In this work we study the constraints on the dark matter interaction with the standard model particles, from the observations of dark matter relic density, the direct detection experiments of CDMS and XENON, and the indirect detection of the antiproton-to-proton ratio by PAMELA. A model independent way is adopted in the study by constructing the effective interaction operators between dark matter and standard model particles. The most general 4-fermion operators are investigated. We find that the constraints from different observations are complementary with each other. Especially the spin independent scattering gives very strong constraints for corresponding operators. In some cases the indirect detection of antiproton-to-proton data can actually be more sensitive than the direct detection or relic density for light dark matter (less than 70 GeV).
We study a non-thermal scenario in a two-Higgs doublet extension of the standard model (SM), augmented by an U(1)_{\rm B-L} gauge symmetry. In this set up, it is shown that the decay product of a weakly coupled scalar field just above the electroweak scale can generate visible and dark matter (DM) simultaneously. The DM is unstable because of the broken B-L symmetry. The lifetime of DM (\approx 5\times 10^{25} sec) is found to be much longer than the age of the Universe, and its decay to the SM leptons at present epoch can explain the positron excess observed at the AMS-02. The relic abundance…
We investigate the constraints on the scalar, vector and spin-3/2 dark matter interaction with the standard model particles, from the observations of dark matter relic density, the direct detection experiments of CDMS and XENON, and the indirect detection of the antiproton-to-proton ratio by PAMELA. A model independent way is adopted by constructing general 4-particle operators up to dimension 6 for the effective interaction between dark matter and standard model particles. We find that the constraints from different experiments are complementary with each other. Comparison among these constra…
The idea of Dark Matter (DM) with self interaction was invoked to resolve a number of discrepancies between the simulation based predictions by collisionless cold DM and the astrophysical observations on galactic and subgalactic scales. Evidences for self interaction would have striking implications for particle nature of DM. In order to reconcile such astrophysical observations for self interaction with particle properties for DM, we consider the general scenario of self interacting Dirac fermionic DM, $χ$. Also since the exact particle physics model for DM is yet to be probed, we simply adop…
We study visible neutrino decay at the reactor neutrino experiments KamLAND and, JUNO. Assuming the Majoron model of neutrino decay, we obtain constraints on the couplings between Majoron and neutrino as well as on the lifetime/mass of the most massive neutrino state i.e., $τ_{3} / m_{3}$ or $τ_{2} / m_{2}$, respectively, for the normal or the inverted mass orderings. We obtain the constraints on the lifetime $τ_{2} / m_{2} \geq 1.4 \times 10^{-9}~\rm{s/eV}$ in the inverted mass ordering for both KamLAND and JUNO at 90% CL. In the normal ordering in which the bound can be obtained for JUNO onl…
The constraints on non-minimal dark sectors involving ensembles of unstable dark-matter species are well established and quite stringent in cases in which these species decay to visible-sector particles. However, in cases in which these ensembles decay exclusively to other, lighter dark-sector states, the corresponding constraints are less well established. In this paper, we investigate how information about the expansion rate of the universe at low redshifts gleaned from observations of Type Ia supernovae can be used to constrain ensembles of unstable particles which decay primarily into dark…
The collider phenomenology of models with Universal Extra Dimensions (UED) is surprisingly similar to that of supersymmetric (SUSY) scenarios. For each level-1 bosonic (fermionic) Kaluza-Klein (KK) state, there is a fermionic (bosonic) analog in SUSY and thus UED scenarios are often known as bosonic supersymmetry. The minimal version of UED (mUED) gives rise to a quasi-degenerate particle spectrum at each KK-level and thus, can not explain the enhanced Higgs to diphoton decay rate hinted by the ATLAS collaboration of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment. However, in the non-minimal versi…
In this thesis, we start by reviewing all constraints applying on self-interacting DM with a light mediator considering well-known Higgs portal and Kinetic Mixing portal models as concrete examples. Then, we elaborate on the Sommerfeld effect, and we study its many implications on self-interacting DM models with light mediator. Next, we investigate how to account for the DM relic abundance in such portal models which present a generic structure with three populations (Standard Model, DM and mediator particles) connected to each other through three interactions resulting from two coupling stren…
Constraining Gamma-ray Lines from Dark Matter Annihilation using Fermi-LAT and H.E.S.S. data
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte（北里奥格兰德联邦大学）；International Institute of Physics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte（北里奥格兰德联邦大学国际物理研究所）；Millennium Institute for Subatomic Physics at the High-Energy Frontier (SAPHIR) of ANID（智利国家研究与创新局高能前沿亚原子物理学千年研究所（SAPHIR））；Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo（圣保罗大学圣卡洛斯物理研究所）
We study the impact of anomalous gauge boson and fermion couplings on the production of $W^+W^-$ pairs at the LHC. Helicity amplitudes are presented separately to demonstrate the sources of new physics contributions and the impact of QCD and electroweak corrections. The QCD corrections have important effects on the fits to anomalous couplings, in particular when one $W$ boson is longitudinally polarized and the other is transversely polarized. In effective field theory language, we demonstrate that the dimension-6 approximation to constraining new physics effects in $W^+W^-$ pair production fa…
The scalar Higgs portal is a compelling model of dark matter (DM) in which a renormalizable coupling with the Higgs boson provides the connection between the visible world and the dark sector. In this paper we investigate the constraint placed on the parameter space of this model by the antiproton data. Due to the fact that the antiproton-to-proton ratio has relative less systematic uncertainties than the antiproton absolute flux, we propose and explore the possibility to combine all the available $\bar{p}/p$ data. Following this approach, we are able to obtain stronger limits if compared with…
We investigate indirect constraints on the top partner within the minimal fermionic top partner model. By performing a global fit of the latest Higgs data, $B_s \to μ^+μ^-$ measurements and the electroweak precision observables we find that the top partner with the mass up to 830 GeV is excluded at $2σ$ level. Our bound on the top partner mass is much stronger than the bounds obtained from the direct searches at the LHC. Under the current constraints the fine-tuning measure is less than 9% and the branching ratio of $T \to tZ$ is bounded between 14% and 25%. We also find that precise measureme…
We investigate catalysis of electroweak baryogenesis by fermionic Higgs portal dark matter using a two Higgs doublet model augmented by vector-like fermions. The lightest neutral fermion mass eigenstate provides a viable dark matter candidate in the presence of a stabilizing symmetry Z_2 or gauged U(1)_D symmetry. Allowing for a non-vanishing CP-violating phase in the lowest-dimension Higgs portal dark matter interactions allows generation of the observed dark matter relic density while evading direct detection bounds. The same phase provides a source for electroweak baryogenesis. We show that…
We study a scenario in which the dilaton, a pseudo-Goldstone boson of the spontaneous breaking of conformal symmetry, provides a portal between dark matter and the visible sector. We consider the low-energy description of the theory in which the dilaton mixes with the Standard Model Higgs boson, thereby predicting a second scalar at or above the weak scale. We derive the collider and dark matter constraints on the corresponding parameter space and find that existing experimental data point towards the decoupling limit in which the CFT scale is well above the electroweak scale. Moreover, the th…
We perform a systematic study of the fermionic DM absorption interactions on electron target in the context of effective field theory. The fermionic DM absorption is not just sensitive to sub-MeV DM with efficient energy release, but also gives a unique signature with clear peak in the electron recoil spectrum whose shape is largely determined by the atomic effects. Fitting with the Xenon1T and PandaX-II data prefers DM mass at $m_χ= 59$keV and 105keV, respectively, while the cut-off scale is probed up to around 1TeV. The DM overproduction in the early Universe, the invisible decay effect on t…
The amount of decaying dark matter, accumulated in the central regions in neutron stars together with the energy deposition rate from decays, may set a limit on the neutron star survival rate against transitions to more compact objects provided nuclear matter is not the ultimate stable state of matter and that dark matter indeed is unstable. More generally, this limit sets constraints on the dark matter particle decay time, $τ_χ$. We find that in the range of uncertainties intrinsic to such a scenario, masses $(m_χ/ \rm TeV) \gtrsim 9 \times 10^{-4}$ or $(m_χ/ \rm TeV) \gtrsim 5 \times 10^{-2}…
We explore the multi-component dark matter (DM) scenario considered in a simple extension of the standard model with an inert scalar doublet and a singlet fermionic field providing the two DM candidates. The DM states are made stable under the unbroken $Z_2\times Z_2'$ discrete symmetry. An additional gauge singlet scalar field is introduced to facilitate the interaction of the dark fermion with the visible sector. Presence of a charged fermionic field having the same $Z_2$ charge as that of the inert scalar field allows exploring the dark matter mass regions otherwise disallowed, like in the …
We present a fermionic dark matter model mediated by the hidden gauge boson. We assume the QED-like hidden sector which consists of a Dirac fermion and U(1)$_X$ gauge symmetry, and introduce an additional scalar electroweak doublet field with the U(1)$_X$ charge as a mediator. The hidden U(1)$_X$ symmetry is spontaneously broken by the electroweak symmetry breaking and there exists a massive extra neutral gauge boson in this model which is the mediator between the hidden and visible sectors. Due to the U(1)$_X$ charge, the additional scalar doublet does not couple to the Standard Model fermion…
We consider dark sector particles (DSPs) that obtain sizeable interactions with Standard Model fermions from a new mediator. While these particles can avoid observation in direct detection experiments, they are strongly constrained by LHC measurements. We demonstrate that there is an important complementarity between searches for DSP production and searches for the mediator itself, in particular bounds on (broad) dijet resonances. This observation is crucial not only in the case where the DSP is all of the dark matter but whenever - precisely due to its sizeable interactions with the visible s…
In the light of the recently observed XENON1T electronic recoil (ER) data, we investigate the possibility of constraining the parameter space of a generic fermionic warm dark matter (WDM), decaying into a standard model (SM) neutrino and a photon. The photon as a decay product, when produced inside the XENON1T chamber, interacts with an electron of a xenon (Xe) atom, leading to a contribution in the observed ER data. We add this dark matter (DM) induced signal over the standard background ($\rm B_0$) considered by the XENON1T collaboration and perform a $χ^2$ fit against the XENON1T data to ob…
Comparisons of the positive and negative halves of the distributions of parity-odd event variables in particle-physics experimental data can provide sensitivity to sources of non-standard parity violation. Such techniques benefit from lacking first-order dependence on simulations or theoretical models, but have hitherto lacked systematic means of enumerating all discoverable signals. To address that issue this paper seeks to construct sets of parity-odd event variables which may be proved to be able to reveal the existence of any Lorentz-invariant source of non-standard parity violation which …
In face of the small-scale structure problems of the collisionless cold dark matter (DM) paradigm, a popular remedy is to introduce a strong DM self-interaction which can be generated nonperturbatively by a MeV-scale light mediator. However, if such the mediator is unstable and decays into SM particles, the model is severely constrained by the DM direct and indirect detection experiments. In the present paper, we study a model of a self-interacting fermionic DM, endowed with a light stable scalar mediator. In this model, the DM relic abundance is dominated by the fermionic DM particle which is…
Minimal scenarios with light (sub-GeV) thermal dark matter are usually accompanied by a correspondingly light "dark sector". Taking as an example a simple fermionic dark matter model, we will show that the presence of the dark sector plays a key role in constraining such scenarios at accelerators experiments. The effect of including a dark Higgs boson in the light spectrum is in particular investigated.
Polarimetric experiments driven by the strong field of a circularly polarized laser wave can become a powerful tool to limit the parameter space of not yet detected hidden-photons and minicharged particles associated with extra U(1) gauge symmetries. We show how the absorption and dispersion of probe electromagnetic waves in the vacuum polarized by such a background are modified due to the coupling between the visible U(1)-gauge sector and these hypothetical degrees of freedom. The results of this analysis reveal that the regime close to the two-photon reaction threshold can be a sensititive p…
In this paper I provide a general framework based on $δN$ formalism to study the features of unavoidable higher dimensional non-renormalizable Kähler operators for ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity (SUGRA) during primordial inflation from the combined constraint on non-Gaussianity, sound speed and CMB dipolar asymmetry as obtained from the recent Planck data. In particular I study the nonlinear evolution of cosmological perturbations on large scales which enables us to compute the curvature perturbation, $ζ$, without solving the exact perturbed field equations. Further I compute the non-Gaussian param…
We investigate the impact of interactions between hidden sectors and the discovered Higgs boson $h_{125}$, allowing for additional invisible decay channels of $h_{125}$. We perform $χ^2$-fits to the measurements of the Higgs-boson cross sections as a function of the invisible branching ratio and different combinations of coupling modifiers, where the latter quantify modifications of the couplings of $h_{125}$ compared to the predictions of the Standard Model. We present generic results in terms of exclusion limits on the coupling modifiers and the invisible branching ratio of $h_{125}$. Additi…
In this paper we will illustrate how to constrain unavoidable Kähler corrections for ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity (SUGRA) inflation from the recent Planck data. We will show that the non-renormalizable Kähler operators will induce in general non-minimal kinetic term for the inflaton field, and two types of SUGRA corrections in the potential - the Hubble-induced mass ($c_{H}$), and the Hubble-induced A-term ($a_{H}$) correction. The entire SUGRA inflationary framework can now be constrained from (i) the speed of sound, $c_s$, and (ii) from the upper bound on the tensor to scalar ratio, $r_{\star}$…
We study freeze-in dark matter production in models that rely on the Clockwork mechanism to suppress the dark matter couplings to the visible sector. We construct viable scalar and fermionic dark matter models within this Clockwork FIMP scenario, with several subtleties that need to be taken into account revealed in the model-building process. We also provide analytic, semi-analytic and numerical results for the diagonalization of Clockwork-type mass matrices and briefly discuss the LHC phenomenology of the corresponding scenarios.
We consider the possibility that some primordial fields decay purely into the dark sector creating asymmetric dark matter. This asymmetry is subsequently transmuted into leptons and baryons. Within this paradigm we compute the amount of asymmetric dark matter created from the out of equilibrium decays of the primordial fields with CP violating Yukawa couplings. The dark matter asymmetry is then transferred to the visible sector by the asymmetry transfer equation and generates an excess of $B-L$. Baryogenesis occurs via sphaleron processes which conserve $B-L$ but violate $B+L$. A mechanism for…
We present the effective field theory for dark matter interactions with the visible sector that is valid at scales of O(1 GeV). Starting with an effective theory describing the interactions of fermionic and scalar dark matter with quarks, gluons and photons via higher dimension operators that would arise from dimension-five and dimension-six operators above electroweak scale, we perform a nonperturbative matching onto a heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory that describes dark matter interactions with light mesons and nucleons. This is then used to obtain the coefficients of the nuclear resp…
We consider the inclusion of TeV-scale, fermionic dark matter in an asymptotically safe model of gauged baryon number that has been recently proposed [Phys. Rev. D 106, no. 3, 035015 (2022)]. The new gauge boson serves as a portal between the dark and the visible sectors. The range of the baryon number gauge coupling and the kinetic mixing between baryon number and hypercharge are constrained by the requirement that nontrivial ultraviolet fixed points are reached. We show that this asymptotically safe dark matter model can achieve the correct dark matter relic density while remaining consisten…
In this paper, we present a model for sub-MeV dark matter with strong self interactions which can solve some of the small scale crisis of the $Λ$CDM. The dark matter is a Majorana fermion with only off-diagonal interactions with a hidden $U(1)_D$ gauge boson. The relic density is obtained by freeze-out of Boltzmann suppressed annihilations to a light fermionic species. The self interaction is a one loop process and constrained to be between 0.1 to 1 cm$^2$/g. Severe constraints from the BBN on $N_{eff}$ require that the dark and visible sector are not in thermal equilibrium during freeze-out. …
We identify and analyze thermal dark matter candidates in the fraternal twin Higgs model and its generalizations. The relic abundance of fraternal twin dark matter is set by twin weak interactions, with a scale tightly tied to the weak scale of the Standard Model by naturalness considerations. As such, the dark matter candidates benefit from a "fraternal WIMP miracle," reproducing the observed dark matter abundance for dark matter masses between 50 and 150 GeV. However, the couplings dominantly responsible for dark matter annihilation do not lead to interactions with the visible sector. The di…
We consider the implications of an ultra-light fermionic dark matter candidate that carries baryon number. This naturally arises if dark matter has a small charge under standard model baryon number whilst having an asymmetry equal and opposite to that in the visible universe. A prototypical model is a theory of dark baryons of a non-Abelian gauge group, i.e., a dark Quantum Chromo-Dynamics (QCD). For sub-eV dark baryon masses, the inner region of dark matter halos is naturally at 'nuclear density', allowing for the formation of exotic states of matter, akin to neutron stars. The Tremaine-Gunn …
The possibility of direct detection of light fermionic dark matter in neutrino detectors is explored from a model-independent standpoint. We consider all operators of dimension six or lower which can contribute to the interaction $\bar{f} p \to e^+ n$, where $f$ is a dark Majorana or Dirac fermion. Constraints on these operators are then obtained from the $f$ lifetime and its decays which produce visible $γ$ rays or electrons. We find one operator which would allow $\bar{f} p \to e^+ n$ at interesting rates in neutrino detectors, as long as $m_f \lesssim m_π$. The existing constraints on light…
Studies of dark matter lie at the interface of collider physics, astrophysics and cosmology. Constraining models featuring dark matter candidates entails the capability to provide accurate predictions for large sets of observables and compare them to a wide spectrum of data. We present a framework which, starting from a model lagrangian, allows one to consistently and systematically make predictions, as well as to confront those predictions with a multitude of experimental results. As an application, we consider a class of simplified dark matter models where a scalar mediator couples only to t…
The Majoron Cosmological Window: Dark Matter and Thermal Leptogenesis
Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology, Department of Physics, Durham University（达勒姆大学粒子物理现象学研究所）；Instituto de Física Teórica UAM/CSIC, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid（马德里自治大学理论物理研究所UAM/CSIC）；Institute for Astroparticle Physics (IAP), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)（卡尔斯鲁厄理工学院天体粒子物理研究所(IAP)）；Department of Physics, University of Basel（巴塞尔大学物理系）
We show that simplified models used to describe the interactions of dark matter with Standard Model particles do not in general respect gauge invariance and that perturbative unitarity may be violated in large regions of the parameter space. The modifications necessary to cure these inconsistencies may imply a much richer phenomenology and lead to stringent constraints on the model. We illustrate these observations by considering the simplified model of a fermionic dark matter particle and a vector mediator. Imposing gauge invariance then leads to strong constraints from dilepton resonance sea…
Dark matter associated visible particle production at high energy colliders provides a unique way to determine the microscopic properties of the dark matter. We investigate a pair of fermionic dark matter particles associated with a b-jet production at the LHC, through a mediator which couples to standard model or dark matter particles via either a vector or axial-vector coupling. The calculation is performed by implementing these simplified models in the FeynRules/MadGraph5 aMC@NLO framework. In our calculation, next-to-leading order QCD corrections and parton-shower effects are considered. W…
Dark matter as the source of neutrino mass: theory overview and experimental prospects
Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez（阿道夫·伊巴涅斯大学）；Universitat de Valencia（瓦伦西亚大学）；CSIC（西班牙国家研究委员会）；INFN Cosenza（科森扎意大利国家核物理研究所）；Università della Calabria（卡拉布里亚大学）；Korea Institute for Advanced Study（韩国高等研究院）；Ramakrishna Mission Residential College (Autonomous)（罗摩克里希纳传教士寄宿学院（自治））
We study the effective interactions of the fermionic, scalar and vector dark matter (DM) with leptons and neutral electroweak gauge Bosons induced by the higher dimensional effective twist-2 tensor operators. We constrain these lepto-philic, $τ^\pm$-philic and $U(1)_Y$ gauge Boson B-philic effective interactions of DM with the visible world from the WMAP and Planck data. The thermally averaged indirect DM pair annihilation cross-section and the DM-electron direct-detection cross-section for such DM candidates are observed to be consistent with the respective experimental data. Constraining coe…
We investigate the phenomenology of light GeV-scale fermionic dark matter in $U(1)_{L_μ- L_τ}$ gauge extension of the Standard Model. Heavy neutral fermions alongside with a $S_1(\overline{3}$,$1$,$1/3$) scalar leptoquark and an inert scalar doublet are added to address the flavor anomalies and light neutrino mass respectively. The light gauge boson associated with $U(1)_{L_μ-L_τ}$ gauge group mediates dark to visible sector and helps to obtain the correct relic density. Aided with a colored scalar, we constrain the new model parameters by using the branching ratios of various $b \to sll$ and …
