Dark Matter Lecture Course Prof. Dr.

Felix Kahlhoefer

Problem set 3

Solutions to be submitted on 10 May

Tutorial on 15 May

Problem 7: The Lee-Weinberg bound

We assume that in addition to the three well-known neutrino species there is a fourth
Dirac neutrino ν with mass 1 MeV  mν and interactions
g
L= ν̄γµ (1 − γ 5 )νZ µ , (1)
2 cos θW
where g ≈ 0.65 is the weak gauge coupling and θW ≈ 0.50 is the Weinberg angle. This
interaction induces the annihilation processes ν ν̄ → f f¯, where f denotes Standard Model
fermions. The corresponding cross section (assuming mν  MZ ) is given by

g 4 m2ν
hσvi = ×C , (2)
16π cos4 θW MZ4

where MZ = 91 GeV is the Z-boson mass and C is a numerical constant that depends on
the number of fermions that are kinematically accessible. For the mass range of interest one
finds C ∼ 6.

a) Check explicitly that the additional neutrino would be in thermal equilibrium with the
Standard Model particles for T ≈ mν . You can assume gν = 4 and g∗ ≈ 80.

b) Estimate the relic abundance Ων h2 from thermal freeze-out.

c) To be consistent with observations, Ων h2 must not exceed the total amount of DM in the
Universe, ΩDM h2 = 0.12. Use this requirement to obtain a lower bound on mν .

d) If the mass of the fourth neutrino were to saturate this bound, it would account for all of
the DM in the Universe. What independent measurement excludes this possibility?

Sommersemester 2018, RWTH Aachen Page 1

Dark Matter Lecture Course Prof. Dr. Felix Kahlhoefer

Problem 8: The unitarity bound

It can be shown in a very general way from the requirement of unitarity (i.e. the conser-
vation of probability) that the annihilation cross section for a Majorana fermion must satisfy
the inequality
π
σ< 2 2 . (3)
mDM vrel
a) Use this relation to derive an upper bound on hσvrel i as a function of mDM (see also
problem 6).

b) Calculate a lower bound on the thermal abundance of a dark matter particle with mass
mDM . Combine this result with the measured value ΩDM h2 = 0.12 to derive the so-called
unitarity bound on the WIMP mass.

Problem 9: The gravitino problem

Another DM candidate in supersymmetric theories is the gravitino, which interacts only

gravitationally. Dimensional analysis tells us that the cross section to produce gravitinos
from other types of particles is approximately given by
1
hσvi ∼ 2 . (4)
MPl

a) Show that for temperatures T  MPl the production rate of gravitinos Γprod is tiny
compared to the Hubble rate and hence gravitinos never enter into thermal equilibrium
with the SM.

b) Assuming that the initial abundance of gravitinos is negligible, write down the Boltzmann
equation for the evolution of the gravitino number density nG̃ . Show that this equation
can be written as
dYG̃ hσvi n2SM
=− . (5)
dT HTs
c) Show that the right-hand side of this equation is independent of temperature and that
hence the present-day value of YG̃ is directly proportional to the reheating temperature
TR , which is the highest temperature ever reached in the Early Universe.

d) Using the observed value of the DM relic abundance, obtain an upper bound on TR as a
function of the gravitino mass mG̃ , assuming g∗ ≈ 200.

Sommersemester 2018, RWTH Aachen Page 2