Cosmological dynamics of dark matter Bose-Einstein condensation

Abstract

Once the critical temperature of a cosmological boson gas is less than the critical temperature, a Bose-Einstein condensation process can always take place during the cosmic history of the Universe. In the Bose-Einstein condensation model, dark matter can be described as a nonrelativistic, Newtonian gravitational condensate, whose density and pressure are related by a barotropic equation of state, with a barotropic index equal to one. In the present work, we study the Bose-Einstein condensation process in a cosmological context by assuming that this process can be described (at least approximately) as a first-order phase transition. We analyze the evolution of the physical quantities relevant for the physical description of the early universe, namely, the energy density, temperature, and scale factor, before, during, and after the Bose-Einstein condensation (phase transition). We also consider in detail the epoch when the Universe evolved through a mixed condensate-normal dark matter phase-with a monotonically growing Bose-Einstein dark matter component. An important parameter characterizing the Bose-Einstein condensation is the condensate dark matter fraction, whose time evolution describes the time dynamics of the conversion process. The behavior of this parameter during the cosmological condensation process is also analyzed in detail. To study the cosmological dynamics and evolution we use both analytical and numerical methods. The presence of the condensate dark matter and of the Bose-Einstein phase transition could have modified drastically the cosmological evolution of the early universe, as well as the large scale structure formation process. © 2011 American Physical Society.