Cosmological Stasis from a Single Annihilating Particle Species: Extending Stasis Into the Thermal Domain

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Barber, Jonah, Dienes, Keith R., Thomas, Brooks
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Barber, Jonah
Dienes, Keith R.
Thomas, Brooks
author_facet Barber, Jonah
Dienes, Keith R.
Thomas, Brooks
contents It has recently been shown that extended cosmological epochs can exist during which the abundances associated with different energy components remain constant despite cosmological expansion. Indeed, this "stasis" behavior has been found to arise generically in many BSM theories containing large towers of states, and even serves as a cosmological attractor. However, all previous studies of stasis took place within non-thermal environments, or more specifically within environments in which thermal effects played no essential role in realizing or sustaining the stasis. In this paper, we demonstrate that stasis can emerge and serve as an attractor even within thermal environments, with thermal effects playing a critical role in the stasis dynamics. Moreover, within such environments, we find that no towers of states are needed -- a single state experiencing two-body annihilations will suffice. This work thus extends the stasis phenomenon into the thermal domain and demonstrates that thermal effects can also generally give rise to an extended stasis epoch, even when only a single matter species is involved.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_16255
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Cosmological Stasis from a Single Annihilating Particle Species: Extending Stasis Into the Thermal Domain
Barber, Jonah
Dienes, Keith R.
Thomas, Brooks
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
It has recently been shown that extended cosmological epochs can exist during which the abundances associated with different energy components remain constant despite cosmological expansion. Indeed, this "stasis" behavior has been found to arise generically in many BSM theories containing large towers of states, and even serves as a cosmological attractor. However, all previous studies of stasis took place within non-thermal environments, or more specifically within environments in which thermal effects played no essential role in realizing or sustaining the stasis. In this paper, we demonstrate that stasis can emerge and serve as an attractor even within thermal environments, with thermal effects playing a critical role in the stasis dynamics. Moreover, within such environments, we find that no towers of states are needed -- a single state experiencing two-body annihilations will suffice. This work thus extends the stasis phenomenon into the thermal domain and demonstrates that thermal effects can also generally give rise to an extended stasis epoch, even when only a single matter species is involved.
title Cosmological Stasis from a Single Annihilating Particle Species: Extending Stasis Into the Thermal Domain
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.16255