Stable Dark Matter Research Articles

Stability of dark matter from the [formula omitted] flavor group

We study a model based on the dihedral group D4 in which the dark matter is stabilized by the interplay between a remnant Z2 symmetry, of the same spontaneously broken non-abelian group, and an auxiliary Z2f introduced to eliminate unwanted couplings in the scalar potential. In the lepton sector the model is compatible with normal hierarchy only and predicts a vanishing reactor mixing angle, θ13=0. Since mν1=0, we also have a simple prediction for the effective mass in terms of the solar angle: |mββ|=|mν2|sin2θ⊙∼10−3 eV. There also exists a large portion of the model parameter space where the upper bounds on lepton flavor violating processes are not violated. We incorporate quarks in the same scheme finding that a description of the CKM mixing matrix is possible and that semileptonic K and D decays mediated by flavor changing neutral currents are under control.

Two-singlet model for light cold dark matter

We extend the standard model by adding two gauge-singlet ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$-symmetric scalar fields that interact with visible matter only through the Higgs particle. One is a stable dark matter WIMP, and the other one undergoes a spontaneous breaking of the symmetry that opens new channels for the dark matter annihilation, hence lowering the mass of the WIMP. We study the effects of the observed dark matter relic abundance on the WIMP annihilation cross section and find that in most regions of the parameters' space, light dark matter is viable. We also compare the elastic-scattering cross section of our dark matter candidate off a nucleus with existing (CDMSII and XENON100) and projected (SuperCDMS and XENON1T) experimental exclusion bounds. We find that most of the allowed mass range for light dark matter will be probed by the projected sensitivity of the XENON1T experiment.

Scalar dark matter search at the LHC through flavor-changing neutral current top decay

We discuss an extended standard model electroweak sector which contains a stable scalar dark matter particle, the D boson. To search for the D boson at the LHC we exploit the flavor-changing neutral current (FCNC) top quark decay, t->c D D, mediated by the lightest standard model-like Higgs h^0 in a two Higgs doublet model framework. The branching ratio for t->c D D in this case can be as high as 10^{-3}, after taking into account constraints arising from the D boson relic abundance. With an integrated luminosity of 10 (100) fb^{-1}, the 14 TeV LHC can explore values of this branching ratio that are one (two) order of magnitude smaller in t\bar{t} production with t\bar{t}\to c \bar{b} \ell^-(\bar{c}b\ell^+)+missing E_T. For a D boson mass <60 GeV, m_{h^0}< 2 M_Z, 10 fb^{-1} luminosity and a branching ratio BR(t->cDD)~10^{-4}, the estimated number of signal events at the 14 TeV LHC is of order 80.

Flavor unification, dark matter, proton decay, and other observable predictions with low-scaleS4symmetry

We show how gauge coupling unification is successfully implemented through non-supersymmetric grand unified theory, $SO(10)\times G_f (~G_f=S_4, SO(3)_f, SU(3)_f)$, using low-scale flavor symmetric model of the type $SU(2)_L\times U(1)_Y$ $ \times SU(3)_C \times S_4$ recently proposed by Hagedorn, Lindner, and Mohapatra, while assigning matter-parity discrete symmetry for the dark matter stability. For gauge coupling unification in the single-step breaking case, we show that a color-octet fermion and a hyperchargeless weak-triplet fermionic dark matter are the missing particles needed to complete its MSSM-equivalent degrees of freedom. When these are included the model automatically predicts the nonsupersymmetric grand unification with a scale identical to the minimal supersymmetric standard model/grand unified theory scale. We also find a two-step breaking model with Pati-Salam intermediate symmetry where the dark matter and a low-mass color-octet scalar or the fermion are signaled by grand unification. The proton-lifetime predictions are found to be accessible to ongoing or planned searches in a number of models. We discuss grand unified origin of the light fermionic triplet dark matter, the color-octet fermion, and their phenomenology.

Number-theory dark matter

We propose that the stability of dark matter is ensured by a discrete subgroup of the U(1)B–L gauge symmetry, Z2(B–L). We introduce a set of chiral fermions charged under the U(1)B–L in addition to the right-handed neutrinos, and require the anomaly-cancellation conditions associated with the U(1)B–L gauge symmetry. We find that the possible number of fermions and their charges are tightly constrained, and that non-trivial solutions appear when at least five additional chiral fermions are introduced. The Fermat theorem in the number theory plays an important role in this argument. Focusing on one of the solutions, we show that there is indeed a good candidate for dark matter, whose stability is guaranteed by Z2(B–L).

Dark matter annihilation through a lepton-specific Higgs boson

It was recently argued by Hooper and Goodenough [arXiv:1010.2752] that the excess gamma-ray emission from within 1\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}--2\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} of the Galactic center can be well described by annihilation of $\ensuremath{\sim}8\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$ dark matter particles into tau pairs. I show that such a dark matter signal can be obtained naturally in the lepton-specific two-Higgs-doublet model extended by a stable singlet scalar dark matter candidate. The favored parameter region prefers a light Higgs state (below 200 GeV) with enhanced couplings to leptons and a sizable invisible branching fraction. Part of the favored region leads to invisible decays of both of the $CP$-even neutral Higgs states.

Neutrino phenomenology and stable dark matter with [formula omitted

We present a model based on the A4 non-Abelian discrete symmetry leading to a predictive five-parameter neutrino mass matrix and providing a stable dark matter candidate. We found an interesting correlation among the atmospheric and the reactor angles which predicts θ23∼π/4 for very small reactor angle and deviation from maximal atmospheric mixing for large θ13. Only normal neutrino mass spectrum is possible and the effective mass entering the neutrinoless double beta decay rate is constrained to be |mee|>4×10−4 eV.

Dark discrete gauge symmetries

We investigate scenarios in which dark matter is stabilized by an Abelian ${Z}_{N}$ discrete gauge symmetry. Models are surveyed according to symmetries and matter content. Multicomponent dark matter arises when $N$ is not prime and ${Z}_{N}$ contains one or more subgroups. The dark sector interacts with the visible sector through the renormalizable kinetic mixing and Higgs portal operators, and we highlight the basic phenomenology in these scenarios. In particular, multiple species of dark matter can lead to an unconventional nuclear recoil spectrum in direct detection experiments, while the presence of new light states in the dark sector can dramatically affect the decays of the Higgs at the Tevatron and LHC, thus providing a window into the gauge origin of the stability of dark matter.

Discrete dark matter

We propose a new motivation for the stability of dark matter (DM). We suggest that the same non-abelian discrete flavor symmetry which accounts for the observed pattern of neutrino oscillations, spontaneously breaks to a Z2 subgroup which renders DM stable. The simplest scheme leads to a scalar doublet DM potentially detectable in nuclear recoil experiments, inverse neutrino mass hierarchy, hence a neutrinoless double beta decay rate accessible to upcoming searches, while reactor angle equal to zero gives no CP violation in neutrino oscillations.

COSMOLOGY WITH MIRROR DARK MATTER

Mirror matter is a stable self-collisional dark matter candidate. If parity is a conserved unbroken symmetry of nature, there could exist a parallel hidden (mirror) sector of the universe composed of particles with the same masses and obeying the same physical laws as our (visible) sector, except for the opposite-handedness of weak interactions. The two sectors interact predominantly via gravity, therefore mirror matter is naturally "dark". Here I review the cosmological signatures of mirror dark matter, concerning thermodynamics of the early universe, big bang nucleosynthesis, primordial structure formation and evolution, cosmic microwave background and large scale structure power spectra. Besides gravity, the effects on primordial nucleosynthesis of the kinetic mixing between photons and mirror photons are considered. Summarizing the present status of research and comparing theoretical results with observations/experiments, it emerges that mirror matter is not just a viable, but a promising dark matter candidate.

Unified Origin for Baryonic Visible Matter and Antibaryonic Dark Matter

We present a novel mechanism for generating both the baryon and dark matter densities of the Universe. A new Dirac fermion X carrying a conserved baryon number charge couples to the standard model quarks as well as a GeV-scale hidden sector. CP-violating decays of X, produced nonthermally in low-temperature reheating, sequester antibaryon number in the hidden sector, thereby leaving a baryon excess in the visible sector. The antibaryonic hidden states are stable dark matter. A spectacular signature of this mechanism is the baryon-destroying inelastic scattering of dark matter that can annihilate baryons at appreciable rates relevant for nucleon decay searches.

Relating neutrino mass and dark matter with discrete flavor symmetry

We propose a new motivation for the stability of dark matter (DM). We suggest that the same non-abelian discrete flavor symmetry which accounts for the observed pattern of neutrino oscillations, spontaneously breaks to a Z2 subgroup which renders DM stable. The simplest scheme leads to a scalar doublet DM potentially detectable in nuclear recoil experiments, inverse neutrino mass hierarchy, hence a neutrinoless double beta decay rate accessible to upcoming searches, while θ13 = 0 gives no CP violation in neutrino oscillations.

The accuracy of subhalo detection

With the ever increasing resolution of N-body simulations, accurate subhalo detection is becoming essential in the study of the formation of structure, the production of merger trees and the seeding of semi-analytic models. To investigate the state of halo finders, we compare two different approaches to detecting subhaloes; the first based on overdensities in a halo and the second being adaptive mesh refinement. A set of stable mock NFW dark matter haloes were produced and a subhalo was placed at different radii within a larger halo. SUBFIND (a Friends-of-Friends based finder) and AHF (an adaptive mesh based finder) were employed to recover the subhalo. As expected, we found that the mass of the subhalo recovered by SUBFIND has a strong dependence on the radial position and that neither halo finder can accurately recover the subhalo when it is very near the centre of the halo. This radial dependence is shown to be related to the subhalo being truncated by the background density of the halo and originates due to the subhalo being defined as an overdensity. If the subhalo size is instead determined using the peak of the circular velocity profile, a much more stable value is recovered. The downside to this is that the maximum circular velocity is a poor measure of stripping and is affected by resolution. For future halo finders to recover all the particles in a subhalo, a search of phase space will need to be introduced.

AMEND: A Model Explaining Neutrino masses and Dark matter testable at the LHC and MEG

Despite being very successful in explaining the wide range of precision experimental results obtained so far, the Standard Model (SM) of elementary particles fails to address two of the greatest observations of the recent decades: tiny but nonzero neutrino masses and the well-known problem of missing mass in the Universe. Typically the new models beyond the SM explain only one of these observations. Instead, in the present article, we take the view that they both point towards the same new extension of the Standard Model. The new particles introduced are responsible simultaneously for neutrino masses and for the dark matter of the Universe. The stability of dark matter and the smallness of neutrino masses are guaranteed by a U(1) global symmetry, broken to a remnant \( {\mathbb{Z}_2} \). The canonical seesaw mechanism is forbidden and neutrino masses emerge at the loop level being further suppressed by the small explicit breaking of the U(1) symmetry. The new particles and interactions are invoked at the electroweak scale and lead to rich phenomenology in colliders, in lepton flavour violating rare decays and in direct and indirect dark matter searches, making the model testable in the coming future.

Semi-holographic universe

By assuming that a dark component (dark energy) in the universe strictly obeys the holographic principle, that is, its entropy is one fourth of the apparent horizon, we find that the existence of the other dark component (dark matter) is compulsory, as a compensation of dark energy, based on the first law of thermodynamics. By using the method of dynamical system analysis, we find that there exists a stable dark energy-dark matter scaling solution at late time, which is helpful to solve the coincidence problem. For reasonable parameters, the deceleration parameter is well consistent with current observations.

The supersymmetric Standard Models with decaying and stable dark matters

We propose two supersymmetric Standard Models (SMs) with decaying and stable dark matter (DM) particles. To explain the SM fermion masses and mixings and have a heavy decay DM particle S, we consider the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism by introducing an anomalous U(1)_X gauge symmetry. Around the string scale, the U(1)_X gauge symmetry is broken down to a Z_2 symmetry under which S is odd while all the SM particles are even. S obtains a vacuum expectation value around the TeV scale, and then it can three-body decay dominantly to the second/third family of the SM leptons in Model I and to the first family of the SM leptons in Model II. Choosing a benchmark point in the constrained minimal supersymmetric SM with exact R parity, we show that the lightest neutralino DM is consistent with the CDMS II experiment. Considering S three-body decay and choosing suitable parameters, we show that the PAMELA and Fermi-LAT experiments and the PAMELA and ATIC experiments can be explained in Model I and Model II, respectively.

Decaying dark matter mimicking time-varying dark energy

A $\ensuremath{\Lambda}\mathrm{CDM}$ model with dark matter that decays into inert relativistic energy on a time scale longer than the Hubble time will produce an expansion history that can be misinterpreted as stable dark matter with time-varying dark energy. We calculate the corresponding spurious equation of state parameter, ${\stackrel{\texttildelow{}}{w}}_{\ensuremath{\phi}}$, as a function of redshift, and show that the evolution of ${\stackrel{\texttildelow{}}{w}}_{\ensuremath{\phi}}$ depends strongly on the assumed value of the dark-matter density, erroneously taken to scale as ${a}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. Depending on the latter, one can obtain models that mimic quintessence (${\stackrel{\texttildelow{}}{w}}_{\ensuremath{\phi}}&gt;\ensuremath{-}1$), phantom models (${\stackrel{\texttildelow{}}{w}}_{\ensuremath{\phi}}&lt;\ensuremath{-}1$), or models in which the equation of state parameter crosses the phantom divide, evolving from ${\stackrel{\texttildelow{}}{w}}_{\ensuremath{\phi}}&gt;\ensuremath{-}1$ at high redshift to ${\stackrel{\texttildelow{}}{w}}_{\ensuremath{\phi}}&lt;\ensuremath{-}1$ at low redshift. All of these models generically converge toward ${\stackrel{\texttildelow{}}{w}}_{\ensuremath{\phi}}\ensuremath{\approx}\ensuremath{-}1$ at the present. The degeneracy between the $\ensuremath{\Lambda}\mathrm{CDM}$ model with decaying dark matter and the corresponding spurious quintessence model is broken by the growth of density perturbations.

Stable mass hierarchies and dark matter from hidden sectors in the scale-invariant standard model

Scale invariance may be a classical symmetry which is broken radiatively. This provides a simple way to stabilize the scale of electroweak symmetry breaking against radiative corrections. But for such a theory to be fully realistic, it must actually incorporate a hierarchy of scales, including the Planck and the neutrino mass scales in addition to the electroweak scale. The dark matter sector and the physics responsible for baryogenesis may or may not require new scales, depending on the scenario. We develop a generic way of using hidden sectors to construct a technically-natural hierarchy of scales in the framework of classically scale-invariant theories. We then apply the method to generate the Planck mass and to solve the neutrino mass and dark matter problems through what may be termed the ``scale-invariant standard model.'' The model is perturbatively renormalizable for energy scales up to the Planck mass.

Semi-annihilation of dark matter

We show that the thermal relic abundance of dark matter can be affected by a new type of reaction: semi-annihilation. Semi-annihilation takes the schematic form X_i X_j -> X_k phi, where X_i are stable dark matter particles and phi is an unstable state. Such reactions are generically present when dark matter is composed of more than one species with "flavor" and/or "baryon" symmetries. We give a complete set of coupled Boltzmann equations in the presence of semi-annihilations, and study two toy models featuring this process. Semi-annihilation leads to non-trivial dark matter dynamics in the early universe, often dominating over ordinary annihilation in determining the relic abundance. This process also has important implications for indirect detection experiments, by enriching the final state spectrum from dark matter (semi-)annihilation in the Milky Way.

Dark matter stability and unification without supersymmetry

In the absence of low energy supersymmetry, we show that (a) the dark matter particle alone at the TeV scale can improve gauge coupling unification, raising the unification scale up to the lower bound imposed by proton decay, and (b) the dark matter stability can automatically follow from the grand unification symmetry. Within reasonably simple unified models, a unique candidate satisfying these two properties is singled out: a fermion isotriplet with zero hypercharge, member of a 45 (or larger) representation of $SO(10)$. We discuss the phenomenological signatures of this TeV scale fermion, which can be tested in direct and indirect future dark matter searches. The proton decay rate into ${e}^{+}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ is predicted close to the present bound.