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Main Authors: Binder, Tobias, Garny, Mathias, Heisig, Jan, Lederer, Stefan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.23812
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author Binder, Tobias
Garny, Mathias
Heisig, Jan
Lederer, Stefan
author_facet Binder, Tobias
Garny, Mathias
Heisig, Jan
Lederer, Stefan
contents Bound-state formation (BSF) can have a large impact on annihilation of new physics particles with long-range interactions in the early Universe. In particular, the inclusion of excited bound states has been found to strongly reduce the dark matter abundance and qualitatively modify the associated freeze-out dynamics. While these effects can be captured by an effective annihilation cross section, its explicit computation is numerically expensive and therefore impractical for repeated use in Boltzmann solvers or parameter scans. In this work we present BSFfast, a lightweight numerical tool that provides precomputed, tabulated effective BSF cross sections for a wide class of phenomenologically relevant models, including highly excited bound states and, where applicable, the full network of radiative bound-to-bound transitions. We exploit rescaling relations of the cross section to efficiently cover models with additional free parameters and provide fast interpolation routines in Mathematica, python and C for use in Boltzmann solvers. As an illustration, we apply BSFfast to a superWIMP scenario with a colored mediator, demonstrating that the tool enables phenomenological studies that would otherwise be computationally prohibitive. The code is publicly available on GitHub.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_23812
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle BSFfast: Rapid computation of bound-state effects on annihilation in the early Universe
Binder, Tobias
Garny, Mathias
Heisig, Jan
Lederer, Stefan
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Bound-state formation (BSF) can have a large impact on annihilation of new physics particles with long-range interactions in the early Universe. In particular, the inclusion of excited bound states has been found to strongly reduce the dark matter abundance and qualitatively modify the associated freeze-out dynamics. While these effects can be captured by an effective annihilation cross section, its explicit computation is numerically expensive and therefore impractical for repeated use in Boltzmann solvers or parameter scans. In this work we present BSFfast, a lightweight numerical tool that provides precomputed, tabulated effective BSF cross sections for a wide class of phenomenologically relevant models, including highly excited bound states and, where applicable, the full network of radiative bound-to-bound transitions. We exploit rescaling relations of the cross section to efficiently cover models with additional free parameters and provide fast interpolation routines in Mathematica, python and C for use in Boltzmann solvers. As an illustration, we apply BSFfast to a superWIMP scenario with a colored mediator, demonstrating that the tool enables phenomenological studies that would otherwise be computationally prohibitive. The code is publicly available on GitHub.
title BSFfast: Rapid computation of bound-state effects on annihilation in the early Universe
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.23812