Nonthermal WIMPs as “dark radiation” in light of ATACAMA, SPT, WMAP9, and Planck

The Planck and WMAP9 satellites, as well as the ATACAMA and South Pole telescopes, have recently presented results on the angular power spectrum of the comic microwave background. Data tentatively point to the existence of an extra radiation component in the early Universe. Here, we show that this extra component can be mimicked by ordinary weakly interacting massive particle dark matter particles whose majority is cold, but with a small fraction being nonthermally produced in a relativistic state. We present a few example theories where this scenario is explicitly realized and explore the relevant parameter space consistent with big bang nucleosynthesis, cosmic microwave background, and structure formation bounds.