Boltzmann suppression ($e^{-m/T}$)

Boltzmann suppression is the exponential reduction of an equilibrium population when creating it costs energy much greater than the temperature. For a nonrelativistic species with negligible chemical potential, the leading factor is $e^{-m/T}$, multiplied by its momentum phase-space volume. It concerns the equilibrium abundance; freeze-out can preserve a larger population than the instantaneous equilibrium value at later times.

A nonrelativistic species with $g$ states and negligible chemical potential has equilibrium density $g(mT/(2\pi ){)}^{3/2}{e}^{-m/T}$. If particle-antiparticle annihilation maintains equilibrium after the species becomes massive, its eventual freeze-out population can be much smaller than a relativistically decoupled population. The nonrelativistic annihilation rate and any asymmetry determine the final abundance.