BBN constraints on the hadronic annihilation of sub-GeV dark matter
Abstract
We investigate the impact of residual annihilation from sub-GeV mass thermal relic dark matter candidates during big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). Focusing on candidates with p -wave annihilation channels, we show that the hadronic injection of pions and kaons beyond freeze-out, and their subsequent interaction with protons and neutrons prior to the deuterium bottleneck, provides a sensitivity to annihilation that surpasses that of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and indirect detection in the galaxy.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies
Computational Physics and Python Applications
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 3
- Publication date
- 14 January 2026
- Language
- EN