Quantum flavor vacuum in the expanding universe: A possible candidate for cosmological dark matter?

We analyze fermion mixing in the framework of field quantization in curved spacetime. We compute the expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor of mixed fermions on the flavor vacuum. We consider spatially flat Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker metrics, and we show that the energy-momentum tensor of the flavor vacuum is diagonal and conserved. Therefore, it can be interpreted as the effective energy-momentum tensor of a perfect fluid. In particular, assuming a fixed de Sitter background, the equation of state of the fluid is consistent with that of dust and cold dark matter. Our results establish a new link between quantum effects and classical fluids, and indicate that the flavor vacuum of mixed fermions may represent a new component of dark matter.