To improve the accuracy of the prediction for the dark matter abundance in the Universe within the “freeze-out” scenario, the annihilation cross section has to be computed beyond the leading order in perturbation theory. In the first part of this thesis we address this problem establishing a consistent framework for relic density at next-to-leading order, based on the closed time-path approach to quantum field theory at finite temperature. In the second part, we study the Sommerfeld enhancement in the general Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, and in particular we present a detailed phenomenological analysis on the relic density of TeV-scale wino-like neutralino dark matter.
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To improve the accuracy of the prediction for the dark matter abundance in the Universe within the “freeze-out” scenario, the annihilation cross section has to be computed beyond the leading order in perturbation theory. In the first part of this thesis we address this problem establishing a consistent framework for relic density at next-to-leading order, based on the closed time-path approach to quantum field theory at finite temperature. In the second part, we study the Sommerfeld enhancement...
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