Fermion Dark Research Articles

Dark matter fermions: from linear to non-linear structure formation

The transition from linear to non-linear structure formation in cosmology is here studied from the point of view of the thermodynamics of self-gravitating fermions. We start by reviewing the principle of maximum entropy production through which such a fermionic system can relax towards spherical equilibrium states able to explain the dark matter (DM) in galaxies. We then analyze the stability, lifetime and morphology of the above configurations, and show that the most general DM profile develops a compact core governed by degeneracy pressure, which is surrounded by an extended halo. For DM particles which are in the range of $\mathcal{O}$(10--100) keV, we apply this theory to the case of the Milky Way, and show that the compact DM-core explains the dynamics of all the best resolved S-cluster stars orbiting SgrA *, without the need of assuming a central black hole (BH). Further consequences of this theory regarding open issues in cosmology are outlined, including the problem of formation of supermassive BHs in the early Universe.

Quantum gravitational decoherence in the three neutrino flavor scheme

In many theories of quantum gravity quantum fluctuations of spacetime may serve as an environment for decoherence. Here we study quantum-gravitational decoherence of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos in the presence of fermionic dark sectors and for a realistic three neutrino scenario. We show how violation of global symmetries expected to arise in quantum gravitational interactions provides a possibility to pin down the number of dark matter fermions in the Universe. Furthermore, we predict the expected total neutrino flux and flavor ratios at experiments depending on the flavor composition at the source.

Confronting dark fermion with a doubly charged Higgs in the left–right symmetric model

We consider a fermionic dark matter (DM) in the left–right symmetric framework by introducing a pair of vector-like (VL) doublets in the particle spectrum. The stability of the DM is ensured through an unbroken mathcal {Z}_2 symmetry. We explore the parameter space of the model compatible with the observed relic density and direct and indirect detection cross sections. The presence of charged dark fermions opens up an interesting possibility for the doubly charged Higgs signal at LHC and ILC. The signal for the doubly charged scalar decaying into the dark sector is analyzed in multilepton final states for a few representative parameter choices consistent with DM observations.

Quantum simulations of dark sector showers

We consider dark sector scenarios where dark matter is accompanied by a dark photon and multiple-flavor dark fermions charged under the dark gauge group. We study quantum interference effects in dark sector jets, where multiple dark photons are emitted from high-energy dark fermions. We perform fully quantum simulations of dark sector showers and compare the results against those of the classical Monte-Carlo simulations. We find important differences in probability distributions of dark photon countings between quantum and classical computations. When the number of dark-fermion flavors is large, we find significant enhancements in large numbers of dark photon emissions. Such enhancements can provide distinguishing signals for our scenarios at particle colliders.

Dirac dark matter, neutrino masses, and dark baryogenesis

We present a gauged baryon number model as an example of models where all new fermions required to cancel out the anomalies help to solve phenomenological problems of the standard model (SM). Dark fermion doublets, along with the iso-singlet charged fermions, in conjunction with a set of SM-singlet fermions, participate in the generation of small neutrino masses through the Dirac-dark Zee mechanism. The other SM-singlets explain the dark matter in the Universe, while their coupling to an inert singlet scalar is the source of the $CP$ violation. In the presence of a strong first-order electroweak phase transition, this "dark" $CP$ violation allows for a successful electroweak baryogenesis mechanism.

Phenomenology of a two-component dark matter model

We study a two-component dark matter model consisting of a Dirac fermion and a complex scalar charged under new U(1) gauge group in the hidden sector. The dark fermion plays the dominant component of dark matter which explains the measured DM relic density of the Universe. It has no direct coupling to ordinary standard model particles, thus evading strong constraints from the direct DM detection experiments. The dark fermion is self-interacting through the light dark gauge boson and it would be possible to address that this model can be a resolution to the small scale structure problem of the Universe. The light dark gauge boson, which interacts with the standard model sector, is also stable and composes the subdominant DM component. We investigate the model parameter space allowed by current experimental constraints and phenomenological bounds. We also discuss the sensitivity of future experiments such as SHiP, DUNE and ILC, for the obtained allowed parameter space.

A faster growth of perturbations in an early matter dominated epoch: primordial black holes and gravitational waves

ABSTRACT We present a scenario for fast growth of cosmological perturbations; δ(t) ∼ a(t)s, a(t) being the scale factor, with s > 10 for the numerical examples reported in this article. The basic ingredients of the scenario are an early matter dominated era and the dark fermion, which experiences a scalar mediated force during the epoch. Both of these arise in string/supergravity models. The fast growth occurs for sub-horizon density perturbations of the dark fermion. The fast growth has a rich set of phenomenological implications. We outline implications for the formation of primordial black holes and the production of gravitational waves. Primordial black holes in the sublunar mass range (which are ideal dark matter candidates) can be produced. Gravitational waves can be produced in a wide range of frequencies due to second-order scalar perturbations and due to evaporation and merger of primordial black holes.

Tasting flavoured Majorana dark matter

We study a simplified model of flavoured Majorana dark matter in the Dark Minimal Flavour Violation framework. The model extends the Standard Model by a dark matter flavour triplet and a scalar mediator, through which the new dark fermions couple to right-handed up-type quarks. This interaction is governed by a new coupling matrix λ which is assumed to constitute the only new source of flavour and CP violation. We analyse the parameter space of this model by using constraints from collider searches, D0− overline{D} 0 mixing, cosmology and direct dark matter searches. Throughout our study, we point out crucial differences between the Majorana and Dirac dark matter cases. After performing a combined analysis within the context of all the experimental constraints mentioned above, we analyse which flavour for the dark matter particle is preferred by experimental data. We further investigate if this model is capable of explaining the large measured value of the direct CP asymmetry Delta {A}_{mathrm{CP}}^{mathrm{dir}} in charm decays. We find that significant enhancements with respect to the Standard Model expectation are compatible with all constraints, and even the central value of the measurement can be reached. We also advertise the flavour-violating final state with two same-sign top quarks produced in association with missing transverse energy as a smoking-gun signature for flavoured Majorana dark matter at the LHC.

Simple model of dark matter and CP violation

We propose a simple model of dark matter and CP violation and consider the associated triple and quadruple productions of 125 GeV Higgs bosons at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In the model, the dark matter is a vector-like dark fermion $(\bar{\chi}, \chi)$ interacting with the Standard Model only through a complex messenger scalar $S$ which is an electroweak singlet. New sources of CP violation reside in the most general scalar potential involving the doublet $H$ and the singlet $S$, as well as in the dark Yukawa coupling between $S$ and $(\bar{\chi}, \chi)$. We study current experimental constraints from Higgs measurements, searches for new scalars at the LHC, precision electroweak measurements, EDM measurements, dark matter relic density, as well as direct and indirect detections of dark matter. A smoking-gun signature of CP violation could come from the Higgs-to-Higgs decays, $h_3\to h_2h_1$, where $h_3/h_2/h_1$ are the heaviest scalar, second heaviest scalar and the SM-like 125-GeV Higgs, respectively. Taking into account other Higgs-to-Higgs decays, such as $h_3\to 2h_2$ and $h_3/h_2\to 2h_1$, then gives rise to novel $3h_1$ and $4h_1$ final states, which have yet to be searched for experimentally. We present four benchmarks and show the event rates for $3h_1$ and $4h_1$ final states could be as large as ${\cal O}(10)\ {\rm fb}$ and ${\cal O}(1)\ {\rm fb}$, respectively, at the 14-TeV LHC. This work opens up a new frontier of searching for triple and quadruple Higgs bosons at a high energy collider.

Scotogenic A5 → A4 Dirac neutrinos with freeze-in dark matter

Radiative Dirac neutrino masses and their mixing are linked to dark matter through the non-Abelian discrete symmetry A5 of the 4-dimensional pentatope, softly broken to A4 of the 3-dimensional tetrahedron. This unifying understanding of neutrino family structure from dark matter is made possible through the interplay of gauge symmetry, renormalizable Lagrangian field theory, and softly broken discrete symmetries. Dark neutral fermions are produced through Higgs decay.

Analyzing the Hubble tension through hidden sector dynamics in the early universe

The recent analysis from the SH0ES collaboration has confirmed the existence of a Hubble tension between measurements at high redshift (z > 1000) and at low redshift (z < 1) at the 5σ level with the low redshift measurement giving a higher value. In this work we propose a particle physics model that can help alleviate the Hubble tension via an out-of-equilibrium hidden sector coupled to the visible sector. The particles that populate the dark sector consist of a dark fermion, which acts as dark matter, a dark photon, a massive scalar and a massless pseudo-scalar. Assuming no initial population of particles in the dark sector, feeble couplings between the visible and the hidden sectors via kinetic mixing populate the dark sector even though the number densities of hidden sector particles never reach their equilibrium distribution and the two sectors remain at different temperatures. A cosmologically consistent analysis is presented where a correlated evolution of the visible and the hidden sectors with coupled Boltzmann equations involving two temperatures, one for the visible sector and the other for the hidden sector, is carried out. The relic density of the dark matter constituted of dark fermions is computed in this two-temperature formalism. As a consequence, BBN predictions are upheld with a minimal contribution to ΔN eff. However, the out-of-equilibrium decay of the massive scalar to the massless pseudo-scalar close to the recombination time causes an increase in ΔN eff that can help weaken the Hubble tension.

Neutrino mass from Affleck-Dine leptogenesis and WIMP dark matter

Affleck-Dine (AD) mechanism for leptogenesis involves the cosmological evolution of a complex scalar field (AD field) that carries non-zero lepton number. We show how explicit lepton number breaking terms, which involve the AD field needed to implement this scenario combined with fermionic WIMP dark matter, can generate neutrino mass at the one loop level, thus providing a unified framework for solving four major puzzles of the standard model i.e. inflation, baryogenesis, dark matter and neutrino mass. We discuss some phenomenological implications of this model.

Bound-state formation, dissociation and decays of darkonium with potential non-relativistic Yukawa theory for scalar and pseudoscalar mediators

Dark matter models with light mediators featuring sizable interactions among dark particles enjoy an increasing attention in the model building community due to the elegance with which they can potentially explain the scaling relations governing galactic halos and clusters of galaxies. In the present work we continue our study of such models using non-relativistic and potential non-relativistic effective field theories (NREFTs and pNREFTs) and explore the properties of a Yukawa-type model with scalar and pseudoscalar interactions between a low-energetic scalar mediator and heavy dark matter fermions. In particular, we make first steps towards the formulation of such theories at finite temperature by providing the thermal bound-state formation rate and the thermal break-up of bound states from the self-energies of the dark-pair fields, that interact with the thermal environment. We estimate numerically bound-state effects on the dark matter energy density, that provide up to a 35% correction depending on the relative size of the model couplings.

Search for Darkonium in e^{+}e^{-} Collisions.

Collider searches for dark sectors, new particles interacting only feebly with ordinary matter, have largely focused on identifying signatures of new mediators, leaving much of dark sector structures unexplored. In particular, the existence of dark matter bound states (darkonia) remains to be investigated. This possibility could arise in a simple model in which a dark photon (A^{'}) is light enough to generate an attractive force between dark fermions. We report herein a search for a J^{PC}=1^{--} darkonium state, the ϒ_{D}, produced in the reaction e^{+}e^{-}→γϒ_{D}, ϒ_{D}→A^{'}A^{'}A^{'}, where the dark photons subsequently decay into pairs of leptons or pions, using 514 fb^{-1} of data collected with the BABAR detector. No significant signal is observed, and we set bounds on the γ-A^{'} kinetic mixing as a function of the dark sector coupling constant for 0.001<m_{A^{'}}<3.16 GeV and 0.05<m_{ϒ_{D}}<9.5 GeV.

Radial Oscillations of Quark Stars Admixed with Dark Matter

We investigated compact stars consisting of cold quark matter and fermionic dark matter treated as two admixed fluids. We computed the stellar structures and fundamental radial oscillation frequencies of different masses of the dark fermion in the cases of weak and strong self-interacting dark matter. We found that the fundamental frequency can be dramatically modified and, in some cases, stable dark strange planets and dark strangelets with very low masses and radii can be formed.

Electroweak and left-right phase transitions in SO(5)×U(1)×SU(3) gauge-Higgs unification

The electroweak phase transition in GUT inspired $SO(5)\times U(1) \times SU(3)$ gauge-Higgs unification is shown to be weakly first order and occurs at $T = T_c^{\rm EW} \sim 163\,$GeV, which is very similar to the behavior in the standard model in perturbation theory. A new phase appears at higher temperatures. $SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y$ ($\theta_H=0$) and $SU(2)_R \times U(1)_{Y'}$ ($\theta_H=\pi$) phases become almost degenerate above $T \sim m_{\rm KK}$ where $m_{\rm KK}$ is the Kaluza-Klein mass scale typically around 13$\,$TeV and $\theta_H$ is the Aharonov-Bohm phase along the fifth dimension. The two phases become degenerate at $T = T_c^{\rm LR} \sim m_{\rm KK}$. As the temperature drops in the evolution of the early Universe the $SU(2)_R \times U(1)_{Y'}$ phase becomes unstable. The tunneling rate from the $SU(2)_R \times U(1)_{Y'}$ phase to the $SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y$ phase becomes sizable and a first-order phase transition takes place at $T=2.5 \sim 2.6\,$TeV. The amount of gravitational waves produced in this left-right phase transition is small, far below the reach of the sensitivity of Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). A detailed analysis of the $SU(2)_R \times U(1)_{Y'}$ phase is also given. It is shown that the $W$ boson, $Z$ boson and photon, with $\theta_H$ varying from 0 to $\pi$, are transformed to gauge bosons in the $SU(2)_R \times U(1)_{Y'}$ phase. Gauge couplings and wave functions of quarks, leptons and dark fermions in the $SU(2)_R \times U(1)_{Y'}$ phase are determined.

A cosmologically consistent millicharged dark matter solution to the EDGES anomaly of possible string theory origin

Analysis of EDGES data shows an absorption signal of the redshifted 21-cm line of atomic hydrogen at z ∼ 17 which is stronger than expected from the standard ΛCDM model. The absorption signal interpreted as brightness temperature T21 of the 21-cm line gives an amplitude of -{500}_{-500}^{+200} mK at 99% C.L. which is a 3.8σ deviation from what the standard ΛCDM cosmology gives. We present a particle physics model for the baryon cooling where a fraction of the dark matter resides in the hidden sector with a U(1) gauge symmetry and a Stueckelberg mechanism operates mixing the visible and the hidden sectors with the hidden sector consisting of dark Dirac fermions and dark photons. The Stueckelberg mass mixing mechanism automatically generates a millicharge for the hidden sector dark fermions providing a theoretical basis for using millicharged dark matter to produce the desired cooling of baryons seen by EDGES by scattering from millicharged dark matter. We compute the relic density of the millicharged dark matter by solving a set of coupled equations for the dark fermion and dark photon yields and for the temperature ratio of the hidden sector and the visible sector heat baths. For the analysis of baryon cooling, we analyze the evolution equations for the temperatures of baryons and millicharged dark matter as a function of the redshift. We exhibit regions of the parameter space which allow consistency with the EDGES data. We note that the Stueckelberg mechanism arises naturally in strings and the existence of a millicharge would point to its string origin.

Fermionic singlet dark matter in one-loop solutions to the R_K anomaly: a systematic study

We study the dark matter phenomenology of Standard Model extensions addressing the reported anomaly in the R_K observable at one-loop. The article covers the case of fermionic singlet DM coupling leptophilically, quarkphilically or amphiphilically to the SM. The setup utilizes a large coupling of the new particle content to the second lepton generation to explain the R_K anomaly, which in return tends to diminish the dark matter relic density. Further, dark matter direct detection experiments provide stringent bounds even in cases where the dark matter candidate only contributes a small fraction of the observed dark matter energy density. In fact, direct detection rules out all considered models as an explanation for the R_K anomaly in the case of Dirac dark matter. Conversely, for Majorana dark matter, the R_K anomaly can be addressed in agreement with direct detection in coannihilation scenarios. For leptophilic dark matter this region only exists for M_text {DM} lesssim 1000 , mathrm {GeV} and dark matter is underabundant. Quarkphilic and amphiphilic scenarios even provide narrow regions of parameter space where the observed relic density can be reproduced while offering an explanation to R_K in agreement with direct detection experiments.

Towards a Higgs mass determination in asymptotically safe gravity with a dark portal

There are indications that an asymptotically safe UV completion of the Standard Model with gravity could constrain the Higgs self-coupling, resulting in a prediction of the Higgs mass close to the vacuum stability bound in the Standard Model. The predicted value depends on the top quark mass and comes out somewhat higher than the experimental value if the current central value for the top quark mass is assumed. Beyond the Standard Model, the predicted value also depends on dark fields coupled through a Higgs portal. Here we study the Higgs self-coupling in a toy model of the Standard Model with quantum gravity that we extend by a dark scalar and fermion. Within the approximations used in [1], there is a single free parameter in the asymptotically safe dark sector, as a function of which the predicted (toy model) Higgs mass can be lowered due to mixing effects if the dark sector undergoes spontaneous symmetry breaking.

Muon (g − 2) and XENON1T excess with boosted dark matter in Lμ − Lτ model

Motivated by the growing evidence for lepton flavour universality violation after the first results from Fermilab's muon (g−2) measurement, we revisit one of the most widely studied anomaly free extensions of the standard model namely, gauged Lμ−Lτ model, known to be providing a natural explanation for muon (g−2). We also incorporate the presence of dark matter (DM) in this model in order to explain the recently reported electron recoil excess by the XENON1T collaboration. We show that the same neutral gauge boson responsible for generating the required muon (g−2) can also mediate interactions between electron and dark fermions boosted by dark matter annihilation. The required DM annihilation rate into dark fermion require a hybrid setup of thermal and non-thermal mechanisms to generate DM relic density. The tightly constrained parameter space from all requirements remains sensitive to ongoing and near future experiments, keeping the scenario very predictive.