In this lecture note, I discuss why many of us are expecting rich physics at the TeV scale, drawing analogies from the history of physics in the last century. Then I review some of the possible candidates of new physics at this energy scale. I also discuss why we believe much of the matter in the universe is not atoms (baryons) or compact astronomical objects, and hence requires physics beyond the standard model. Finally I discuss some of the candidates for the non-baryonic dark matter.
This work studies the self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) scenario in the general NMSSM and beyond, where the dark matter is a Majorana fermion and the force mediator is a scalar boson. An improved analytical expression for the dark matter (DM) self-interacting cross section which takes into account the Born level effects is proposed. Due to the large couplings and light mediator in SIDM scenario, the DM/mediator will go through multiple branchings if they are produced with high energy. Based on the Monte Carlo simulation of the showers in the DM sector, we obtain the multiplicities and the sp…
We calculate the one-loop correction to the static potential induced by $γ$, $W$ and $Z$-exchange at tree-level for arbitrary heavy standard model multiplets. We find that the result obeys a "Casimir-like" scaling, making the NLO correction to the potential a "low-energy" property of the electroweak gauge bosons. Furthermore, we discuss the phenomenology of the NLO potentials, the analytically known asymptotic limits and provide fitting functions in position space for easy use of the results.
We study dark matter freeze-in scenarios where the mass of the mediator particle that couples dark matter to the Standard Model is larger than the reheat temperature, TRH, in the early Universe. In such setups, the standard approach is to work with an effective field theory (EFT) where the mediator is integrated out. We examine the validity of this approach in various generic s- and t-channel mediator frameworks. We find that the EFT approach breaks down when the mediator mass is between one to two orders of magnitude larger than TRH due to various effects such as s-channel resonance, a small …
We show that underground experiments like LUX/LZ, PandaX-II, XENON, and PICO could discover dark matter up to the Planck mass and beyond, with new searches for dark matter that scatters multiple times in these detectors. This opens up significant discovery potential via re-analysis of existing and future data. We also identify a new effect which substantially enhances experimental sensitivity to large dark matter scattering cross-sections: while passing through atmospheric or solid overburden, there is a maximum number of scatters that dark matter undergoes, determined by the total number of s…
As low-threshold dark matter detectors advance in development, they will become sensitive to recoils from solar neutrinos which opens up the possibility to explore neutrino properties. We predict the enhancement of the event rate of solar neutrino scattering from Beyond the Standard Model interactions in low-threshold DM detectors, with a focus on silicon, germanium, gallium arsenide, xenon, and argon-based detectors. We consider a set of general neutrino interactions, which fall into five categories: the neutrino magnetic moment as well as interactions mediated by four types of mediators (sca…
Dark Matter could be a composite state of a confining sector with an approximate scale symmetry. We consider the case where the associated pseudo-Goldstone boson, the dilaton, mediates its interactions with the Standard Model. When the confining phase transition in the early universe is supercooled, its dynamics allows for Dark Matter masses up to $10^6$ TeV. We derive the precise parameter space compatible with all experimental constraints, finding that this scenario can be tested partly by telescopes and entirely by gravitational waves.
Galactic-scale structure is of particular interest since it provides important clues to dark matter properties and its observation is improving. Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) behave as cold dark matter on galactic scales, while beyond-WIMP candidates suppress galactic-scale structure formation. Suppression in the linear matter power spectrum has been conventionally characterized by a single parameter, the thermal warm dark matter mass. On the other hand, the shape of suppression depends on the underlying mechanism. It is necessary to introduce multiple parameters to cover a wide…
The problems of simple elementary weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) appeal to extend the physical basis for nonbaryonic dark matter. Such extension involves more sophisticated dark matter candidates from physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) of elementary particles. We discuss several models of dark matter, predicting new colored, hyper-colored or techni-colored particles and their accelerator and non-accelerator probes. The nontrivial properties of the proposed dark matter candidates can shed new light on the dark matter physics. They provide interesting solutions for the puzzles…
Motivated by the absence of dark matter signal in dark matter direct detection experiments and new physics signal at LHC, we study how to hear the echoes of the new physics, especially the dark matter and baryogenesis by new approaches, such as the gravitational wave experiments.
Dielectric Response for Light Dark Matter Direct Detection Beyond the Longitudinal Approximation
College of Mathematics and Physics, Beijing University of Chemical Technology（北京化工大学理学院）；Department of Physics and Institute of Theoretical Physics, Nanjing Normal University（南京师范大学物理科学与技术学院）；School of Science, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University（中山大学深圳校区理学院）；School of Physics, Yantai University（烟台大学物理学院）
In the paper is presented computer modelling of BSM physics, such as Dark matter candidates, di-jet resonances and new Higgs bosons with the help of MCFM program.
Assuming that the Universe at higher redshifts (z \sim 4 and beyond) is consistent with LCDM model as constrained by the Planck measurements, we reanalyze the low redshift cosmological data to reconstruct the Hubble parameter as a function of redshift. This enables us to address the H_0 and other tensions between low z observations and high z Planck measurement from CMB. From the reconstructed H(z), we compute the energy density for the "dark energy" sector of the Universe as a function of redshift without assuming a specific model for dark energy. We find that the dark energy density has a mi…
A very economic scenario with just three extra scalar fields beyond the Standard Model is invoked to explain the muon anomalous magnetic moment, the requisite relic abundance of dark matter as well as the Xenon-1T excess through the inelastic down-scattering of the dark scalar.
We consider dark matter (DM) with very weak couplings to the standard model (SM), such that its self-annihilation cross section is much smaller than the canonical one, $\langleσv\rangle_{χχ} \ll 10^{-26}\mathrm{cm}^3/\mathrm{s}$. In this case DM self-annihilation is negligible for the dynamics of freeze-out and DM dilution is solely driven by efficient annihilation of heavier accompanying dark sector particles provided that DM maintains chemical equilibrium with the dark sector. This chemical equilibrium is established by conversion processes which require much smaller couplings to be efficien…
One-loop electroweak corrections to the annihilation cross-sections of dark matter in the Higgs resonance region of the inert doublet model (IDM) are investigated. The procedure of how to implement the width of the Higgs in order to regularise the amplitude both at tree-level and at one-loop together with the renormalisation of a key parameter of the model, are thoroughly scrutinised. The discussions go beyond the application to the relic density calculation and also beyond the IDM so that addressing these technical issues can help in a wider context. We look in particular at the dominant chan…
We present a comprehensive analysis of top-philic Majorana dark matter that interacts via a colored t-channel mediator. Despite the simplicity of the model -- introducing three parameters only -- it provides an extremely rich phenomenology allowing us to accommodate the relic density for a large range of coupling strengths spanning over six orders of magnitude. This model features all `exceptional' mechanisms for dark matter freeze-out, including the recently discovered conversion-driven freeze-out mode, with interesting signatures of long-lived colored particles at colliders. We constrain the…
We examine the relic density of the light mass dark matter region in the inert doublet model (IDM) when the dominant process is due to co-annihilation between the lightest neutral scalars of the model. The full one-loop electroweak corrections are computed in an on-shell scheme and are found to be well approximated as an effective cross-section expressed in terms of $Z$-observables. The electroweak corrections to the subdominant process which consists of an annihilation into an on-shell $W$ and an off-shell $W$, that is calculated as a annihilation into a 3-body final state, is also performed.…
Many scenarios beyond the standard model, aiming to solve long-standing cosmological and particle physics problems, suggest that dark matter might experience long-distance interactions mediated by an unbroken dark $U(1)$ gauge symmetry, hence foreseeing the existence of a massless dark photon. Contrary to the massive dark photon, a massless dark photon can only couple to the standard model sector by means of effective higher dimensional operators. Massless dark-photon production at colliders will then in general be suppressed at low energy by a UV energy scale, which is of the order of the mas…
We perform the first one-loop electroweak corrections for $2 \to 3$ processes for dark matter annihilation. These are the dominant processes that enter the computation of the relic density for the low mass region of the inert doublet model (IDM) when annihilations to two on-shell vector bosons are closed. The impact of the one-loop corrections are important as they involve, through rescattering effects, not only a dependence on the parameter controlling the dark sector, not present if a calculation at tree-level is conducted, but also on the renormalisation scale. These combined effects should…
The $U(1)_{B\textrm{--}L}$ symmetry, the essential component in the seesaw mechanism and leptogenesis, is naturally equipped with a massive gauge boson. If this gauge boson is the dark matter, the scenario consistent with the seesaw mechanism predicts the gauge coupling to be of the order of $\mathcal{O}(10^{-19})$ for masses $\lesssim1$ MeV, dominantly decaying into active neutrinos. We stress and explore the important role of astrophysical neutrinos of energies from $\mathcal{O}(1)$ keV to $\sim1$ MeV in testing the well-motivated $B$-$L$ symmetry extension to the Standard Model, which has b…
