Dark matter ultraviolet freeze-in in general reheating scenarios

Abstract

The dynamics of cosmic reheating, that is, on how the energy stored in the inflaton is transferred to the standard model (SM) thermal bath, is largely unknown. In this work, we show that the phenomenology of the nonbaryonic dark matter (DM) ultraviolet freeze-in production strongly depends on the dynamics of the cosmic-reheating era. Using a general parametrization for the Hubble expansion rate, and SM temperature, we thoroughly investigate DM production during reheating, not only recovering earlier findings that focused on specific cases but also exploring alternative scenarios. Additionally, we derive a generalized framework for DM production via inflaton decays and identify the viable parameter space, while simultaneously addressing constraints from cosmic microwave background observations. As illustrative examples, we explore gravitational DM production through scatterings of SM particles or inflatons, deriving well-defined parameter regions for these scenarios. Published by the American Physical Society 2025