UC Santa Cruz

Biswas et al. found that the thermal relic density of a dark matter particle freezing out while the universe's energy density is dominated by a non-standard extra component $\phi$, whose energy density redshifts faster than radiation, can be greatly suppressed. Here we show that this result, which contradicts extensive previous literature, is incorrect: the mistake lies with the assumption that the (decoupled) extra component $\phi$ contributes to the entropic degrees of freedom relevant for dark matter freeze out. If this were the case, a completely different approach would be needed to calculate the dark matter relic abundance, with dramatically different results.