Interplay between Electroweak Symmetry Breaking and Dark Matter Relic Density

Models of Dark Matter must contend with the fact that the presence of electroweak symmetry breaking along the thermal evolution of the Universe modifies the masses, interactions and, thus, the thermally averaged cross sections. We study in detail the impact of taking (not taking) the presence of the electroweak symmetry breaking into account in the calculations of the Dark Matter relic density, providing a model-independent measure of such differences. By focusing on a particular model, we show that ignoring this effect can lead to the inclusion (exclusion) of wrong (viable) regions of parameter space.