- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review D

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Massive graviton dark matter from a gapped continuum

Eugenio Megías1,*, Miguel Prieto2,†, and Mariano Quirós3,‡

  • *Contact author: emegias@ugr.es
  • †Contact author: miguel.prfdez@gmail.com
  • ‡Contact author: quiros@ifae.es
PDF

Phys. Rev. D 114, 075024 – Published 19 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/zqp4-99vz

Abstract

We consider the possibility of dark matter in a warped extra-dimensional theory in the presence of a linear dilaton background, with a gapped continuum spectrum, in a brane-world cosmological scenario. Firstly, triggered by self-energy radiative corrections, we study the existence of an isolated resonance of massive gravitons, and its realization as a long-lived feebly interacting dark matter candidate, produced by the freeze-in mechanism. This massive graviton is proved to satisfy all theoretical and experimental constraints, in the sub-MeV mass range. We further consider the close relationship between the existence of this component of dark matter and the presence of an inflaton localized on the brane, with a mass around 1011  GeV and a sub-TeV reheating temperature, in a brane inflationary scenario that allows one to reproduce the most recent cosmological observables. Secondly, the gapped continuum of gravitons, a particular five-dimensional realization of the physics of unparticles, is identified as a holographic fluid which can play the role of holographic dark matter. The production of the holographic fluid goes by an ultraviolet freeze-in mechanism, with an abundance mainly depending on the reheating temperature. Depending on the values of the mass gap and the reheating temperature, one or both components of dark matter can be present.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (66)

  1. L. Randall and R. Sundrum, A large mass hierarchy from a small extra dimension, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 3370 (1999).
  2. L. Randall and R. Sundrum, An alternative to compactification, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 4690 (1999).
  3. H. Georgi, Unparticle physics, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 221601 (2007).
  4. T. Shiromizu, K.-i. Maeda, and M. Sasaki, The Einstein equation on the 3-brane world, Phys. Rev. D 62, 024012 (2000).
  5. P. Binetruy, C. Deffayet, U. Ellwanger, and D. Langlois, Brane cosmological evolution in a bulk with cosmological constant, Phys. Lett. B 477, 285 (2000).
  6. A. Hebecker and J. March-Russell, Randall-Sundrum II cosmology, AdS/CFT, and the bulk black hole, Nucl. Phys. B608, 375 (2001).
  7. D. Langlois, L. Sorbo, and M. Rodriguez-Martinez, Cosmology of a brane radiating gravitons into the extra dimension, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 171301 (2002).
  8. D. Langlois and L. Sorbo, Bulk gravitons from a cosmological brane, Phys. Rev. D 68, 084006 (2003).
  9. I. Antoniadis, A. Arvanitaki, S. Dimopoulos, and A. Giveon, Phenomenology of TeV little string theory from holography, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 081602 (2012).
  10. P. Cox and T. Gherghetta, Radion dynamics and phenomenology in the linear dilaton model, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2012) 149.
  11. O. Aharony, A brief review of “little string theories”, Classical Quantum Gravity 17, 929 (2000).
  12. I. Antoniadis, S. Dimopoulos, and A. Giveon, Little string theory at a TeV, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2001) 055.
  13. J. A. Cabrer, G. von Gersdorff, and M. Quirós, Soft-wall stabilization, New J. Phys. 12, 075012 (2010).
  14. S. Fichet, E. Megías, and M. Quirós, Cosmological dark matter from a bulk black hole, Phys. Rev. D 107, 115014 (2023).
  15. S. Fichet, E. Megías, and M. Quirós, Holographic fluids from 5D dilaton gravity, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2024) 077.
  16. S. Fichet, E. Megías, and M. Quirós, Holography of linear dilaton spacetimes from the bottom up, Phys. Rev. D 109, 106011 (2024).
  17. S. Fichet, E. Megías, and M. Quirós, Holographic dark matter, arXiv:2602.13393.
  18. A. Delgado, J. R. Espinosa, J. M. No, and M. Quirós, A note on unparticle decays, Phys. Rev. D 79, 055011 (2009).
  19. E. Megías, M. Pérez-Victoria, and M. Quirós, Undecay, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2024) 158.
  20. S. Fichet, E. Megías, and M. Quirós, Continuum effective field theories, gravity, and holography, Phys. Rev. D 107, 096016 (2023).
  21. E. Megías and M. Quirós, The continuum linear dilaton, Acta Phys. Pol. B 52, 711 (2021).
  22. R. K. Mishra, M. Nee, and L. Randall, Inflation with a growing fifth dimension, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2026) 169.
  23. H. Cai, G. Cacciapaglia, and S. J. Lee, Massive gravitons as feebly interacting dark matter candidates, Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 081806 (2022); 132, 169901(E) (2024).
  24. M. Quirós, Finite temperature field theory and phase transitions, in ICTP Summer School in High-Energy Physics and Cosmology (ICTP, Trieste, 1999), pp. 187–259, arXiv:hep-ph/9901312.
  25. R. Essig, E. Kuflik, S. D. McDermott, T. Volansky, and K. M. Zurek, Constraining light dark matter with diffuse x-ray and gamma-ray observations, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2013) 193.
  26. V. Poulin, J. Lesgourgues, and P. D. Serpico, Cosmological constraints on exotic injection of electromagnetic energy, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 03 (2017) 043.
  27. T. R. Slatyer and C.-L. Wu, General constraints on dark matter decay from the cosmic microwave background, Phys. Rev. D 95, 023010 (2017).
  28. G. Facchinetti, L. Lopez-Honorez, Y. Qin, and A. Mesinger, 21 cm signal sensitivity to dark matter decay, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 01 (2024) 005.
  29. Y. Sun, J. W. Foster, H. Liu, J. B. Muñoz, and T. R. Slatyer, Inhomogeneous energy injection in the 21-cm power spectrum: Sensitivity to dark matter decay, Phys. Rev. D 111, 043015 (2025).
  30. M. Viel, G. D. Becker, J. S. Bolton, and M. G. Haehnelt, Warm dark matter as a solution to the small scale crisis: New constraints from high redshift Lyman-α forest data, Phys. Rev. D 88, 043502 (2013).
  31. M. Viel, G. D. Becker, J. S. Bolton, M. G. Haehnelt, M. Rauch, and W. L. W. Sargent, How cold is cold dark matter? Small scales constraints from the flux power spectrum of the high-redshift Lyman-alpha forest, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 041304 (2008).
  32. F. D’Eramo, A. Lenoci, and A. Dekker, Dark matter freeze-in and small-scale observables: Novel mass bounds and viable particle candidates, Phys. Rev. D 112, 116008 (2025).
  33. E. O. Nadler et al. (DES Collaboration), Milky Way satellite census. III. Constraints on dark matter properties from observations of Milky Way satellite galaxies, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 091101 (2021).
  34. D. Attie et al., INTEGRAL/SPI ground calibration, Astron. Astrophys. 411, L71 (2003).
  35. J. Knodlseder et al., Early SPI/INTEGRAL contraints on the morphology of the 511 keV line emission in the 4th galactic quadrant, Astron. Astrophys. 411, L457 (2003).
  36. G. Weidenspointner et al., The sky distribution of positronium annihilation continuum emission measured with SPI/INTEGRAL, Astron. Astrophys. 450, 1012 (2006).
  37. J. A. Tomsick et al., The Compton spectrometer and imager, Proc. Sci. ICRC2023 (2023) 745.
  38. H. Fleischhack (AMEGO-X Team), Surveying the MeV gamma-ray sky with AMEGO-X, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 2429, 012023 (2023).
  39. F. Elahi, C. Kolda, and J. Unwin, UltraViolet freeze-in, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2015) 048.
  40. N. Bernal, F. Elahi, C. Maldonado, and J. Unwin, Ultraviolet freeze-in and nonstandard cosmologies, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 11 (2019) 026.
  41. S. Davidson and A. Ibarra, A lower bound on the right-handed neutrino mass from leptogenesis, Phys. Lett. B 535, 25 (2002).
  42. W. Buchmuller, P. Di Bari, and M. Plumacher, Leptogenesis for pedestrians, Ann. Phys. (Amsterdam) 315, 305 (2005).
  43. V. A. Kuzmin, V. A. Rubakov, and M. E. Shaposhnikov, On the anomalous electroweak baryon number nonconservation in the early universe, Phys. Lett. 155B, 36 (1985).
  44. S. Y. Khlebnikov and M. E. Shaposhnikov, The statistical theory of anomalous fermion number nonconservation, Nucl. Phys. B308, 885 (1988).
  45. M. D’Onofrio, K. Rummukainen, and A. Tranberg, Sphaleron rate in the minimal standard model, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 141602 (2014).
  46. E. K. Akhmedov, V. A. Rubakov, and A. Y. Smirnov, Baryogenesis via neutrino oscillations, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1359 (1998).
  47. A. Pilaftsis and T. E. J. Underwood, Resonant leptogenesis, Nucl. Phys. B692, 303 (2004).
  48. S. Hannestad, G. Raffelt, and Y. Y. Y. Wong, Unparticle constraints from SN 1987A, Phys. Rev. D 76, 121701 (2007).
  49. R. Maartens, D. Wands, B. A. Bassett, and I. Heard, Chaotic inflation on the brane, Phys. Rev. D 62, 041301 (2000).
  50. N. Jaman and K. Myrzakulov, Braneworld inflation with an effective α-attractor potential, Phys. Rev. D 99, 103523 (2019).
  51. T. Louis et al. (Atacama Cosmology Telescope Collaboration), The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: DR6 power spectra, likelihoods and ΛCDM parameters, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 11 (2025) 062.
  52. M. Abdul Karim et al. (DESI Collaboration), DESI DR2 results. II. Measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations and cosmological constraints, Phys. Rev. D 112, 083515 (2025).
  53. A. Galiautdinov, Logarithmically enhanced hyperbolic square-root deformation of Starobinsky inflation, arXiv:2603.14743.
  54. R. Kallosh and A. Linde, Superconformal generalizations of the Starobinsky model, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 06 (2013) 028.
  55. R. Kallosh and A. Linde, Universality class in conformal inflation, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 07 (2013) 002.
  56. R. Kallosh, A. Linde, and D. Roest, Superconformal inflationary α-attractors, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2013) 198.
  57. J. Garcia-Bellido, R. Rabadan, and F. Zamora, Inflationary scenarios from branes at angles, J. High Energy Phys. 01 (2002) 036.
  58. S. Kachru, R. Kallosh, A. D. Linde, J. M. Maldacena, L. P. McAllister, and S. P. Trivedi, Towards inflation in string theory, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 10 (2003) 013.
  59. D. H. Lyth, What would we learn by detecting a gravitational wave signal in the cosmic microwave background anisotropy?, Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 1861 (1997).
  60. A. R. Liddle and S. M. Leach, How long before the end of inflation were observable perturbations produced?, Phys. Rev. D 68, 103503 (2003).
  61. S. Navas et al. (Particle Data Group), Review of particle physics, Phys. Rev. D 110, 030001 (2024).
  62. J. Martin and C. Ringeval, First CMB constraints on the inflationary reheating temperature, Phys. Rev. D 82, 023511 (2010).
  63. Y. Akrami et al. (Planck Collaboration), Planck 2018 results. X. Constraints on inflation, Astron. Astrophys. 641, A10 (2020).
  64. E. Camphuis et al. (SPT-3G Collaboration), SPT-3G D1: CMB temperature and polarization power spectra and cosmology from 2019 and 2020 observations of the SPT-3G main field, Phys. Rev. D 113, 083504 (2026).
  65. A. Robertson, R. Massey, and V. Eke, What does the bullet cluster tell us about self-interacting dark matter?, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 465, 569 (2017).
  66. S. Y. Choi, J. S. Shim, and H. S. Song, Factorization and polarization in linearized gravity, Phys. Rev. D 51, 2751 (1995).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 114, 075024– Published 19 October, 2026
  • Received 3 August 2026
  • Accepted 30 September 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation