Interplay of super-WIMP and freeze-in production of dark matter

Understand

Non-thermalized dark matter is a cosmologically valid alternative to the paradigm of weakly interacting massive particles.

• For dark matter belonging to a $Z_2$-odd sector that contains in addition a thermalized mediator particle, dark matter production proceeds in general via both the freeze-in and superWIMP mechanism.
• We highlight their interplay and emphasize the connection to long-lived particles at colliders.
• For the explicit example of a colored t-channel mediator model we map out the entire accessible parameter space, cornered by bounds from the LHC, big bang nucleosynthesis and Lyman-alpha forest observations, respectively.