arXiv subjects

Ayuki Kamada

Publications and source records attributed to Ayuki Kamada.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Time evolution of scalar condensate decay

A scalar field, which oscillates coherently over the space and decays through production of daughter particles, plays an important role in cosmology. It was recently shown that the parametric-resonance and Feynman-diagrammatic approaches give the same decay rate for a Bosonic daughter particle at a large time duration. We study how the parametric-resonance result approaches to this asymptotic value, by numerically following the time evolution of the phase density of the daughter particle. We see a difference among different instability bands in the narrow-resonance regime. The lowest-order instability band approaches to the Feynman-diagrammatic result in tens of scalar oscillation periods, while the high-order instability bands approach dependently also on a coupling between the scalar and daughter particles. This would infer that the total decay width, to which the lowest-order instability band contributes most dominantly in the perturbation theory, approaches to the Feynman-diagrammatic result also independently of the coupling. To confirm it, we consider a simpler and analytically solvable quantum mechanical model: Rabi models. In the Bosonic Rabi model, the parametric-resonance and Feynman-diagrammatic results agree with each other for all the time. On the other hand, in the Fermionic Rabi model, they disagree at a large time duration. This difference would be attributed to Bose enhancement vs Pauli blocking.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Generalized Glauber theorem for dark-matter axion and graviton detection

We revisit the generalized Glauber theorem motivated by recent applications to dark-matter axion searches and graviton production. For Hamiltonian containing up to quadratic terms in annihilation and creation operators coupled to classical sources, the time-evolution operator can be factorized into displacement, squeezing, and rotation operators. We derive the differential equations governing time evolution of their parameters, reducing the quantum dynamics to c-number equations that can be solved analytically or numerically. To compare another form of the time-evolution operator, Dyson series, we demonstrate the essential role of time ordering. This formalism based on generalized Glauber theorem provides a unified description of particle production from classical backgrounds. Axion-photon conversion in microwave haloscopes is recovered as the linear-interaction limit, while squeezed graviton production from black-hole mergers follows naturally from quadratic interactions. Extending the theorem to thermal initial states yields a realistic quantum description of microwave cavities used in axion experiments. We show that higher-order photon statistics exhibit nontrivial behavior, providing a rigorous foundation for Monte Carlo simulations of quantum-enhanced axion searches beyond heuristic noise estimates.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Decay of a scalar condensate in two different approaches

Decay of a scalar condensate via interactions with (quasi-)particles is of interest to many fields in physics, including cosmology. In cosmology, the decay of an inflaton condensate leads to the production of daughter particles and reheating of the Universe. In computing the decay rate, two quantum field theoretic approaches can be found in the literature: one is based on parametric resonance of mode functions of the daughter particle; another is based on the $S$-matrix of a coherent state and Feynman-diagrammatic perturbation theory. We modify the latter from the previous literature in a way that manifests what we are computing and does not include unwanted Feynman diagrams. We notice the equivalence of these two approaches and demonstrate it by explicitly computing the decay rate at lower orders in the double expansion of the amplitude of coherent oscillation (or narrow resonance) and velocity of the daughter particle.

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arXiv2026

Revisiting Q-ball Interactions with Matters

Q-ball dark matter is one of the candidates for the macroscopic dark matter: Q-ball is a non-topological solitonic configuration, whose stability can be ensured by global charge and energy conservation. One of the crucial factors for discovering signatures from the Q-ball dark matter, is the interactions of the Q-ball dark matter with ordinary matter. In particular, the scattering of ordinary matter off the Q-ball dark matter is important for the direct detection searches, such as paleo-detectors. It was conjectured that quarks incident on the Q-ball were reflected as anti-quarks with a probability of order unity, but it costs the energy of the squark in the Q-ball, which cannot be paid in the scattering of ordinary matter off the Q-ball dark matter. In addition, once a proton is reflected as an anti-proton, the Q-ball obtains the electromagnetic charge. In this study, we revisit the scattering process of quarks with the Q-ball with taking into account the energy cost of the scattering and the electromagnetic charge-up of the Q-ball.

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arXiv2025

Mineral Detection of Neutrinos and Dark Matter 2025 Proceedings

The third ``Mineral Detection of Neutrinos and Dark Matter'' (MD$ν$DM'25) meeting was held May 20-23, 2025 in Yokohama, Japan, hosted by the Yokohama Institute for Earth Sciences, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). These proceedings compile contributions from the workshop and update the progress of mineral detector research. MD$ν$DM'25 was the third such meeting, following the first in October of 2022 held at the IFPU in Trieste, Italy and the second in January of 2024 hosted by the Center for Neutrino Physics at Virginia Tech in Arlington, USA. Mineral detectors record and retain damage induced by nuclear recoils in synthetic or natural mineral samples. The damage features can then be read out by a variety of nano- and micro-scale imaging techniques. Applications of mineral detectors on timescales relevant for laboratory experiments include reactor neutrino monitoring and dark matter detection, with the potential to measure the directions as well as the energies of the induced nuclear recoils. For natural mineral detectors which record nuclear recoils over geological timescales, reading out even small mineral samples could be sensitive to rare interactions induced by astrophysical neutrinos, cosmic rays, dark matter and heavy exotic particles. A series of mineral detectors of different ages could measure the time evolution of these fluxes, offering a unique window into the history of our solar system and the Milky Way. Mineral detector research is highly multidisciplinary, incorporating aspects of high energy physics, condensed matter physics, materials science, geoscience, and AI/ML for data analysis. Although realizing the scientific potential of mineral detectors poses many challenges, the MD$ν$DM community looks forward to the continued development of mineral detector experiments and the possible discoveries that mineral detectors could reveal.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2025

Composite asymmetric dark matter with a dark photon portal: Multimessenger tests

Composite asymmetric dark matter (ADM) is the framework that naturally explains the coincidence of the baryon density and the dark matter density of the Universe. Through a portal interaction sharing particle-antiparticle asymmetries in the Standard Model and dark sectors, dark matter particles, which are dark-sector counterparts of baryons, can decay into antineutrinos and dark-sector counterparts of mesons (dark mesons) or dark photon. Subsequent cascade decay of the dark mesons and the dark photon can also provide electromagnetic fluxes at late times of the Universe. The cosmic-ray constraints on the decaying dark matter with the mass of $1$--$10$~GeV has not been well studied. We perform comprehensive studies on the decay of the composite ADM by combining the astrophysical constraints from $e^\pm$ and $γ$-ray. The constraints from cosmic-ray positron measurements by AMS-02 are the most stringent at $\gtrsim2$~GeV: a lifetime should be larger than the order of $10^{26}$~s, corresponding to the cutoff scale of the portal interaction of about $10^8 \text{--} 10^9 \, \mathrm{GeV}$. We also perform the dedicated analysis for the neutrino monoenergetic signals at Super-Kamiokande and Hyper-Kamiokande due to the atmospheric neutrino background in the energy range of our interest.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Mediator Decay through mixing with Degenerate Spectrum

The decay of the mediator particle into standard model (SM) particles plays a significant role in exploring the dark sector scenario. We consider such a decay, taking the dark photon mediator as an example that mixes with the SM photon. We find that it requires a careful analysis of the decay rate in the presence of an SM vector boson (e.g., $Z$ boson, $ρ$ meson, and true muonium, etc.) nearly degenerate with the mediator particle in mass. The decay rate of the mediator particle calculated in the mass eigenstate basis {\bf does not} agree with the correct result, given by the imaginary parts of the poles for the vector boson propagators, when the mixing parameter is smaller than a specific value. In such a case, the decay rate calculated by treating the mixing as a perturbative parameter is in agreement with the correct result. We clarify specific values for the mixing parameter quantitatively using several concrete examples of the SM vector bosons degenerate with the dark photon. When the mass mixing between the vector boson and dark photon is smaller (larger) than the decay width of the vector boson, the latter (former) method to calculate the decay rate of the mediator particle gives the correct result.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Modeling the core-halo mass relation in fuzzy dark matter halos

Fuzzy dark matter (FDM) is an intriguing candidate alternative to the standard cold dark matter (CDM). The FDM model predicts that dark halos have characteristic core structures generated by the effect of quantum pressure, which is different from the structure of CDM halos. We devise a semi-analytic model of a FDM halo density profile by assuming that the density distribution results from the redistribution of mass in a halo with the Navarro-Frenk-White profile. We calculate the mass redistribution radius by considering dynamical relaxation within the FDM halo. We adopt a concentration-halo mass relation with lower concentration compared to that in the CDM model below the half mode mass, which originates from the suppressed matter density fluctuations at small length scales. Our model reproduces the core-halo mass relation (CHMR) found in the numerical simulation of \citet{2014NatPh..10..496S} at $z<1$. We show that the CHMR is well described by a double power law, unlike previous studies that approximate it by a single power law. Our model predictions are in reasonable agreement with the results of the largest FDM simulation of \citet{2021MNRAS.506.2603M} at $z=3$. We find that the core mass for a given halo mass follows the log-normal distribution, both in our model and in the simulation results for the first time, and quantitatively compare the variance of the distribution among them. Although our model does not fully explain the scatter of the CHMR, we show the scatter of the concentration-halo mass relation sizably contributes to them.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

Quantum Theory of Dark Matter Scattering

Dark matter self-scattering is one of key ingredients for small-scale structure of the Universe, while dark matter annihilation is important for the indirect measurements. There is a strong correlation between the velocity-dependent self-scattering cross section and the Sommerfeld enhancement factor for the dark matter annihilation cross section. In this study, we formulate a direct relation between them by the use of Watson's (initial state/final state) theorem and Omnès solution, and our formulation reproduces the Sommerfeld enhancement factor, which directly computed by solving the Schrödinger equation, from the scattering phase shift.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2023

Evolution of Resonant Self-interacting Dark Matter Halos

Recent analysis on the stellar kinematics of ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) galaxies has put a stringent upper limit on the self-scattering cross section of dark matter, i.e., $σ/m<{\cal O}(0.1)\,{\rm cm^2/g}$ at the scattering velocity of ${\cal O}(10)\,{\rm km/s}$. Resonant self-interacting dark matter (rSIDM) is one possibility that can be consistent with the UFDs and explain the low central densities of rotation-supported galaxies; the cross section is resonantly enhanced to be $σ/m = {\cal O}(1)\,{\rm cm^2/g}$ around the scattering velocity of ${\cal O}(100)\,{\rm km/s}$ while being suppressed at lower velocities. To further assess this possibility, since the inferred dark matter distribution of halos from astrophysical observations is usually compared to that in constant-cross section SIDM (cSIDM), whether the structures of rSIDM halos can be approximated by the cSIDM halo profiles needs to be clarified. In this work, we employ the grovothermal fluid method to investigate the structural evolution of rSIDM halos in a wide mass range. We find that except for halos in a specific mass range, the present structures of rSIDM halos are virtually indistinguishable from those of the cSIDM halos. For halos in the specific mass range, the resonant self-scattering renders a break in their density profile. We demonstrate how such a density-profile break appears in astrophysical observations, e.g., rotation curves and line-of-sight velocity dispersion profiles. We show that for halos above the specific mass range, the density-profile break thermalizes to disappear before the present. We demonstrate that such distinctive thermalization dynamics can leave imprints on the orbital classes of stars with similar ages and metallicities.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

Perturbative Unitarity of Strongly Interacting Massive Particle Models

Dark pion is a promising candidate for the strongly interacting massive particle dark matter. A large pion self-coupling $m_π/f_π$ tends to be required for correct relic abundance, and hence the partial-wave amplitudes can violate the perturbative unitarity even for the coupling within naïve perturbative regime. We improve the partial-wave amplitudes in order to satisfy the optical theorem. We demonstrate that the improvement is relevant only for semi-relativistic pions, and thus this does not affect the self-scattering cross section at the cosmic structures. We also discuss the impact of the improvement of the $πππ\to ππ$ scattering process, and we find that there is an upper bound on $m_π$ at which the correct relic abundance is never achieved even at large $m_π/f_π$ due to the optical theorem.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

LHC Lifetime Frontier and Visible Decay Searches in Composite Asymmetric Dark Matter Models

The LHC lifetime frontier will probe dark sector in near future, and the visible decay searches at fixed-target experiments have been exploring dark sector. Composite asymmetric dark matter with dark photon portal is a promising framework explaining the coincidence problem between dark matter and visible matter. Dark strong dynamics provides rich structure in the dark sector: the lightest dark nucleon is the dark matter, while strong annihilation into dark pions depletes the symmetric components of the dark matter. Dark photons alleviate cosmological problems. Meanwhile, dark photons make dark hadrons long-lived in terrestrial experiments. Moreover, the dark hadrons are produced through the very same dark photon. In this study, we discuss the visible decay searches for composite asymmetric dark matter models. For a few GeV dark nucleons, the LHC lifetime frontier, MATHUSLA and FASER, has a potential to discover their decay when kinetic mixing angle of dark photon is $ε\gtrsim 10^{-4}$. On the other hand, fixed-target experiments, in particular SeaQuest, will have a great sensitivity to dark pions with a mass below GeV and with kinetic mixing $ε\gtrsim 10^{-4}$ in addition to the LHC lifetime frontier. These projected sensitivities to dark hadrons in dark photon parameter space are comparable with the future sensitivities of dark photon searches, such as Belle-II and LHCb.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Manifesting hidden dynamics of a sub-component dark matter

We emphasize the distinctive cosmological dynamics in multi-component dark matter scenarios and its impact in probing a sub-dominant component of dark matter. We find that the thermal evolution of the sub-component dark matter is significantly affected by the sizable self-scattering that is naturally realized for sub-${\rm GeV}$ masses. The required annihilation cross section for the sub-component sharply increases as we consider a smaller relative abundance fraction among the dark-matter species. Therefore, contrary to a naive expectation, it can be easier to detect the sub-component with smaller abundance fractions in direct/indirect-detection experiments and cosmological observations. Combining with the current results of accelerator-based experiments, the abundance fractions smaller than $10\,\%$ are strongly disfavored; we demonstrate this by taking a dark photon portal scenario as an example. Nevertheless, for the abundance fraction larger than $10\,\%$, the warm dark matter constraints on the sub-dominant component can be complementary to the parameter space probed by accelerator-based experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Maximally self-interacting dark matter: models and predictions

We study self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) scenarios, where the $s$-wave self-scattering cross section almost saturates the Unitarity bound. Such self-scattering cross sections are singly parameterized by the dark matter mass, and are featured by strong velocity dependence in a wide range of velocities. They may be indicated by observations of dark matter halos in a wide range of masses, from Milky Way's dwarf spheroidal galaxies to galaxy clusters. We pin down the model parameters that saturates the Unitarity bound in well-motivated SIDM models: the gauged $L_μ - L_τ$ model and composite asymmetric dark matter model. We discuss implications and predictions of such model parameters for cosmology like the $H_{0}$ tension and dark-matter direct-detection experiments, and particle phenomenology like the beam-dump experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Lessons from $T^μ_{~ μ}$ on inflation models: two-loop renormalization of $η$ in the scalar QED

A non-minimal coupling $η$ has been attracting growing interest particularly in the context of inflation models, though its quantum nature is not clear yet. We study the renormalization of a non-minimal coupling in the scalar quantum electrodynamics (QED). We find ${\it no}$ inhomogeneous term of the renormalization group equation (RGE) at the two-loop level. This is similar to other theories, where an inhomogeneous term of the RGE appears only at a higher-loop order: e.g., four-loop order in $λϕ^{4}$ theory.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Strongly-interacting massive particle and dark photon in the era of intensity frontier

A strongly interacting massive particle (SIMP) is an interesting candidate for dark matter (DM) because its self-interaction cross section can be naturally strong enough to address the astrophysical problem of small-scale structure formation. A simple model was proposed by assuming a monopole condensation, where composite SIMP comes from a "strongly interacting" U(1)$_{\rm d}$ gauge theory. In the original model, the DM relic abundance is determined by the $3\to2$ annihilation process via the Wess-Zumino-Witten term. In this letter, we discuss that the DM relic abundance is naturally determined also by a semi-annihilation process via a kinetic mixing between the hypercharge gauge boson and the dark U(1)$_{\rm d}$ gauge boson (dark photon). The dark photon can be discovered by LDMX-style missing momentum experiments in the near future.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Light Axinos from Freeze-in: production processes, phase space distributions, and Ly-$α$ forest constraints

We consider freeze-in production of 7 keV axino dark matter (DM) in the supersymmetric Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitsky (DFSZ) model in light of the 3.5 keV line excess. The warmness of such 7 keV DM produced from the thermal bath, in general, appears in tension with Ly-$α$ forest data, although a direct comparison is not straightforward. This is because the Ly-$α$ forest constraints are usually reported on the mass of the conventional warm dark matter (WDM), where large entropy production is implicitly assumed to occur in the thermal bath after WDM particles decouple. The phase space distribution of freeze-in axino DM varies depending on production processes and axino DM may alleviate the tension with the tight Ly-$α$ forest constraints. By solving the Boltzmann equation, we first obtain the resultant phase space distribution of axinos produced by 2-body decay, 3-body decay, and 2-to-2 scattering, respectively. The reduced collision term and resultant phase space distribution are useful for studying other freeze-in scenarios as well. We then calculate the resultant linear matter power spectra for such axino DM and directly compare them with the linear matter power spectra for the conventional WDM. In order to demonstrate realistic axino DM production, we consider benchmark points with the Higgsino next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) and wino NLSP. In the case of the Higgsino NLSP, the phase space distribution of axinos is colder than that in the conventional WDM case, so the most stringent Ly-$α$ forest constraint can be evaded with mild entropy production from saxion decay inherent in the supersymmetric DFSZ axion model.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Lessons from $T^μ_{~ μ}$ on inflation models: two-scalar theory and Yukawa theory

We demonstrate two properties of the trace of the energy-momentum tensor $T^μ_{~ μ}$ in the flat spacetime. One is the decoupling of heavy degrees of freedom; i.e., heavy degrees of freedom leave no effect for low-energy $T^μ_{~ μ}$-inserted amplitudes. This is intuitively apparent from the effective field theory point of view, but one has to take into account the so-called trace anomaly to explicitly demonstrate the decoupling. As a result, for example, in the $R^{2}$ inflation model, scalaron decay is insensitive to heavy degrees of freedom when a matter sector ${\it minimally}$ couples to gravity (up to a non-minimal coupling of a matter scalar field other than the scalaron). The other property is a quantum contribution to a non-minimal coupling of a scalar field. The non-minimal coupling disappears from the action in the flat spacetime, but leaves the so-called improvement term in $T^μ_{~ μ}$. We study the renormalization group equation of the non-minimal coupling to discuss its quantum-induced value and implications for inflation dynamics. We work it out in the two-scalar theory and Yukawa theory.

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