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Freeze-in and freeze-out production of Higgs portal Majorana fermionic dark matter during and after reheating

Rajesh Mondal1,*, Sourav Mondal1,†, and Toshifumi Yamada2,‡

  • *Contact author: mrajesh@iitg.ac.in
  • †Contact author: sm206121110@iitg.ac.in
  • ‡Contact author: toshifum@mi.meijigakuin.ac.jp
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 023529 – Published 20 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/yy2d-whj7

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the production of Majorana fermionic dark matter (DM) via the Higgs portal, considering both freeze-in and freeze-out mechanisms during and after the postinflationary reheating phase. We assume that the Universe is reheated through the decay of the inflaton (ϕ) into a pair of fermions f and f¯ via the interaction yϕf¯f, where y is the dimensionless Yukawa coupling. Our analysis focuses on how the nonstandard evolution of the Hubble expansion rate and the thermal bath temperature during reheating influence DM production. Additionally, we examine the impact of electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB), distinguishing between scenarios where DM freeze-in or freeze-out occurs before or after EWSB. We further explore the viable DM parameter space and its compatibility with current and future detection experiments, including XENONnT, LUX-ZEPLIN, XLZD, and collider searches. Moreover, we incorporate constraints from the Lyman-α bound to ensure consistency with small-scale structure formation.

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Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 113, 023529– Published 20 January, 2026
  • Received 19 April 2025
  • Revised 4 November 2025
  • Accepted 2 January 2026
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