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Register a new userRelaxation times for Bose-Einstein condensation in axion miniclusters
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Added by
Anthony E. Mirasola
Publication date
2020
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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We study the Bose condensation of scalar dark matter in the presence of both gravitational and self-interactions. Axions and other scalar dark matter in gravitationally bound miniclusters or dark matter halos are expected to condense into Bose-Einstein condensates called Bose stars. This process has been shown to occur through attractive self-interactions of the axion-like particles or through the fields self gravitation. We show that in the high-occupancy regime of scalar dark matter, the Boltzmann collision integral does not describe either gravitaitonal or self-interactions, and derive kinetic equations valid for these interactions. We use this formalism to compute relaxation times for the Bose-Einstein condensation, and find that condensation into Bose stars could occur within the lifetime of the universe. The self-interactions reduce the condensation time only when they are very strong.
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Axions and similar very weakly interacting particles are increasingly compelling candidates for the cold dark matter of the universe. Having very low mass and being produced non-thermally in the early Universe, axions feature extremely high occupation numbers. It has been suggested that this leads to the formation of a Bose-Einstein condensate with potentially significant impact on observation and direct detection experiments. In this note we aim to clarify that if Bose-Einstein condensation occurs for light and very weakly interacting dark matter particles, it does not happen in thermal equilibrium but is described by a far-from-equilibrium state. In particular we point out that the dynamics is characterized by two very different timescales, such that condensation occurs on a much shorter timescale than full thermalization.
The QCD axion is expected to form dense structures known as axion miniclusters if the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is broken after inflation. Miniclusters that have survived until today would interact with the population of neutron stars (NSs) in the Milky Way to produce transient radio signals from axion-photon conversion in the NS magnetosphere. Here, we quantify the rate, duration, sky location, and brightness of these interactions for two different minicluster internal density profiles. For both density profiles, we find that these interactions: will occur frequently ($mathcal{O}(1-100),mathrm{day}^{-1}$); last between a day and a few months; are spatially clustered towards the Galactic center; and can reach observable fluxes. Searching for these transient signatures, which are within the reach of current generation telescopes, therefore offers a promising pathway to discovering QCD axion dark matter.
The phenomenon of Bose-Einstein condensation is traditionally associated with and experimentally verified for low temperatures: either of nano-Kelvin scale for alkali atoms [1-3] or room temperatures for quasi-particles [4,5] or photons in two dimensions [6]. Here we demonstrate out of first principles that for certain initial conditions non-equilibrium plasma at relativistic temperatures of billions of Kelvin undergoes condensation, predicted by Zeldovich and Levich in their seminal work [7]. We determine the necessary conditions for the onset of condensation and discuss the possibilities to observe such a phenomenon in laboratory and astrophysical conditions.
We study the impact of attractive self-interactions on the nonequilibrium dynamics of relativistic quantum fields with large occupancies at low momenta. Our primary focus is on Bose-Einstein condensation and nonthermal fixed points in such systems. As a model system we consider O(N)-symmetric scalar field theories. We use classical-statistical real-time simulations, as well as a systematic 1/N expansion of the quantum (2PI) effective action to next-to-leading order. When the mean self-interactions are repulsive, condensation occurs as a consequence of a universal inverse particle cascade to the zero-momentum mode with self-similar scaling behavior. For attractive mean self-interactions the inverse cascade is absent and the particle annihilation rate is enhanced compared to the repulsive case, which counteracts the formation of coherent field configurations. For N >= 2, the presence of a nonvanishing conserved charge can suppress number changing processes and lead to the formation of stable localized charge clumps, i.e. Q-balls.
To investigate the phenomenon of Bose-Einstein condensation in perfect crystals a hierarchy of equations for reduced density matrices that describes a thermodynamically equilibrium quantum system is employed, the hierarchy being obtained earlier by the author. The thermodynamics of a crystal with a condensate and the one of a crystal with no condensate are constructed in parallel, which is required for studying the phase transition involving Bose-Einstein condensation. The transition is analysed also with the help of the Landau theory of phase transitions which shows that a superfluid state can result either from two consecutive phase transitions or from only one. To demonstrate how the general equations obtained can be applied for a concrete crystal the bifurcation method for solving the equations is utilized. New results concerning properties of the condensate crystals at zero temperature are obtained as well. In the concluding section, the physical concept of the condensate is discussed.
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