Flavored dark matter in direct detection experiments and at the LHC

Abstract

We consider the possibility that dark matter can communicate with the standard model fields via flavor interactions. We take the dark matter to belong to a ``dark sector'' which contains at least two types, or ``flavors,'' of particles and then hypothesize that the standard model fields and dark matter share a common interaction which depends on flavor. As, generically, interaction eigenstates and mass eigenstates need not coincide, we consider both flavor-changing and flavor-conserving interactions. These interactions are then constrained by meson decays, kaon mixing, and current collider bounds, and we examine their relevance for direct detection and the LHC.