Regurgitated dark matter

We present a new paradigm for the production of the dark matter (DM) relic abundance based on the evaporation of early Universe primordial black holes (PBHs) themselves formed from DM particles. As a concrete realization, we consider a minimal model of the dark sector in which a first-order phase transition results in the formation of Fermiball remnants that collapse to PBHs, which then emit DM particles. We show that the regurgitated DM scenario allows for DM in the mass range <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mrow><a:mo>∼</a:mo><a:mn>1</a:mn><a:mi>–</a:mi><a:msup><a:mrow><a:mn>10</a:mn></a:mrow><a:mrow><a:mn>16</a:mn></a:mrow></a:msup><a:mtext> </a:mtext><a:mtext> </a:mtext><a:mi>GeV</a:mi></a:mrow></a:math>, thereby unlocking parameter space considered excluded. Published by the American Physical Society 2024