Ultra-relativistic freeze-out of fermion dark matter through a heavy scalar mediator

We investigate the production of Majorana fermion dark matter (DM) via a heavy scalar mediator during reheating, with particular emphasis on ultra-relativistic freeze-out (UFO). Depending on the mediator mass, interaction strengths, and reheating temperature, we identify three distinct production regimes: freeze-in, WIMP-like freeze-out, and UFO, all of which can account for the observed DM relic abundance. In the UFO regime, significant DM production can persist after chemical decoupling, while entropy injection during reheating simultaneously dilutes the DM yield. An accurate determination of the final relic abundance therefore requires a consistent treatment of both continued production and entropy dilution. We further examine the impact of scalar cubic interactions and find that they modify the boundaries between the different production regimes and reshape the relic-density contours. In particular, the results are more sensitive to the cubic coupling involving the mediator and the light scalar than to the heavy-scalar self-coupling.

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Authors

Jin-Lei Yang; Ke-Shuo Cai; Yin-Jie Zhang; Hai-Bin Zhang; Tai-Fu Feng

Published

Oct 17, 2026

Paper type

preprint

Source

Arxiv