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Emergent Dark Matter

Christian Canete, Archil Kobakhidze

TL;DR

The paper proposes that dark matter may emerge from a 3-form gauge field coupled to the cosmic fluid, rather than from new particle states. A free 3-form alone carries no local propagating degrees of freedom and acts like a cosmological constant, but a gauge-invariant topological coupling to the fluid generates a dynamical in-medium massive mode that behaves as dark matter. The model introduces a κ parameter that governs the transition from a fluid-dominated era to dark-energy domination, with the emergent DM density tied to the coupling and Λ and with a present-day mass scale typically below the Hubble constant, rendering conventional DM searches ineffective. The framework offers a unified view of the dark sector and motivates exploration of possible gravitational or θ-vacua origins, as well as the role of lepton asymmetry in the early plasma, while highlighting open questions about small-scale structure and testability.

Abstract

We entertain the possibility that the phenomena typically attributed to dark matter may have a fundamentally emergent nature, rather than arising from new particle degrees of freedom. To illustrate this idea, we consider a field-theoretic model of a three-form gauge field coupled to a cosmological fluid composed of ordinary matter and radiation. In the absence of interactions, the 3-form gauge theory describes only a global, non-propagating state, which can be associated with dark energy. However, when coupled to the cosmic fluid, the theory gives rise to an emergent, dynamical in-medium state. We identify this emergent state of the 3-form gauge field with dark matter. Thus, our proposal provides a unified framework for the dark sector of the universe within the context of an interacting three-form gauge theory. Furthermore, we speculate that the three-form field may have a gravitational origin, potentially supported by the lepton-number asymmetry in the primordial plasma. If this scenario is correct, conventional direct and indirect searches for dark matter would likely be futile.

Emergent Dark Matter

TL;DR

The paper proposes that dark matter may emerge from a 3-form gauge field coupled to the cosmic fluid, rather than from new particle states. A free 3-form alone carries no local propagating degrees of freedom and acts like a cosmological constant, but a gauge-invariant topological coupling to the fluid generates a dynamical in-medium massive mode that behaves as dark matter. The model introduces a κ parameter that governs the transition from a fluid-dominated era to dark-energy domination, with the emergent DM density tied to the coupling and Λ and with a present-day mass scale typically below the Hubble constant, rendering conventional DM searches ineffective. The framework offers a unified view of the dark sector and motivates exploration of possible gravitational or θ-vacua origins, as well as the role of lepton asymmetry in the early plasma, while highlighting open questions about small-scale structure and testability.

Abstract

We entertain the possibility that the phenomena typically attributed to dark matter may have a fundamentally emergent nature, rather than arising from new particle degrees of freedom. To illustrate this idea, we consider a field-theoretic model of a three-form gauge field coupled to a cosmological fluid composed of ordinary matter and radiation. In the absence of interactions, the 3-form gauge theory describes only a global, non-propagating state, which can be associated with dark energy. However, when coupled to the cosmic fluid, the theory gives rise to an emergent, dynamical in-medium state. We identify this emergent state of the 3-form gauge field with dark matter. Thus, our proposal provides a unified framework for the dark sector of the universe within the context of an interacting three-form gauge theory. Furthermore, we speculate that the three-form field may have a gravitational origin, potentially supported by the lepton-number asymmetry in the primordial plasma. If this scenario is correct, conventional direct and indirect searches for dark matter would likely be futile.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 9 sections, 33 equations.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Field-theoretic description of dark energy and the cosmic fluid
  3. 3-Form Gauge Field Description of Dark Energy
  4. A Field-Theoretic Model for Cosmic Fluid
  5. Emergent dark matter in the 3-form gauge theory of cosmic fluid
  6. Summary and discussion
  7. Notations and convensions
  8. Cosmological fluid in the first-order formalism
  9. Topological coupling and mass generation for 3-form gauge field