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A<sc>bstract</sc> Cosmologically stable, light particles that came into thermal contact with the Standard Model in the early universe may persist today as a form of hot dark matter. For relics with masses in the eV range, their role in structure formation depends critically on their mass. We trace the evolution of such hot relics and derive their density profiles around cold dark matter halos, introducing a framework for theirindirect detection. Applying this framework to axions — a natural candidate for a particle that can reach thermal equilibrium with the Standard Model in the early universe and capable of decaying into two photons — we establish stringent limits on the axion-photon couplinggaγusing current observations of dwarf galaxies, the Milky Way halo, and galaxy clusters. Our results set new bounds on hot axions in the$$ \mathcal{O}\left(1-10\right) $$ eV range.more » « lessFree, publicly-accessible full text available May 1, 2026
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A bstract The detection of massless kinetically-mixed dark photons is notoriously difficult, as the effect of this mixing can be removed by a field redefinition in vacuum. In this work, we study the prospect of detecting massless dark photons in the presence of a cosmic relic directly charged under this dark electromagnetism. Such millicharged particles, in the form of dark matter or dark radiation, generate an effective dark photon mass that drives photon-to-dark photon oscillations in the early universe. We also study the prospect for such models to alleviate existing cosmological constraints on massive dark photons, enlarging the motivation for direct tests of this parameter space using precision terrestrial probes.more » « less
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