Off-shell dark matter: a cosmological relic of quantum gravity
We study a novel proposal for the origin of cosmological cold dark matter (CDM) which is rooted in the quantum nature of spacetime. In this model, off-shell modes of quantum fields can exist in asymptotic states as a result of spacetime nonlocality (expected in generic theories of quantum gravity),...
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| Format: | Article |
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American Physical Society
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43926/ |
| _version_ | 1848796798218403840 |
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| author | Saravani, Mehdi Afshordi, Niayesh |
| author_facet | Saravani, Mehdi Afshordi, Niayesh |
| author_sort | Saravani, Mehdi |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | We study a novel proposal for the origin of cosmological cold dark matter (CDM) which is rooted in the quantum nature of spacetime. In this model, off-shell modes of quantum fields can exist in asymptotic states as a result of spacetime nonlocality (expected in generic theories of quantum gravity), and play the role of CDM, which we dub off-shell dark matter (OfDM). However, their rate of production is suppressed by the scale of non-locality (e.g. Planck length). As a result, we show that OfDM is only produced in the first moments of big bang, and then effectively decouples (except through its gravitational interactions). We examine the observational predictions of this model: In the context of cosmic inflation, we show that this proposal relates the reheating temperature to the inflaton mass, which narrows down the uncertainty in the number of e-foldings of specific inflationary scenarios. We also demonstrate that OfDM is indeed cold, and discuss potentially observable signatures on small scale matter power spectrum. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:53:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-43926 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:53:42Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-439262020-05-04T18:34:43Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43926/ Off-shell dark matter: a cosmological relic of quantum gravity Saravani, Mehdi Afshordi, Niayesh We study a novel proposal for the origin of cosmological cold dark matter (CDM) which is rooted in the quantum nature of spacetime. In this model, off-shell modes of quantum fields can exist in asymptotic states as a result of spacetime nonlocality (expected in generic theories of quantum gravity), and play the role of CDM, which we dub off-shell dark matter (OfDM). However, their rate of production is suppressed by the scale of non-locality (e.g. Planck length). As a result, we show that OfDM is only produced in the first moments of big bang, and then effectively decouples (except through its gravitational interactions). We examine the observational predictions of this model: In the context of cosmic inflation, we show that this proposal relates the reheating temperature to the inflaton mass, which narrows down the uncertainty in the number of e-foldings of specific inflationary scenarios. We also demonstrate that OfDM is indeed cold, and discuss potentially observable signatures on small scale matter power spectrum. American Physical Society 2017-02-15 Article PeerReviewed Saravani, Mehdi and Afshordi, Niayesh (2017) Off-shell dark matter: a cosmological relic of quantum gravity. Physical Review D, 95 (4). 043514/1-043514/9. ISSN 2470-0029 Dark matter Quantum gravity https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.95.043514 doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.95.043514 doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.95.043514 |
| spellingShingle | Dark matter Quantum gravity Saravani, Mehdi Afshordi, Niayesh Off-shell dark matter: a cosmological relic of quantum gravity |
| title | Off-shell dark matter: a cosmological relic of quantum gravity |
| title_full | Off-shell dark matter: a cosmological relic of quantum gravity |
| title_fullStr | Off-shell dark matter: a cosmological relic of quantum gravity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Off-shell dark matter: a cosmological relic of quantum gravity |
| title_short | Off-shell dark matter: a cosmological relic of quantum gravity |
| title_sort | off-shell dark matter: a cosmological relic of quantum gravity |
| topic | Dark matter Quantum gravity |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43926/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43926/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43926/ |