scholarly journals Light dark matter annihilation and scattering in LHC detectors

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Bauer ◽  
Patrick Foldenauer ◽  
Peter Reimitz ◽  
Tilman Plehn

We systematically study models with light scalar and pseudoscalar dark matter candidates and their potential signals at the LHC. First, we derive cosmological bounds on models with the Standard Model Higgs mediator and with a new weak-scale mediator. Next, we study two processes inspired by the indirect and direct detection process topologies, now happening inside the LHC detectors. We find that LHC can observe very light dark matter over a huge mass range if it is produced in mediator decays and then scatters with the detector material to generate jets in the nuclear recoil.

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (24) ◽  
pp. 1950130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anish Ghoshal

Scalar dark matter (DM) in a theory introduces hierarchy problems, and suffers from the inability to predict the preferred mass range for the DM. In a WIMP-like minimal scalar DM setup we show that the infinite derivative theory can predict the DM mass and its coupling. The scale of nonlocality [Formula: see text] in such a theory in its lowermost limit (constrained by LHC) implies a DM mass [Formula: see text] TeV and a coupling with the Standard Model (SM) Higgs [Formula: see text]. Planned DM direct detection experiments reaching such sensitivity in the DM will effectively translate into lower bounds on the scale at which the nonlocality comes into the play.


2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (07) ◽  
pp. 1530019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Garny ◽  
Alejandro Ibarra ◽  
Stefan Vogl

Three main strategies are being pursued to search for nongravitational dark matter signals: direct detection, indirect detection and collider searches. Interestingly, experiments have reached sensitivities in these three search strategies which may allow detection in the near future. In order to take full benefit of the wealth of experimental data, and in order to confirm a possible dark matter signal, it is necessary to specify the nature of the dark matter particle and of the mediator to the Standard Model. In this paper, we focus on a simplified model where the dark matter particle is a Majorana fermion that couples to a light Standard Model fermion via a Yukawa coupling with a scalar mediator. We review the observational signatures of this model and we discuss the complementarity among the various search strategies, with emphasis in the well motivated scenario where the dark matter particles are produced in the early universe via thermal freeze-out.


2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (02n03) ◽  
pp. 564-572
Author(s):  
MAXIM POSPELOV

I consider models of light super-weakly interacting cold dark matter, with [Formula: see text] mass, focusing on bosonic candidates such as pseudoscalars and vectors. I analyze the cosmological abundance, the γ-background created by particle decays, the impact on stellar processes due to cooling, and the direct detection capabilities in order to identify classes of models that pass all the constraints. In certain models, variants of photoelectric (or axioelectric) absorption of dark matter in direct-detection experiments can provide a sensitivity to the superweak couplings to the Standard Model which is superior to all existing indirect constraints. In all models studied, the annual modulation of the direct-detection signal is at the currently unobservable level of O(10-5).


Author(s):  
Junji Hisano

It is now certain that dark matter exists in the Universe. However, we do not know its nature, nor are there dark matter candidates in the standard model of particle physics or astronomy However, weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in models beyond the standard model are one of the leading candidates available to provide explanation. The dark matter direct detection experiments, in which the nuclei recoiled by WIMPs are sought, are one of the methods to elucidate the nature of dark matter. This chapter introduces an effective field theory (EFT) approach in order to evaluate the nucleon–WIMP elastic scattering cross section.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oleksii Matsedonskyi ◽  
James Unwin ◽  
Qingyun Wang

Abstract Restoration of the electroweak symmetry at temperatures around the Higgs mass is linked to tight phenomenological constraints on many baryogenesis scenarios. A potential remedy can be found in mechanisms of electroweak symmetry non-restoration (SNR), in which symmetry breaking is extended to higher temperatures due to new states with couplings to the Standard Model. Here we show that, in the presence of a second Higgs doublet, SNR can be realized with only a handful of new fermions which can be identified as viable dark matter candidates consistent with all current observational constraints. The competing requirements on this class of models allow for SNR at temperatures up to ∼TeV, and imply the presence of sub-TeV new physics with sizable interactions with the Standard Model. As a result this scenario is highly testable with signals in reach of next-generation collider and dark matter direct detection experiments.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cédric Delaunay ◽  
Teng Ma ◽  
Yotam Soreq

Abstract We consider models of decaying spin-1 dark matter whose dominant coupling to the standard model sector is through a dark-Higgs Yukawa portal connecting a TeV-scale vector-like lepton to the standard model (right-handed) electron. Below the electron-positron threshold, dark matter has very slow, loop-suppressed decays to photons and (electron) neutrinos, and is stable on cosmological time-scale for sufficiently small gauge coupling values. Its relic abundance is set by in-equilibrium dark lepton decays, through the freeze-in mechanism. We show that this model accommodates the observed dark matter abundance for natural values of its parameters and a dark matter mass in the ∼ 5 keV to 1 MeV range, while evading constraints from direct detection, indirect detection, stellar cooling and cosmology. We also consider the possibility of a nonzero gauge kinetic mixing with the standard model hypercharge field, which is found to yield a mild impact on the model’s phenomenology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 81 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérôme Claude ◽  
Stephen Godfrey

AbstractWe explore regions of parameter space that give rise to suppressed direct detection cross sections in a simple model of scalar dark matter with a scalar portal that mixes with the standard model Higgs. We found that even this simple model allows considerable room in the parameter space that has not been excluded by direct detection limits. A number of effects leading to this result have been previously noted. Our main new result explores interference effects between different contributions to DM annihilation when the DM mass is larger than the scalar portal mass. New annihilation channels open up and the parameters of the model need to compensate to give the correct DM relic abundance, resulting in smaller direct detection cross sections. We find that even in a very simple model of DM there are still sizeable regions of parameter space that are not ruled out by experiment.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaojun Bi

Abstract In order to reveal the nature of dark matter, it is crucial to detect its non-gravitational interactions with the standard model particles. The traditional dark matter searches focused on the so-called weakly interacting massive particles. However, this paradigm is strongly constrained by the null results of current experiments with high precision. Therefore there is a renewed interest of searches for heavy dark matter particles above TeV scale. The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) with large effective area and strong background rejection power is very suitable to investigate the gamma-ray signals induced by dark matter annihilation or decay above TeV scale. In this document, we review the theoretical motivations and background of heavy dark matter. We review the prospects of searching for the gamma-ray signals resulted from dark matter in the dwarf spheroidal satellites and Galactic halo for LHAASO, and present the projected sensitivities. We also review the prospects of searching for the axion-like particles, which are a kind of well motivated light pseudo-scalars, through the LHAASO measurement of the very high energy gamma-ray spectra of astrophysical sources.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Asimina Arvanitaki ◽  
Savas Dimopoulos ◽  
Marios Galanis ◽  
Davide Racco ◽  
Olivier Simon ◽  
...  

Abstract One contribution to any dark sector’s abundance comes from its gravitational production during inflation. If the dark sector is weakly coupled to the inflaton and the Standard Model, this can be its only production mechanism. For non-interacting dark sectors, such as a free massive fermion or a free massive vector field, this mechanism has been studied extensively. In this paper we show, via the example of dark massive QED, that the presence of interactions can result in a vastly different mass for the dark matter (DM) particle, which may well coincide with the range probed by upcoming experiments.In the context of dark QED we study the evolution of the energy density in the dark sector after inflation. Inflation produces a cold vector condensate consisting of an enormous number of bosons, which via interesting processes — Schwinger pair production, strong field electromagnetic cascades, and plasma dynamics — transfers its energy to a small number of “dark electrons” and triggers thermalization of the dark sector. The resulting dark electron DM mass range is from 50 MeV to 30 TeV, far different from both the 10−5 eV mass of the massive photon dark matter in the absence of dark electrons, and from the 109 GeV dark electron mass in the absence of dark photons. This can significantly impact the search strategies for dark QED and, more generally, theories with a self-interacting DM sector. In the presence of kinetic mixing, a dark electron in this mass range can be searched for with upcoming direct detection experiments, such as SENSEI-100g and OSCURA.


2018 ◽  
Vol 182 ◽  
pp. 02016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter M. Bonivento

The discovery of the Higgs boson has fully confirmed the Standard Model of particles and fields. Nevertheless, there are still fundamental phenomena, like the existence of dark matter and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe, deserving an explanation that could come from the discovery of new particles. Searches for new physics with accelerators are performed at the LHC, looking for high massive particles coupled to matter with ordinary strength. A new experiment at CERN meant to search for very weakly coupled particles in the few GeV mass domain has been recently proposed. The existence of such particles, foreseen in different theoretical models beyond the Standard Model, is largely unexplored. A beam dump facility using high intensity 400 GeV protons is a copious source of such unknown particles in the GeV mass range. The beam dump is also a copious source of neutrinos and in particular it is an ideal source of tau neutrinos, the less known particle in the Standard Model. The neutrino detector can also search for dark matter through its scattering off the electrons. We report the physics potential of the SHiP experiment.


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