arXiv subjects

Camilo Garcia-Cely

Publications and source records attributed to Camilo Garcia-Cely.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Challenges and Opportunities of Gravitational Wave Searches above 10 kHz

The first direct measurement of gravitational waves by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations has opened up new avenues to explore our Universe. This white paper outlines the challenges and gains expected in gravitational-wave searches at frequencies above the LIGO/Virgo band. The scarcity of possible astrophysical sources in most of this frequency range provides a unique opportunity to discover physics beyond the Standard Model operating both in the early and late Universe, and we highlight some of the most promising of these sources. We review several detector concepts that have been proposed to take up this challenge, and compare their expected sensitivity with the signal strength predicted in various models. This report is the summary of a series of workshops on the topic of high-frequency gravitational wave detection, held in 2019 (ICTP, Trieste, Italy), 2021 (online) and 2023 (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland).

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Gravitational Wave Scattering on Magnetic Fields

The conversion of gravitational to electromagnetic waves in the presence of background magnetic fields is known as the inverse Gertsenshtein effect, analogous to the Primakoff effect for axions. Rephrasing this conversion as a classical electrodynamics problem in the far-field regime of a magnetized region, we derive the angular distribution of the intensity and polarization of the emitted electromagnetic waves. We discuss the interplay of the internal structure of the magnetic field, the polarization of the gravitational wave and the scattering angle, demonstrating for example that a dipolar field can convert an unpolarized stochastic gravitational wave background into polarized electromagnetic emission, with peak emission intensity along the equator. We moreover outline how to incorporate medium effects in this framework, necessary for a realistic 3D description of gravitational wave to photon conversion in the magnetosphere of neutron stars.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Symmetries and Selection Rules: Optimising Axion Haloscopes for Gravitational Wave Searches

In the presence of electromagnetic fields, both axions and gravitational waves (GWs) induce oscillating magnetic fields: a potentially detectable fingerprint of their presence. We demonstrate that the response is largely dictated by the symmetries of the instruments used to search for it. Focussing on low mass axion haloscopes, we derive selection rules that determine the parametric sensitivity of different detector geometries to axions and GWs, and which further reveal how to optimise the experimental geometry to maximise both signals. The formalism allows us to forecast the optimal sensitivity to GWs in the range of 100 kHz to 100 MHz for instruments such as ABRACADABRA, BASE, ADMX SLIC, SHAFT, WISPLC, and DMRadio.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Probing the Inert Doublet Dark Matter Model with Cherenkov Telescopes

We present a detailed study of the annihilation signals of the inert dark matter doublet model in its high mass regime. Concretely, we study the prospects to observe gamma-ray signals of the model in current and projected Cherenkov telescopes taking into account the Sommerfeld effect and including the contribution to the spectrum from gamma-ray lines as well as from internal bremsstrahlung. We show that present observations of the galactic center by the H.E.S.S. instrument are able to exclude regions of the parameter space that give the correct dark matter relic abundance. In particular, models with the charged and the neutral components of the inert doublet nearly degenerate in mass have strong gamma-ray signals. Furthermore, for dark matter particle masses above 1 TeV, we find that the non-observation of the continuum of photons generated by the hadronization of the annihilation products typically gives stronger constraints on the model parameters than the sharp spectral features associated to annihilation into monochromatic photons and the internal bremsstrahlung process. Lastly, we also analyze the interplay between indirect and direct detection searches for this model, concluding that the prospects for the former are more promising. In particular, we find that the upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array will be able to probe a significant part of the high mass regime of the model.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

A novel search for high-frequency gravitational waves with low-mass axion haloscopes

Gravitational waves (GWs) generate oscillating electromagnetic effects in the vicinity of external electric and magnetic fields. We discuss this phenomenon with a particular focus on reinterpreting the results of axion haloscopes based on lumped-element detectors, which probe GWs in the 100 kHz-100 MHz range. Measurements from ABRACADABRA and SHAFT already place bounds on GWs, although the present strain sensitivity is weak. However, we demonstrate that the sensitivity scaling with the volume of such instruments is significant - faster than for axions - and so rapid progress will be made in the future. With no modifications, DMRadio-m$^3$ will have a GW strain sensitivity of $h \sim 10^{-20}$ at 200 MHz. A simple modification of the pickup loop used to readout the induced magnetic flux can parametrically enhance the GW sensitivity, particularly at lower frequencies.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Physics reach of a long-lived particle detector at Belle II

We have studied three realistic benchmark geometries for a new far detector GAZELLE to search for long-lived particles at the \superkekb accelerator in Tsukuba, Japan. The new detector would be housed in the same building as Belle II and observe the same $e^+e^-$ collisions. To assess the discovery reach of GAZELLE, we have investigated three new physics models that predict long-lived particles: heavy neutral leptons produced in tau lepton decays, axion-like particles produced in $B$ meson decays, and new scalars produced in association with a dark photon, as motivated by inelastic dark matter. We do not find significant gains in the new physics discovery reach of GAZELLE compared to the Belle II projections for the same final states. The main reasons are the practical limitations on the angular acceptance and size of GAZELLE, effectively making it at most comparable to Belle II, even though backgrounds in the far detector could be reduced to low rates. A far detector for long-lived particles would be well motivated in the case of a discovery by Belle II, since decays inside GAZELLE would facilitate studies of the decay products. Depending on the placement of GAZELLE, searches for light long-lived particles produced in the forward direction or signals of a confining hidden force could also benefit from such a far detector. Our general findings could help guide the design of far detectors at future electron-positron colliders such as the ILC, FCC-ee or CEPC.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Belle II sensitivity to long-lived dark photons

In this letter we point out that the Belle II experiment has a unique sensitivity to visibly decaying long-lived dark photons. Concentrating on the signatures with a single high energy photon in association with a displaced pair of charged particles, we find that Belle II will be able to probe large regions of parameter space that cannot be covered by any other running or proposed experimental facility. While the signature with charged muons or pions in the final state is expected to be background-free after all selections are applied, the case of final state electrons is more involved and requires an in-depth study. We discuss possible ways to further suppress backgrounds and the corresponding experimental prospects.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Long-lived Dark Higgs and Inelastic Dark Matter at Belle II

Inelastic dark matter is an interesting scenario for light thermal dark matter which is fully consistent with all cosmological probes as well as direct and indirect dark matter detection. The required mass splitting between dark matter $χ_1$ and its heavier twin $χ_2$ is naturally induced by a dark Higgs field which also provides a simple mechanism to give mass to the dark photon $A'$ present in the setup. The corresponding dark Higgs boson $h'$ is naturally the lightest dark sector state and therefore decays into Standard Model particles via Higgs mixing. In this work we study signatures with displaced vertices and missing momentum at Belle II, arising from dark Higgs particles produced in association with dark matter. We find that Belle II can be very sensitive to this scenario, in particular if a displaced vertex trigger is available in the near future.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Potential of radio telescopes as high-frequency gravitational wave detectors

In the presence of magnetic fields, gravitational waves are converted into photons and vice versa. We demonstrate that this conversion leads to a distortion of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), which can serve as a detector for MHz to GHz gravitational wave sources active before reionization. The measurements of the radio telescope EDGES can be cast as a bound on the gravitational wave amplitude, $h_c < 10^{-21} (10^{-12})$ at 78 MHz, for the strongest (weakest) cosmic magnetic fields allowed by current astrophysical and cosmological constraints. Similarly, the results of ARCADE 2 imply $h_c < 10^{-24} (10^{-14})$ at $3 - 30$ GHz. For the strongest magnetic fields, these constraints exceed current laboratory constraints by about seven orders of magnitude. Future advances in 21cm astronomy may conceivably push these bounds below the sensitivity of cosmological constraints on the total energy density of gravitational waves.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

A Practical and Consistent Parametrization of Dark Matter Self-Interactions

Self-interacting dark matter has been proposed to explain the apparent mass deficit in astrophysical small-scale halos, while observations from galaxy clusters suggest that the corresponding cross section depends on the velocity. Accounting for this is often believed to be highly model-dependent with studies mostly focusing on scenarios with light mediators. Based on the effective-range formalism, in this work we point out a model-independent approach which accurately approximates the velocity dependence of the self-interaction cross section with only two parameters. We illustrate how this parameterization can be simultaneously interpreted in various well-motivated scenarios, including self-interactions induced by Yukawa forces, Breit-Wigner resonances and bound states. We investigate the astrophysical implications and discuss how the approximation can be improved in certain special regimes where it works poorly.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Finite-size dark matter and its effect on small-scale structure

If dark matter has a finite size that is larger than its Compton wavelength, the corresponding self-interaction cross section decreases with the velocity. We investigate the implications of this Puffy Dark Matter for addressing the small-scale problems of the $Λ$CDM model. In particular, we show that the way the non-relativistic cross section varies with the velocity is largely independent of the dark matter internal structure when the range of the mediating force is very short. We present an explicit example in the context of a QCD-like theory of dark matter and show that low-threshold direct detection experiments have the potential to probe Puffy Dark Matter.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Strong gravitational radiation from a simple dark matter model

A rather minimal possibility is that dark matter consists of the gauge bosons of a spontaneously broken symmetry. Here we explore the possibility of detecting the gravitational waves produced by the phase transition associated with such breaking. Concretely, we focus on the scenario based on an $SU(2)_D$ group and argue that it is a case study for the sensitivity of future gravitational wave observatories to phase transitions associated with dark matter. This is because there are few parameters and those fixing the relic density also determine the effective potential establishing the strength of the phase transition. Particularly promising for LISA and even the Einstein Telescope is the super-cool dark matter regime, with DM masses above $\mathcal{O}$(100) TeV, for which we find that the gravitational wave signal is notably strong. In our analysis, we include the effect of astrophysical foregrounds, which are often ignored in the context of phase transitions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Velocity Dependence from Resonant Self-Interacting Dark Matter

The dark matter density distribution in small-scale astrophysical objects may indicate that dark matter is self-interacting, while observations from clusters of galaxies suggest that the corresponding cross section depends on the velocity. Using a model-independent approach, we show that resonant self-interacting dark matter (RSIDM) can naturally explain such a behavior. In contrast to what is often assumed, this does not require a light mediator. We present explicit realizations of this mechanism and discuss the corresponding astrophysical constraints.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Core formation from self-heating dark matter

Cosmological simulations of the $Λ$CDM model suggest that the dark matter halos of dwarf galaxies are denser in their center than what observational data of such galaxies imply. In this letter, we propose a novel solution to this problem by invoking a certain class of dark matter self-heating processes. As we will argue, such processes lead to the formation of dark matter cores at late times by considerably reducing the inner mass density of dwarf-sized halos. For deriving concrete results, we focus on semi-annihilating dark matter scenarios and model the inner region of dark matter halos as a gravothermal fluid. An important aspect of this new solution is that the semi-annihilation effects are much more prominent in dwarf-sized halos than in the more massive halos that host galaxies and clusters, even if the corresponding cross sections are the same. Furthermore, the preferred parameter space for solving the small-scale problem suggests a thermal dark matter candidate with a mass below the GeV scale, which can be probed in dark matter direct and indirect detection experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Self-interacting Spin-2 Dark Matter

Recent developments in bigravity allow one to construct consistent theories of interacting spin-2 particles that are free of ghosts. In this framework, we propose an elementary spin-2 dark matter candidate with a mass well below the TeV scale. We show that, in a certain regime where the interactions induced by the spin-2 fields do not lead to large departures from the predictions of general relativity, such a light dark matter particle typically self-interacts and undergoes self-annihilations via 3-to-2 processes. We discuss its production mechanisms and also identify the regions of the parameter space where self-interactions can alleviate the discrepancies at small scales between the predictions of the collisionless dark matter paradigm and cosmological N-body simulations.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

General calculation of the cross section for dark matter annihilations into two photons

Assuming that the underlying model satisfies some general requirements such as renormalizability and CP conservation, we calculate the non-relativistic one-loop cross section for any self-conjugate dark matter particle annihilating into two photons. We accomplish this by carefully classifying all possible one-loop diagrams and, from them, reading off the dark matter interactions with the particles running in the loop. Our approach is general and leads to the same results found in the literature for popular dark matter candidates such as the neutralinos of the MSSM, minimal dark matter, inert Higgs and Kaluza-Klein dark matter.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Prospects for discovering a neutrino line induced by dark matter annihilation

In the near future, neutrino telescopes are expected to improve their sensitivity to the flux of monochromatic neutrinos produced by dark matter (DM) in our galaxy. This is illustrated by a new limit on the corresponding cross section that we derive from public IceCube data. In this context, we study which DM models could produce an observable flux of monochromatic neutrinos from DM annihilations. To this end, we proceed in two steps. First, within a set of simple and minimal assumptions concerning the properties of the DM particle, we determine the models that could give rise to a significant annihilation into monochromatic neutrinos at the freeze-out epoch. The list of models turns out to be very limited as a result of various constraints, in particular direct detection and neutrino masses at loop level. Given the fact that, even if largely improved, the sensitivities will be far from reaching the thermal annihilation cross section soon, a signal could only be observed if the annihilation into neutrinos today is boosted with respect to the freeze-out epoch. This is why, in a second step, we analyze the possibility of having such a large enhancement from the Sommerfeld effect. For each scenario, we also compute the cross sections into other annihilation products and confront our results with experimental constraints. We find that, within our simple and minimal assumptions, the expectation to observe monochromatic neutrinos is only possible in very specific scenarios. Some will be confirmed or excluded in the near future because they predict signals slightly below the current experimental sensitivities. We also discuss how these prospects change by relaxing our assumptions as well as by considering other types of sharp spectral features. For the latter, we consider boxed-shaped and bremsstrahlung spectra and provide the corresponding limits from IceCube data.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Self-interacting dark matter as a solution to the problems in small-scale structures

Dark matter self-interactions are a well-motivated solution to the core-vs.-cusp and the too-big-to-fail problems. They are commonly induced by means of a light mediator, that is also responsible for the dark matter freeze-out in the early universe. Motivated by the fact that such scenario is excluded in its simplest realizations, we will discuss the possibility that the relic density of a self-interacting dark matter candidate can proceed from the freeze-out of only annihilations into SM particles. We will argue that scalar and Majorana dark matter in the mass range of 10 to 500 MeV, coupled to a slightly heavier massive gauge boson, are the only candidates in agreement with multiple current experimental constraints. We will also discuss prospects of establishing or excluding these two scenarios in future experiments.

hep-ph↗