstrate agreement with existing results. We also investigate the reach of upcoming cosmological data finding that CMB Stage-IV experiments can improve the bound on $Γ_\text{nfs}(z)/H(z)$ by up to a factor $10$. Moreover, we comment on large-scale structure observations, finding that the ongoing DESI survey has the potential to probe uncharted regions of parameter space of interacting neutrinos. Finally, we point out a peculiar scenario that has so far not been considered, and for which relatively large interactions around recombination are still allowed by Planck data due to some degeneracy with $n_s$, $A_s$ and $H_0$. This scenario can be fully tested with CMB-S4.
Lea Fuß, Mathias Garny
Oct 12, 2022·astro-ph.CO·PDF Decaying Cold Dark Matter (DCDM) is a model that is currently under investigation regarding primarily the $S_8$ tension between cosmic microwave background (CMB) and certain large-scale structure measurements. The decay into one massive and one (or more) massless daughter particle(s) leads to a suppression of the power spectrum in the late universe that depends on the relative mass splitting $ε=(1-m^2/M^2)/2$ between the mother and massive daughter particle as well as the lifetime $τ$. In this work we investigate the impact of the BOSS DR14 one-dimensional Lyman-$α$ forest flux power spectrum on the DCDM model using a conservative effective model approach to account for astrophysical uncertainties. Since the suppression of the power spectrum due to decay builds up at low redshift, we find that regions in parameter space that address the $S_8$ tension can be well compatible with the Lyman-$α$ forest. Nevertheless, for values of the degeneracy parameter $ε\sim 0.1-0.5\%$, for which the power suppression occurs within the scales probed by BOSS Lyman-$α$ data, we find improved constraints compared to previous CMB and galaxy clustering analyses, obtaining $τ\gtrsim 18$ Gyrs for small mass splitting. Furthermore, our analysis of the BOSS Lyman-$α$ flux power spectrum allows for values $τ\sim 10^2$ Gyrs, $ε\sim 1\%$, that have been found to be preferred by a combination of Planck and galaxy clustering data with a KiDS prior on $S_8$, and we even find a marginal preference within this regime.
Stefan Floerchinger, Mathias Garny, Aris Katsis, Nikolaos Tetradis, Urs Achim Wiedemann
Jul 24, 2019·astro-ph.CO·PDF Dark matter evolution during the process of cosmological structure formation can be described in terms of a one-particle irreducible effective action at a characteristic scale $k_m$ and a loop expansion below this scale, based on the effective propagators and vertices. We calculate the form of the effective vertices and compute the bispectrum of density perturbations within a one-loop approximation. We find that the effective vertices play a subdominant role as compared to the effective viscosity and sound velocity that modify the (inverse) propagators. For the bispectrum we reproduce the results of standard perturbation theory in the range where it is applicable, and find a slightly improved agreement with N-body simulations at larger wavenumbers.
Tobias Baldauf, Mathias Garny, Petter Taule, Theo Steele
Oct 26, 2021·astro-ph.CO·PDF The bispectrum is the leading non-Gaussian statistic in large-scale structure, carrying valuable information on cosmology that is complementary to the power spectrum. To access this information, we need to model the bispectrum in the weakly non-linear regime. In this work we present the first two-loop, i.e., next-to-next-to-leading order perturbative description of the bispectrum within an effective field theory (EFT) framework. Using an analytic expansion of the perturbative kernels up to $F_6$ we derive a renormalized bispectrum that is demonstrated to be independent of the UV cutoff. We show that the EFT parameters associated with the four independent second-order EFT operators known from the one-loop bispectrum are sufficient to absorb the UV sensitivity of the two-loop contributions in the double-hard region. In addition, we employ a simplified treatment of the single-hard region, introducing one extra EFT parameter at two-loop order. We compare our results to N-body simulations using the realization-based grid-PT method and find good agreement within the expected range, as well as consistent values for the EFT parameters. The two-loop terms start to become relevant at $k\approx 0.07h~\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$. The range of wavenumbers with percent-level agreement, independently of the shape, extends from $0.08h~\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ to $0.15h~\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ when going from one to two loops at $z=0$. In addition, we quantify the impact of using exact instead of Einstein-de-Sitter kernels for the one-loop bispectrum, and discuss in how far their impact can be absorbed into a shift of the EFT parameters.
Jose R. Espinosa, Mathias Garny, Thomas Konstandin, Antonio Riotto
The measured (central) values of the Higgs and top quark masses indicate that the Standard Model (SM) effective potential develops an instability at high field values. The scale of this instability, determined as the Higgs field value at which the potential drops below the electroweak minimum, is about $10^{11}$ GeV. However, such a scale is unphysical as it is not gauge-invariant and suffers from a gauge-fixing uncertainty of up to two orders of magnitude. Subjecting our system, the SM, to several probes of the instability (adding higher order operators to the potential; letting the vacuum decay through critical bubbles; heating up the system to very high temperature; inflating it) and asking in each case physical questions, we are able to provide several gauge-invariant scales related with the Higgs potential instability.
Mathias Garny, Alejandro Ibarra, Miguel Pato, Stefan Vogl
Although proposed long ago, the search for internal bremsstrahlung signatures has only recently been made possible by the excellent energy resolution of ground-based and satellite-borne gamma-ray instruments. Here, we investigate thoroughly the current status of internal bremsstrahlung searches in light of the results of direct dark matter searches and in the framework of a minimal mass-degenerate scenario consisting of a Majorana dark matter particle that couples to a fermion and a scalar via a Yukawa coupling. The upper limits on the annihilation cross section set by Fermi-LAT and H.E.S.S. extend uninterrupted from tens of GeV up to tens of TeV and are rather insensitive to the mass degeneracy in the particle physics model. In contrast, direct searches are best in the moderate to low mass splitting regime, where XENON100 limits overshadow Fermi-LAT and H.E.S.S. up to TeV masses if dark matter couples to one of the light quarks. In our minimal scenario we examine carefully the prospects for GAMMA-400, CTA and XENON1T, all planned to come online in the near future, and find that: (a) CTA and XENON1T are fully complementary, with CTA most sensitive to multi-TeV masses and mass splittings around 10%, and XENON1T probing best small mass splittings up to TeV masses; and (b) current constraints from XENON100 already preclude the observation of any spectral feature with GAMMA-400 in spite of its impressive energy resolution, unless dark matter does not couple predominantly to light quarks. Finally, we point out that, unlike for direct searches, the possibility of detecting thermal relics in upcoming internal bremsstrahlung searches requires, depending on the concrete scenario, boost factors larger than 5-10.
Diego Blas, Mathias Garny, Thomas Konstandin, Julien Lesgourgues
Aug 13, 2014·astro-ph.CO·PDF We compute non-linear corrections to the matter power spectrum taking the time- and scale-dependent free-streaming length of neutrinos into account. We adopt a hybrid scheme that matches the full Boltzmann hierarchy to an effective two-fluid description at an intermediate redshift. The non-linearities in the neutrino component are taken into account by using an extension of the time-flow framework. We point out that this remedies a spurious behaviour that occurs when neglecting non-linear terms for neutrinos. This behaviour is related to how efficiently short modes decouple from long modes and can be traced back to the violation of momentum conservation if neutrinos are treated linearly. Furthermore, we compare our results at next to leading order to various other methods and quantify the accuracy of the fluid description. Due to the correct decoupling behaviour of short modes, the two-fluid scheme is a suitable starting point to compute higher orders in perturbations or for resummation methods.
Mathias Garny, Alejandro Ibarra, Sara Rydbeck, Stefan Vogl
We investigate the signatures at the Large Hadron Collider of a minimal model where the dark matter particle is a Majorana fermion that couples to the Standard Model via one or several coloured mediators. We emphasize the importance of the production channel of coloured scalars through the exchange of a dark matter particle in the t-channel, and perform a dedicated analysis of searches for jets and missing energy for this model. We find that the collider constraints are highly competitive compared to direct detection, and can even be considerably stronger over a wide range of parameters. We also discuss the complementarity with searches for spectral features at gamma-ray telescopes and comment on the possibility of several coloured mediators, which is further constrained by flavour observables.
Petter Taule, Mathias Garny
Aug 14, 2023·astro-ph.CO·PDF We present the matter power spectrum in redshift space including two-loop corrections. We follow a strictly perturbative approach incorporating all non-linearities entering both via the redshift-space mapping and within real space up to the required (fifth) order, complemented by suitable effective field theory (EFT) corrections. This approach can a priori be viable up to scales of order $0.2h~\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ beyond which power suppression related to the finger-of-God effect becomes non-perturbatively strong. We extend a simplified treatment of EFT corrections at two-loop order from real to redshift space, making sure that the leading UV-sensitivity of both the single-hard and double-hard limit of the two-loop contributions to the power spectrum is accounted for, and featuring two free parameters for each multipole. Taking also infrared-resummation into account, we calibrate with and compare to Quijote $N$-body simulations for the monopole and quadrupole at redshifts $z=0$ and $z=0.5$. We find agreement within sample variance (at percent-level) up to $0.18h~\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ at two-loop order, compared to $0.1h~\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ at one-loop. We also investigate the role of higher-derivative corrections.
Wilfried Buchmuller, Mathias Garny
Recently reported tentative evidence for a gamma-ray line in the Fermi-LAT data is of great potential interest for identifying the nature of dark matter. We compare the implications for decaying and annihilating dark matter taking the constraints from continuum gamma-rays, antiproton flux and morphology of the excess into account. We find that higgsino and wino dark matter are excluded, also for nonthermal production. Generically, the continuum gamma-ray flux severely constrains annihilating dark matter. Consistency of decaying dark matter with the spatial distribution of the Fermi-LAT excess would require an enhancement of the dark matter density near the Galactic center.
Moritz S. Fischer, Klaus Dolag, Mathias Garny, Vera Gluscevic, Frederick Groth, Ethan O. Nadler
Apr 16, 2025·astro-ph.CO·PDF Dark matter (DM) particles can interact with particles of the standard model. Although there are a number of constraints derived from direct and indirect detection experiments, the evolution of astrophysical objects could offer a promising probe. Obtaining predictions is challenging and primarily limited by our ability to simulate scattering between DM and baryonic particles within N-body and hydrodynamics simulations. We have developed the first scheme allowing for the simulation of these interacting dark matter (IDM) models, accurately accounting for their angular and velocity dependence, as well as the mass ratio between the DM and baryonic scattering partners. To describe DM-baryon interactions, we used an N-body code together with its implementation of smoothed-particle hydrodynamics and meshless finite mass. The interaction is realised in a pairwise fashion by creating a virtual scattering partner from the baryonic particle and allowing it to interact with a DM particle using a scattering routine initially developed for self-interacting dark matter (SIDM). After the interaction, the virtual particle is rejoined with the baryonic particle, fulfilling the requirements of energy and momentum conservation. Through several test problems, we demonstrated that we are able to reproduce the analytic solutions with our IDM scheme. This includes a test for scattering with a physical mass ratio of 1:1000, which is beyond the limits of SIDM simulations. We comment on various numerical aspects and challenges, and we describe the limitations of our numerical scheme. Furthermore, we study the impact of IDM on halo formation with a collapsing over-density. We find that it is possible to accurately model IDM within N-body and hydrodynamics simulations commonly used in astrophysics. Finally, our scheme allows for novel predictions to be made and new constraints on DM-baryon scattering to be set.
Andrea De Simone, Mathias Garny, Alejandro Ibarra, Christoph Weniger
Supersymmetric scenarios incorporating thermal leptogenesis as the origin of the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry generically predict abundances of the primordial elements which are in conflict with observations. In this paper we propose a simple way to circumvent this tension and accommodate naturally thermal leptogenesis and primordial nucleosynthesis. We postulate the existence of a light hidden sector, coupled very weakly to the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, which opens up new decay channels for the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle, thus diluting its abundance during nucleosynthesis. We present a general model-independent analysis of this mechanism as well as two concrete realizations, and describe the relevant cosmological and astrophysical bounds and implications for this dark matter scenario. Possible experimental signatures at colliders and in cosmic-ray observations are also discussed.
Martin Beneke, Mathias Garny, Sebastian Jaskiewicz, Julian Strohm, Robert Szafron, Leonardo Vernazza, Jian Wang
Endpoint divergences in the convolution integrals appearing in next-to-leading-power factorization theorems prevent a straightforward application of standard methods to resum large logarithmic power-suppressed corrections in collider physics. We study the power-suppressed configuration of the thrust distribution in the two-jet region, where a gluon-initiated jet recoils against a quark-antiquark pair. With the aid of operatorial endpoint factorization conditions, we derive a factorization formula where the individual terms are free from endpoint divergences and can be written in terms of renormalized hard, (anti) collinear, and soft functions in four dimensions. This framework enables us to perform the first resummation of the endpoint-divergent SCET$_{\rm I}$ observables at the leading logarithmic accuracy using exclusively renormalization-group methods.
Mathias Garny, Alejandro Ibarra, Stefan Vogl
If the dark matter particle is a Majorana fermion, annihilations into two fermions and one gauge boson could have, for some choices of the parameters of the model, a non-negligible cross-section. Using a toy model of leptophilic dark matter, we calculate the constraints on the annihilation cross-section into two electrons and one weak gauge boson from the PAMELA measurements of the cosmic antiproton-to-proton flux ratio. Furthermore, we calculate the maximal astrophysical boost factor allowed in the Milky Way under the assumption that the leptophilic dark matter particle is the dominant component of dark matter in our Universe. These constraints constitute very conservative estimates on the boost factor for more realistic models where the dark matter particle also couples to quarks and weak gauge bosons, such as the lightest neutralino which we also analyze for some concrete benchmark points. The limits on the astrophysical boost factors presented here could be used to evaluate the prospects to detect a gamma-ray signal from dark matter annihilations at currently operating IACTs as well as in the projected CTA.
Mathias Garny, Thomas Konstandin
In principle, observables as for example the sphaleron rate or the tunneling rate in a first-order phase transition are gauge-independent. However, in practice a gauge dependence is introduced in explicit perturbative calculations due to the breakdown of the gradient expansion of the effective action in the symmetric phase. We exemplify the situation using the effective potential of the Abelian Higgs model in the general renormalizable gauge. Still, we find that the quantitative dependence on the gauge choice is small for gauges that are consistent with the perturbative expansion.
Mathias Garny, Alejandro Ibarra, Miguel Pato, Stefan Vogl
The latest XENON100 data severely constrains dark matter elastic scattering off nuclei, leading to impressive upper limits on the spin-independent cross-section. The main goal of this paper is to stress that the same data set has also an excellent \emph{spin-dependent} sensitivity, which is of utmost importance in probing dark matter models. We show in particular that the constraints set by XENON100 on the spin-dependent neutron cross-section are by far the best at present, whereas the corresponding spin-dependent proton limits lag behind other direct detection results. The effect of nuclear uncertainties on the structure functions of xenon isotopes is analysed in detail and found to lessen the robustness of the constraints, especially for spin-dependent proton couplings. Notwithstanding, the spin-dependent neutron prospects for XENON1T and DARWIN are very encouraging. We apply our constraints to well-motivated dark matter models and demonstrate that in both mass-degenerate scenarios and the minimal supersymmetric standard model the spin-dependent neutron limits can actually override the spin-independent limits. This opens the possibility of probing additional unexplored regions of the dark matter parameter space with the next generation of ton-scale direct detection experiments.
Michael Hartmeier, Mathias Garny
Aug 11, 2023·astro-ph.CO·PDF We derive a minimal basis of kernels furnishing the perturbative expansion of the density contrast and velocity divergence in powers of the initial density field that is applicable to cosmological models with arbitrary expansion history, thereby relaxing the commonly adopted Einstein-de-Sitter (EdS) approximation. For this class of cosmological models, the non-linear kernels are at every order given by a sum of terms, each of which factorizes into a time-dependent growth factor and a wavenumber-dependent basis function. We show how to reduce the set of basis functions to a minimal amount, and give explicit expressions up to order $n=5$. We find that for this minimal basis choice, each basis function individually displays the expected scaling behaviour due to momentum conservation, being non-trivial at $n\geq 4$. This is a highly desirable property for numerical evaluation of loop corrections. In addition, it allows us to match the density field to an effective field theory (EFT) description for cosmologies with an arbitrary expansion history, which we explicitly derive at order four. We evaluate the differences to the EdS approximation for $Λ$CDM and $w_0w_a$CDM, paying special attention to the irreducible cosmology dependence that cannot be absorbed into EFT terms for the one-loop bispectrum. Finally, we provide algebraic recursion relations for a special generalization of the EdS approximation that retains its simplicity and is relevant for mixed hot and cold dark matter models.
Mathias Garny, Florian Niedermann, Henrique Rubira, Martin S. Sloth
Apr 10, 2024·astro-ph.CO·PDF We propose a simple model that can alleviate the $H_0$ tension while remaining consistent with big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). It is based on a dark sector described by a standard Lagrangian featuring a $SU(N)$ gauge symmetry with $N\geq3$ and a massive scalar field with a quartic coupling. The scalar acts as dark Higgs leading to spontaneous symmetry breaking $SU(N)\to SU(N\!-\!1)$ via a first-order phase transition à la Coleman-Weinberg. This set-up naturally realizes previously proposed scenarios featuring strongly interacting dark radiation (SIDR) with a mass threshold within hot new early dark energy (NEDE). For a wide range of reasonable model parameters, the phase transition occurs between the BBN and recombination epochs and releases a sufficient amount of latent heat such that the model easily respects bounds on extra radiation during BBN while featuring a sufficient SIDR density around recombination for increasing the value of $H_0$ inferred from the cosmic microwave background. Our model can be summarized as a natural mechanism providing two successive increases in the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom after BBN but before recombination $ΔN_\mathrm{BBN} \to ΔN_\mathrm{NEDE} \to ΔN_\mathrm{IR}$ alleviating the Hubble tension. The first step is related to the phase transition and the second to the dark Higgs becoming non-relativistic. This set-up predicts further signatures, including a stochastic gravitational wave background and features in the matter power spectrum that can be searched for with future pulsar timing and Lyman-$α$ forest measurements.
Martin Beneke, Alessandro Broggio, Mathias Garny, Sebastian Jaskiewicz, Robert Szafron, Leonardo Vernazza, Jian Wang
We resum the leading logarithms $α_s^n \ln^{2 n-1}(1-z)$, $n=1,2,\ldots$ near the kinematic threshold $z=Q^2/\hat{s}\to 1$ of the Drell-Yan process at next-to-leading power in the expansion in $(1-z)$. The derivation of this result employs soft-collinear effective theory in position space and the anomalous dimensions of subleading-power soft functions, which are computed. Expansion of the resummed result leads to the leading logarithms at fixed loop order, in agreement with exact results at NLO and NNLO and predictions from the physical evolution kernel at N$^3$LO and N$^4$LO, and to new results at the five-loop order and beyond.
Martin Beneke, Mathias Garny, Sebastian Jaskiewicz, Robert Szafron, Leonardo Vernazza, Jian Wang
The off-diagonal parton-scattering channels $g+γ^*$ and $q+φ^*$ in deep-inelastic scattering are power-suppressed near threshold $x\to 1$. We address the next-to-leading power (NLP) resummation of large double logarithms of $1-x$ to all orders in the strong coupling, which are present even in the off-diagonal DGLAP splitting kernels. The appearance of divergent convolutions prevents the application of factorization methods known from leading power resummation. Employing $d$-dimensional consistency relations from requiring $1/ε$ pole cancellations in dimensional regularization between momentum regions, we show that the resummation of the off-diagonal parton-scattering channels at the leading logarithmic order can be bootstrapped from the recently conjectured exponentiation of NLP soft-quark Sudakov logarithms. In particular, we derive a result for the DGLAP kernel in terms of the series of Bernoulli numbers found previously by Vogt directly from algebraic all-order expressions. We identify the off-diagonal DGLAP splitting functions and soft-quark Sudakov logarithms as inherent two-scale quantities in the large-$x$ limit. We use a refactorization of these scales and renormalization group methods inspired by soft-collinear effective theory to derive the conjectured soft-quark Sudakov exponentiation formula.