Can Dark Matter Decay in Dark Energy?

Abstract

We analyze the interaction between Dark Energy and Dark Matter from a thermodynamical perspective. By assuming they have different temperatures, we study the possibility of occurring a decay from Dark Matter into Dark Energy, characterized by a negative parameter $Q$. We find that, if at least one of the fluids has non vanishing chemical potential, for instance $μ_x<0$ and $μ_{dm}=0$ or $μ_x=0$ and $μ_{dm}>0$, the decay is possible, where $μ_x$ and $μ_{dm}$ are the chemical potentials of Dark Energy and Dark Matter, respectively. Using recent cosmological data, we find that, for a fairly simple interaction, the Dark Matter decay is favored with a probability of $\sim 93%$ over the Dark Energy decay. This result comes from a likelihood analysis where only background evolution has been considered.