Bouncing Dark Matter

We present a novel mechanism for thermal dark matter production, characterized by a "bounce": the dark matter equilibrium distribution transitions from the canonical exponentially falling abundance to an exponentially rising one, resulting in an enhancement of the freeze-out abundance by many orders of magnitude. We discuss several realizations of bouncing dark matter. The bounce allows the present-day dark matter annihilation cross section to be significantly larger than the canonical thermal target, improving the prospects for indirect detection signals.