Probing light inelastic dark matter from direct detection

The coannihilation mechanism is a well-motivated alternative to the simple thermal freeze-out mechanism, where the dark matter relic density can be obtained through the coannihilation with a partner particle of similar mass with dark matter. When the partner particle is neutral, the inelastic nature of dark matter can help it to escape the direct detection limits. In this work, we focus on the coannihilation scenario in which the annihilation cross section is dominated by the partner-partner pair annihilation. We pay special interest on the parameter space where the coannihilation partner is long-lived, which leads to displaced signatures at the collider. In such case, it opens the heavy mass parameter space for the coannihilation dark matter, comparing with those dominated by the partner-dark matter annihilation. Specifically, we study an inelastic scalar dark matter model with a specific parameter space, which realizes the domination of partner-partner pair annihilation. Then, we study two different realizations of the coannihilation partner decay and the existing constraints from the relic abundance, direct and indirect dark matter detection and the collider searches. We focus on the channel that the long-lived coannihilation partner decays to dark matter plus leptons. The high-luminosity LHC can reach good sensitivities for such heavy dark matter and coannihilation partner around 100–700 GeV.

Direct detection experiments for dark matter are increasingly ruling out large parameter spaces. However, light dark matter models with particle masses < GeV are still largely unconstrained. Here we examine a proposal to use atom interferometers to detect a light dark matter subcomponent at sub-GeV masses. We describe the decoherence and phase shifts caused by dark matter scattering off of one “arm” of an atom interferometer using a generalized dark matter direct detection framework. This allows us to consider multiple channels: nuclear recoils, hidden photon processes, and axion interactions. We apply this framework to several proposed atom interferometer experiments. Because atom interferometers are sensitive to extremely low momentum deposition and their coherent atoms give them a boost in sensitivity, these experiments will be highly competitive and complementary to other direct detection methods. In particular, atom interferometers are uniquely able to probe a dark matter subcomponent with m<sub>χ</sub> ≲ 10 keV. We find that, for a mediator mass m<sub>φ</sub> = 10<sup>-10</sup>m<sub>χ</sub>, future atom interferometers could close a gap in the existing constraints on nuclear recoils down to σ¯<sub>n</sub> ~ 10<sup>-50</sup> cm<sup>2</sup> for m<sub>χ</sub> ~ 10<sup>-5</sup>–10<sup>-1</sup> MeV dark matter masses.

The mass of the dark matter particle is unknown, and may be as low as ~$10^{-22}$ eV. The lighter part of this range, below ~eV, is relatively unexplored both theoretically and experimentally but contains an array of natural dark matter candidates. An example is the relaxion, a light boson predicted by cosmological solutions to the hierarchy problem. One of the few generic signals such light dark matter can produce is a time-oscillating, EP-violating force. We propose searches for this using accelerometers, and consider in detail the examples of torsion balances, atom interferometry, and pulsar timing. These approaches have the potential to probe large parts of unexplored parameter space in the next several years. Thus such accelerometers provide radically new avenues for the direct detection of dark matter.

Light dark matter (DM) with a large DM-nucleon spin-independent scattering cross section and moreover proper isospin violation (ISV) fn/fp ≈ −0.7 may provide a way to understand the confusing DM direct detection results. Further using the stringent astrophysical and collider constraints, we systematically investigate the origin of ISV first via general operator analyses and further via specifying three types of mediators: a light Z′ from chiral U(1)X, an approximate spectator Higgs doublet (It can explain the W+jj anomaly simultaneously) and color triplets. In addition, although Z′ from an exotic U(1)X mixing with U(1)Y generates only fn = 0, we can combine it with the conventional Higgs to achieve the proper ISV. As a concrete example, we propose the U(1)X model where the U(1)X charged light sneutrino is an inelastic DM, which dominantly annihilates to light dark states such as Z′ with sub-GeV mass. The model can consistently (with other DM direct detection results) and safely interpret the recent GoGeNT annual modulation result.

Detections of non-gravitational interactions of massive dark matter (DM) with visible sector so far have given null results. The DM may communicate with the ordinary matter only through gravitational interaction. Besides, the majority of traditional direct detections have poor sensitivities for light DM because of the small recoil energy. Thanks to the high energy cosmic rays (CRs), the light DM can be boosted by scattering with CRs and thus may be detected in the ongoing experiments. In this work, we derive the exclusion limits on the cosmic ray boosted sub-GeV DM with gravitational mediator from the Xenon1T data. It turns out that a sizable region of such a cosmic ray boosted DM can be excluded by the current data.

The Fermi Large Area Telescope observed an excess in gamma-ray emission spectrum coming from the center of the Milky Way galaxy. This data reveals that a light dark matter (DM) candidate of mass in the range 31–40 GeV, dominantly decaying into bb̄ final state, can explain the presence of the observed bump in photon energy. We try to interpret this observed phenomena by sneutrino DM annihilation into pair of fermions in the Supersymmetric Inverse Seesaw Model (SISM). This model can also account for tiny non-zero neutrino masses satisfying existing neutrino oscillation data. We show that a Higgs portal DM in this model is in perfect agreement with this new interpretation besides satisfying all other existing collider, cosmological and low energy experimental constraints.

Light dark matter is a compelling experimental target in light of stringent constraints on heavier WIMPs. However, for a sub-MeV WIMP, the universe is sufficiently well understood at temperatures below 10 MeV that there is no room for it to be a thermal relic. Avoiding thermalization is itself a strong constraint with significant implications for direct detection. In this paper, we explore the space of models of sub-MeV dark matter with viable cosmologies. We discuss several representative models chosen to have large cross-sections in direct detection experiments. The parameter space of these models that is also consistent with astrophysical and lab-based limits is highly restricted for couplings to electrons but somewhat less constrained for nuclei. We find that achieving nuclear cross-sections well-above the neutrino floor necessarily predicts a new contribution to the effective number of neutrino species, ΔNeff = 0.09 that will be tested by the next generation of CMB observations. On the other hand, models with absorption signatures of dark matter are less restricted by cosmology even with future observations.

We consider an inelastic dark matter model, where a fermion is charged under a broken U(1) gauge symmetry, and introduce a tiny Majorana mass term to split the fermion into two states with the light one being a dark matter candidate. If the gauge boson is light, it can mediate both elastic and inelastic dark matter self-interactions in dark halos, leading to observational consequences. Using a numerical technique based on partial wave analysis, we accurately calculate the elastic and inelastic self-scattering cross sections. We assume a thermal freeze-out scenario and fix the gauge coupling constant using the relic density constraint. Then, we focus on six benchmark masses of dark matter, covering a wide range from $10~{\rm MeV}$ to $160~{\rm GeV}$ and map parameter regions where the elastic scattering cross section per unit mass is within $1~{\rm cm^2/g} - 5~{\rm cm^2/g}$, favored to solve small-scale issues of cold dark matter. If the heavy state can decay to the light state and a massless species, the inelastic up-scattering process can cool the halo and lead to core collapse. Taking galaxies with evidence of dark matter density cores, we further derive constraints on the parameter space. For dark matter masses below $10~{\rm GeV}$, the mass splitting must be large enough to forbid up scattering in the dwarf halo for evading the core-collapse constraint; while for higher masses, the up-scattering process can still be allowed. Our results show astrophysical observations can provide powerful tests for dark matter models with large elastic and inelastic self-interactions.

We systematically study light (< few GeV) Dark Matter (DM) models that thermalize with visible matter through the Higgs portal and identify the remaining gaps in the viable parameter space. Such models require a comparably light scalar mediator that mixes with the Higgs to avoid DM overproduction and can be classified according to whether this mediator decays (in)visibly. In a representative benchmark model with Dirac fermion DM, we find that, even with conservative assumptions about the DM-mediator coupling and mass ratio, the regime in which the mediator is heavier than the DM is fully ruled out by a combination of collider, rare meson decay, and direct detection limits; future and planned experiments including NA62 can further improve sensitivity to scenarios in which the Higgs portal interaction does not determine the DM abundance. The opposite, regime in which the mediator is lighter than the DM and the latter annihilates to pairs of visibly-decaying mediators is still viable, but much of the parameter space is covered by rare meson decay, supernova cooling, beam dump, and direct detection constraints. Nearly all of these conclusions apply broadly to the simplest variations (e.g. scalar or asymmetric DM). Future experiments including SHiP, NEWS, and Super-CDMS SNOLAB can greatly improve coverage to this class of models.

The sensitivity of the direct detection of dark matter (DM) approaches the so-called neutrino floor, below which it is difficult to disentangle the DM candidate from the neutrino background. In this work, we consider the scenario that no DM signals are reported in various DM direct detection experiments and explore whether collider searches could probe DM below the neutrino floor. We adopt several simplified models in which the DM candidate couples to electroweak gauge bosons or leptons in the standard model only through high-dimensional operators. After including the RGE running effect, we investigate the constraints of direct detection, indirect detection, and collider searches. The collider search can probe light DM below the neutrino floor. Particularly, for the effective interaction of , current data from the mono-photon channel at the 13 TeV LHC has already covered the entire parameter space of the neutrino floor.

Dark matter direct detection searches for signals coming from dark matter scattering against nuclei at a very low recoil energy scale ∼ 10 keV. In this paper, a simple non-relativistic effective theory is constructed to describe interactions between dark matter and nuclei without referring to any underlying high energy models. It contains the minimal set of operators that will be tested by direct detection. The effective theory approach highlights the set of distinguishable recoil spectra that could arise from different theoretical models. If dark matter is discovered in the near future in direct detection experiments, a measurement of the shape of the recoil spectrum will provide valuable information on the underlying dynamics. We bound the coefficients of the operators in our non-relativistic effective theory by the null results of current dark matter direct detection experiments. We also discuss the mapping between the non-relativistic effective theory and field theory models or operators, including aspects of the matching of quark and gluon operators to nuclear form factors.

Direct detection experiments for light dark matter are making enormous leaps in reaching previously unexplored model space. Several recent proposals rely on collective excitations, where the experimental sensitivity is highly dependent on detailed properties of the target material, well beyond just nucleus mass numbers as in conventional searches. It is thus important to optimize the target choice when considering which experiment to build. We carry out a comparative study of target materials across several detection channels, focusing on electron transitions and single (acoustic or optical) phonon excitations in crystals, as well as the traditional nuclear recoils. We compare materials currently in use in nuclear recoil experiments (Si, Ge, NaI, CsI, CaWO$_4$), a few which have been proposed for light dark matter experiments (GaAs, Al$_2$O$_3$, diamond), as well as 16 other promising polar crystals across all detection channels. We find that target- and dark matter model-dependent reach is largely determined by a small number of material parameters: speed of sound, electronic band gap, mass number, Born effective charge, high frequency dielectric constant, and optical phonon energies. We showcase, for each of the two benchmark models, an exemplary material which has a better reach than in any currently proposed experiment.

We study via the renormalization group equations at one-loop order the perturbativity and vacuum stability of a two-singlet model of cold dark matter (DM) that consists in extending the Standard Model with two real gauge-singlet scalar fields. We then investigate the regions in the parameter space in which the model is viable. For this, we require the model to reproduce the observed DM relic density abundance, to comply with the measured XENON 100 direct-detection upper bounds, and to be consistent with the RGE perturbativity and vacuum-stability criteria up to $40\mathrm{TeV}$. For small mixing angle $\theta $ between the physical Higgs $h$ and auxiliary field, and DM-$h$ mutual coupling constant $\lambda_{0}^{(4)}$, we find that the auxiliary-field mass is confined to the interval $116\mathrm{GeV}-138\mathrm{GeV}$ while the DM mass is mainly confined to the region above $57\mathrm{GeV}$. Increasing $\theta $ enriches the existing viability regions without relocating them, while increasing $\lambda_{0}^{(4)}$ shrinks them with a tiny relocation. We show that the model is consistent with the recent Higgs boson-like discovery by the ATLAS and CMS experiments, while very light dark matter (masses below $5\mathrm{GeV}$) is ruled out by the same experiments.

In this review, I describe a class of dark matter (DM) models where DM is either stable due to unbroken dark gauge symmetries, or long-lived due to accidental global symmetries resulting from the underlying dark gauge symmetries. Within these models, I discuss various topics on DM in the context of particle and astroparticle physics and cosmology: DM thermal relic density and (in)direct detection, Higgs inflation assisted with Higgs portal interaction, dark radiation (DR), DM-DR interaction and suppression of the matter power spectrum at large k, strong first order phase transition and gravitational wave production, etc.. Especially I emphasize the importance of dark gauge symmetries, unitarity and renormalizability, and the limitation of the DM effective field theory (EFT) or simplified models for DM searches at high energy colliders, including the role of dark Higgs boson and dark gauge bosons.

Light dark matter annihilating into electron-positron pairs emits a significant amount of internal bremsstrahlung that may contribute to the cosmic gamma-ray background. The amount of emitted gamma-rays depends on the dark matter clumping factor. Recent calculations indicate that this value should be of order $10^6-10^7$. That allows us to calculate the expected gamma-ray background contribution from dark matter annihilation. We find that the light dark matter model can be ruled out if a constant thermally-averaged cross section is assumed (s-wave annihilation). For more massive dark matter candidates like neutralinos, however, cosmic constraints are weaker.