Superdense cosmological dark matter clumps

The formation and evolution of superdense clumps (or subhalos) is studied. Such clumps of dark matter (DM) can be produced by many mechanisms, most notably by spiky features in the spectrum of inflationary perturbations and by cosmological phase transitions. Being produced very early during the radiation-dominated epoch, superdense clumps evolve as isolated objects. They do not belong to hierarchical structures for a long time after production, and therefore they are not destroyed by tidal interactions during the formation of larger structures. For DM particles with masses close to the electroweak mass scale, superdense clumps evolve towards a power-law density profile rho(r)(alpha) r(-1.8) with a central core. Superdense clumps cannot be composed of standard neutralinos, since their annihilations would overproduce the diffuse gamma radiation. If the clumps are constituted of superheavy DM particles and develop a sufficiently large central density, the evolution of their central part can lead to a gravithermal catastrophe.'' In such a case, the initial density profile turns into an isothermal profile with rho(alpha) r(-2) and a new, much smaller core in the center. Superdense clumps can be observed by gamma radiation from DM annihilations and by gravitational wave detectors, while the production of primordial black holes and cascade nucleosynthesis constrain this scenario.