Scenarios for secluded WIMP dark matter models have been extensively studied in simplified versions. This paper shows a complete UV realization of a secluded WIMP dark matter model with an extra Abelian gauge symmetry that includes two-component dark matter candidates, where the dark matter conversion process plays a significant role in determining the relic density in the Universe. The model contains two new unstable mediators: a dark Higgs and a dark photon. It generates Dirac neutrino masses and can be tested in future direct detection experiments of dark matter. The model is also compatible with cosmological and theoretical constraints, including the branching ratio of Standard model particles into invisible, Big Bang nucleosynthesis restrictions, and the number of relativistic degrees of freedom in the early Universe, even without kinetic mixing.
We consider a generic mechanism via which thermal relic WIMP dark matter may be decoupled from the Standard Model, namely through a combination of WIMP annihilation to metastable mediators with subsequent delayed decay to Standard Model states. We illustrate this with explicit examples of WIMPs connected to the Standard Model by metastable bosons or fermions. In all models, provided the WIMP mass is greater than that of the mediator, it can be secluded from the Standard Model with an extremely small elastic scattering cross-section on nuclei and rate for direct collider production. In contrast…
Dark matter candidates comprising several sub-states separated by a small mass gap, and coupled to the Standard Model by (sub-)GeV force carriers, can exhibit non-trivial scattering interactions in direct detection experiments. We analyze the secluded U(1)-mediated WIMP scenario, and calculate the elastic and inelastic cross sections for multi-component WIMP scattering off nuclei. We find that second-order elastic scattering, mediated by virtual excited states, provides strong sensitivity to the parameters of the model for a wide range of mass splittings, while for small splittings the WIMP ex…
Dark matter is one of the most important open problems in particle physics and cosmology. Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) appear as an appealing solution, providing the right relic density with a cross-section at the electroweak scale, however, no WIMP signals were observed until now. Secluded models are good alternatives to the standard ones. In this case, instead of a direct annihilation to the standard model (SM) particles, the dark matter annihilates into mediators which subsequently decay into SM particles. In this way, secluded models may avoid the stringent limits from dire…
The secluded dark matter resides within a hidden sector and self-annihilates into lighter mediators which subsequently decay to the Standard Model (SM) particles. Depending on the coupling strength of the mediator to the SM, the hidden sector can be kinetically decoupled from the SM bath when the temperature drops below the mediator's mass, and the dark matter annihilation cross section at freeze-out is thus possible to be boosted above the conventional value of weak interacting massive particles. We present a comprehensive study on thermodynamic evolution of the hidden sector from the first p…
We propose to investigate a secluded WIMP dark matter model consisting of neutral fermions as the dark matter candidate and a Proca-Wentzel (PW) field as a mediator. In the model that we consider here, dark matter WIMPs interact with standard model (SM) particles only through the PW field of ~ MeV -- multi-GeV mass particles. The interactions occur via an U(1)' mediator, V_μ', which couples to the SM by kinetic mixing with U(1) hypercharge bosons, B_μ. One important difference between our model and other such models in the literature is the absence of an extra singlet scalar, so that the param…
We analyze the indirect astrophysical signatures of secluded models of WIMP dark matter, characterized by a weak-scale rate for annihilation into light MeV-scale mediators which are metastable to decay into Standard Model states. Such scenarios allow a significant enhancement of the annihilation cross section in the galactic halo relative to its value at freeze-out, particularly when the mediator is light enough for this process to proceed through radiative capture to a metastable `WIMP-onium' bound state. For MeV-scale vector mediators charged under a hidden U(1)' gauge group, the enhanced an…
Models of secluded dark matter offer a variant on the standard WIMP picture and can modify our expectations for hidden sector phenomenology and detection. In this work we extend a minimal model of secluded dark matter, comprised of a U(1)'-charged dark matter candidate, to include a confining hidden-sector CFT. This provides a technically natural explanation for the hierarchically small mediator-scale, with hidden-sector confinement generating m_{gamma'}>0. Furthermore, the thermal history of the universe can differ markedly from the WIMP picture due to (i) new annihilation channels, (ii) a (p…
A secluded U(1) gauge field, kinetically mixed with Standard Model hypercharge, provides a `portal' mediating interactions with a hidden sector at the renormalizable level, as recently exploited in the context of WIMP dark matter. The secluded U(1) symmetry-breaking scale may naturally be suppressed relative to the weak scale, and so this sector is efficiently probed by medium energy electron-positron colliders. We study the collider signatures of the minimal secluded U(1) model, focusing on the reach of B-factory experiments such as BaBar and BELLE. In particular, we show that Higgs-strahlung…
Secluded dark matter models, in which WIMPs annihilate first into metastable mediators, can present novel indirect detection signatures in the form of gamma rays and fluxes of charged particles arriving from directions correlated with the centers of large astrophysical bodies within the solar system, such as the Sun and larger planets. This naturally occurs if the mean free path of the mediator is in excess of the solar (or planetary) radius. We show that existing constraints from water Cerenkov detectors already provide a novel probe of the parameter space of these models, complementary to ot…
We consider the gauged $B-L$ model which is extended with a secluded dark sector, comprising of two dark sector particles. In this framework the lightest $\mathcal{Z}_2$-odd particle is the dark matter candidate, having a feeble interaction with all other SM and BSM states. The next-to-lightest $\mathcal{Z}_2$-odd particle in the dark sector is a super-wimp, with large interaction strength with the SM and BSM states. We analyse all the relevant production processes that contribute to the dark matter relic abundance, and broadly classify them in two different scenarios, a) dark matter is primar…
We comprehensively study experimental constraints and prospects for a class of minimal hidden sector dark matter (DM) models, highlighting how the cosmological history of these models informs the experimental signals. We study simple "secluded" models, where the DM freezes out into unstable dark mediator states, and consider the minimal cosmic history of this dark sector, where coupling of the dark mediator to the SM was sufficient to keep the two sectors in thermal equilibrium at early times. In the well-motivated case where the dark mediators couple to the Standard Model (SM) via renormaliza…
The recent WMAP data have confirmed that exotic dark matter together with the vacuum energy (cosmological constant) dominate in the flat Universe. The nature of the dark matter constituents cannot be determined till they are directly detected. Recent developments in particle physics provide a number of candidates as constituents of dark matter, called Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). Since these interact weakly and are of low energy they cannot excite the target and can only be detected via measuring the recoiling nucleus. For all WIMPs, including the most popular candidate, the l…
Many models of Higgs portal Dark Matter (DM) find themselves under pressure from increasingly tight direct detection constraints. In the framework of gauge field DM, we study how such bounds can be relaxed while retaining the thermal WIMP paradigm. When the hidden sector gauge symmetry is broken via the Higgs mechanism, the hidden sector generally contains unstable states which are lighter than dark matter. These states provide DM with an efficient annihilation channel. As a result, the DM relic abundance and the direct detection limits are controlled by different parameters, and the two can e…
We present a new paradigm of dark matter freeze-out, where the annihilation of dark matter particles is catalyzed. We discuss in detail the regime that the depletion of dark matter proceeds via $2χ\to 2A'$ and $3A' \to 2χ$ processes, in which $χ$ and $A'$ denote dark matter and the catalyst respectively. In this regime, the dark matter number density is depleted polynomially rather than exponentially (Boltzmann suppression) as in classic WIMPs and SIMPs. The paradigm applies for a secluded weakly interacting dark sector with a dark matter in the $\text{MeV-TeV}$ mass range. The catalyzed annih…
Dark matter (DM) is added to the Froggatt-Nielsen (FN) mechanism, and conditions for its successful freezeout identified. Requesting the FN scale $Λ_{\text{FN}}$ to be the cutoff of the theory renders freezeout scenarios surprisingly few. Fermionic DM is typically charged under $U(1)_{\text{FN}}$, with the dominant annihilation channel a CP-even flavon + CP-odd flavon. A minimal case is when the DM-flavon coupling strength is $\mathcal{O}(1)$, with several implications: (1) the DM mass is $\mathcal{O}$(100 GeV - 1 TeV), thanks to the WIMP coincidence, (2) requiring perturbativity of couplings …
A new method is proposed for extracting limits on spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon interaction cross sections from direct detection dark matter experiments. The new method has the advantage that the limits on individual WIMP-proton and WIMP-neutron cross sections for a given WIMP mass can be combined in a simple way to give a model-independent limit on the properties of WIMPs scattering from both protons and neutrons in the target nucleus. Extension of the technique to the case of a target material consisting of several different species of nuclei is discussed.
Two populations of axions can contribute to cold dark matter: the classical field produced via the misalignment mechanism, and the modes produced in the decay of strings. The classical field has extra pressure, as compared to WIMPs, which could have observable consequences in non-linear galaxy formation.
Weakly-interacting massive particles (WIMPs) annihilating in the center of the Sun or the Earth may give rise to energetic neutrinos which might be discovered by astronomical neutrino detectors. The angular distribution of the neutrino-induced muons is considered in detail via Monte Carlo simulations. It is shown that large underground Čerenkov neutrino telescopes might be able to extract the WIMP mass from the width of the muon angular distribution.
The differential event rate for direct detection of dark matter, both the time averaged and the modulated one due to the motion of the Earth, are discussed. The calculations focus on relatively light cold dark matter candidates (WIMP) and low energy transfers. It is shown that for sufficiently light WIMPs the extraction of relatively large nucleon cross sections is possible. Furthermore for some WIMP masses the modulation amplitude may change sign, meaning that, in such a case, the maximum rate may occur six months later than naively expected. This effect can be exploited to yield information …
WIMP direct detection experiments probe the ultra-local dark matter density and velocity distribution. We review how uncertainties in these quantities affect the accuracy with which the WIMP mass and cross-section can be constrained or determined.
We propose an extended version of the gauge-mediated SUSY breaking models where extra $SU(2)_L$ doublets and singlet field are introduced. These fields are assumed to be parity-odd under an additional matter parity. In this model, the lightest parity-odd particle among them would be dark matter in the Universe. In this paper, we discuss direct detection of the dark matter and the collider signatures of the model
The WIMP "miracle" suggests a new physics threshold ranging from the weak scale up to several tens of TeVs. Obtaining the correct dark matter density in many theories aiming to solve the hierarchy problem may thus require some amount of tuning of the weak scale, hinting at a possible connection between WIMP dark matter and unnaturalness. We point out that dark matter direct detection is a very efficient probe of these unnatural models, and that existing data already provide important clues to the nature of the associated WIMPs. We present a model-independent, relativistic analysis of the signa…
We estimate the Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe (BAU) produced in an inverse seesaw model containing extra light singlets, and with lepton number conservation prior to the electroweak phase transition. An order one CP asymmetry epsilon is required to obtain a large enough BAU. We discuss the relation between the baryon and WIMP relic densities in baryogenesis scenarios using the out-of-equilibrium decay of a baryon-parent of mass M: when baryon number violation freezes out, the remaining density of baryon-parents is of order M/m_W times the WIMP relic density. So the baryon/WIMP ratio is or o…
A Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) provides an attractive dark matter candidate, and should be within reach of the next generation of high-energy colliders. We consider the process of direct WIMP pair-production, accompanied by an initial-state radiation photon, in electron-positron collisions at the proposed International Linear Collider (ILC). We present a parametrization of the differential cross section for this process which conveniently separates the model-independent information provided by cosmology from the model-dependent inputs from particle physics. As an application, we …
The recent WMAP and Planck data have confirmed that exotic dark matter together with the vacuum energy (cosmological constant) dominate in the flat Universe. Many extensions of the standard model provide dark matter candidates, in particular Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). %Supersymmetry provides a natural dark matter candidate, the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). Thus the direct dark matter detection is central to particle physics and cosmology. Most of the research on this issue has hitherto focused on the detection of the recoiling nucleus. In this paper we study trans…
Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are one of the leading candidates for Dark Matter. So far we can use direct Dark Matter detection to estimate the mass of halo WIMPs only by fitting predicted recoil spectra to future experimental data. Here we develop a model-independent method for determining the WIMP mass by using experimental data directly. This method is independent of the as yet unknown WIMP density near the Earth as well as of the WIMP-nuclear cross section and can be used to extract information about WIMP mass with O(50) events.
The Planck and WMAP9 satellites, as well as the ATACAMA and South Pole telescopes, have recently presented results on the angular power spectrum of the comic microwave background. Data tentatively point to the existence of an extra radiation component in the early universe. Here, we show that this extra component can be mimicked by ordinary WIMP dark matter particles whose majority is cold, but with a small fraction being non-thermally produced in a relativistic state. We present a few example theories where this scenario is explicitly realized, and explore the relevant parameter space consist…
As direct and indirect dark matter detection experiments continue to place stringent constraints on WIMP masses and couplings, it becomes imperative to expand the scope of the search for particle dark matter by looking in new and exotic places. One such place may be the core of active galactic nuclei where the density of dark matter is expected to be extremely high. Recently, several groups have explored the possibility of observing signals of dark matter from its interactions with the high-energy jets emanating from these galaxies. In this work, we build upon these analyses by including the o…
The recent WMAP and Planck data have confirmed that exotic dark matter together with the vacuum energy (cosmological constant) dominate in the flat Universe. Many extensions of the standard model provide dark matter candidates, in particular Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). Thus the direct dark matter detection is central to particle physics and cosmology. Most of the research on this issue has hitherto focused on the detection of the recoiling nucleus. In this paper we study transitions to the excited states, possible in some nuclei, which have sufficiently low lying excited stat…
The spectrum of an isotropic extragalactic $γ$-ray background (EGB) has been measured by the Fermi-LAT telescope at high latitudes. Two new models for the EGB are derived from the subtraction of unresolved point sources and extragalactic diffuse processes, which could explain from 30% to 70% of the Fermi-LAT EGB. Within the hypothesis that the two residual EGBs are entirely due to the annihilation of dark matter (DM) particles in the Galactic halo, we obtain $conservative$ upper limits on their annihilation cross section \sigmav. Severe bounds on a possible Sommerfeld enhancement of the annihi…
I study the possibility of directly detecting Ultra-high energy (UHE from now on) WIMPs by the IceCube experiment, via the WIMPs interaction with the nuclei in the ice. I evaluate galactic and extragalactic UHE WIMP and astrophysical and atmospheric neutrino event rates at energy range of 10 TeV - 10 PeV. I assume UHE WIMPs $χ$ are only from the decay of superheavy dark matter $ϕ$, that is $ϕ\toχ\barχ$. If the lifetime of superheavy dark matter $τ_ϕ$ is taken to be $5\times10^{21}$s, WIMPs can be detected at energies above O(40-100)TeV in this detection. Since UHE WIMP fluxes are actually depe…
The annual modulation of the recoil spectrum observed in an underground detector is well known as the main signature of a possible WIMP signal. The GENIUS-TF experiment, under construction in the Gran Sasso National Laboratory, can search for the annual modulation of the Dark Matter signal using 40 kg of naked-Ge detectors in liquid nitrogen. Starting from a set of data simulated under the hypothesis of modulation and using different methods, we show the potential of GENIUS-TF for extracting the modulated signal and the expected WIMP mass and WIMP cross section.
The effects of a possible rotation of the galactic dark halo on the calculation of the direct detection rates for particle dark matter are analyzed, with special attention to the extraction of the upper limits on the WIMP--nucleon scalar cross section from the experimental data. We employ a model of dark halo rotation which describes the maximal possible effects. For WIMP masses above 50 GeV, the upper limit exclusion plot is modified by less than a factor of two when rotation is included. For lighter masses the effect can be stronger, suggesting the necessity to develop specific models of hal…
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are one of the leading candidates for Dark Matter. So far the usual procedure for constraining the WIMP-nucleon cross sections in direct Dark Matter detection experiments have been to fit the predicted event rate based on some model(s) of the Galactic halo and of WIMPs to experimental data. One has to assume whether the spin-independent (SI) or the spin-dependent (SD) WIMP-nucleus interaction dominates, and results of such data analyses are also expressed as functions of the as yet unknown WIMP mass. In this article, I introduce methods for extracti…
The spectrum of photons arising from WIMP annihilation carries a detailed imprint of the structure of the dark sector. In particular, loop-level annihilations into a photon and another boson can in principle lead to a series of lines (a WIMP forest) at energies up to the WIMP mass. A specific model which illustrates this feature nicely is a theory of two universal extra dimensions compactified on a chiral square. Aside from the continuum emission, which is a generic prediction of most dark matter candidates, we find a "forest" of prominent annihilation lines that, after convolution with the an…
We have built a lepton-specific next-to-minimal two-Higgs-doublet-portal vector dark matter model. The vector dark matter in the hidden sector does not directly couple to the visible sector, but instead annihilates into the hidden Higgs bosons which decay through a small coupling into the CP-odd Higgs bosons. In this model, the Galactic center gamma-ray excess is mainly due to the 2-step cascade annihilation with $τ$'s in the final state. The obtained mass of the CP-odd Higgs $A$ in the Galactic center excess fit can explain the muon $g-2$ anomaly at the 2$σ$ level without violating the string…
This work deals with right handed sneutrino as thermal cold dark matter candidate. This scalar emerges in a supersymmetric version of $SU(3)_c \otimes SU(3)_L \otimes U(1)_X$ gauge model where right handed neutrinos are a natural component of leptonic chiral scalar supermultiplets. We first consider the issue of a $125$~GeV Higgs boson mass in this model, showing that constraints on stop mass and trilinear soft coupling are considerably alleviated compared to MSSM. Then we investigate the region of parameter space that is consistent with right handed sneutrino as thermal cold dark matter, unde…
We reexamine the model-independent data analysis methods for extracting properties of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) by using data (measured recoil energies) from direct Dark Matter detection experiments directly and, as a more realistic study, consider a small fraction of residue background events, which pass all discrimination criteria and then mix with other real WIMP-induced signals in the analyzed data sets. In this talk, the effects of residue backgrounds on the determination of the WIMP mass as well as the spin-independent WIMP coupling on nucleons will be discussed.
The Inert Doublet Model (IDM) is a two doublet extension of the Higgs-Brout-Englert sector of the Standard Model with a Z_2 symmetry in order to prevent FCNC. If the Z_2 symmetry is not spontaneously broken, the lightest neutral extra scalar is a dark matter candidate. We briefly review the phenomenology of the model, emphasizing its relevance for the issue of Electroweak Symmetry Breaking (EWSB) and the prospects for detection of dark matter.
The search for weakly-interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter is multi-pronged. Ultimately, the WIMP-dark-matter picture will only be confirmed if different classes of experiments see consistent signals and infer the same WIMP properties. In this work, we review the ideas, methods, and status of direct-detection searches. We focus in particular on extracting WIMP physics (WIMP interactions and phase-space distribution) from direct-detection data in the early discovery days when multiple experiments see of order dozens to hundreds of events. To demonstrate the essential complementarity …
We study the muon anomalous magnetic moment a_μ= (g_μ- 2)/2 in a supersymmetric U(1)' model. The neutralino sector has extra components from the superpartners of the U(1)' gauge boson and the extra Higgs singlets that break the U(1)' symmetry. The theoretical maximum bound on the lightest neutralino mass is much smaller than that of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) because of the mixing pattern of the extra components. In a U(1)' model where the U(1)' symmetry is broken by a secluded sector (the S-model), tanβis required to be < 3 to have realistic electroweak symmetry breaking…
The recent WMAP data have confirmed that exotic dark matter together with the vacuum energy (cosmological constant) dominate in the flat Universe. Thus the direct dark matter search, consisting of detecting the recoiling nucleus, is central to particle physics and cosmology. Modern particle theories naturally provide viable cold dark matter candidates with masses in the GeV-TeV region. Supersymmetry provides the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), theories in extra dimensions the lightest Kaluza-Klein particle (LKP) etc. In such theories the expected rates are much lower than the present e…
We present a detailed analysis of the radio synchrotron emission induced by WIMP dark matter annihilations and decays in extragalactic halos. We compute intensity, angular correlation, and source counts and discuss the impact on the expected signals of dark matter clustering, as well as of other astrophysical uncertainties as magnetic fields and spatial diffusion. Bounds on dark matter microscopic properties are then derived, and, depending on the specific set of assumptions, they are competitive with constraints from other indirect dark matter searches. At GHz frequencies, dark matter sources…
We investigate the signatures of neutrinos produced in the annihilation of WIMP dark matter in the Earth, the Sun and at the Galactic centre within the framework of the Inert Doublet Model and extensions. We consider a dark matter candidate, that we take to be one of the neutral components of an extra Higgs doublet, in three distinct mass ranges, which have all been shown previously to be consistent with both WMAP abundance and direct detection experiments exclusion limits. Specifically, we consider a light WIMP with mass between 4 and 8 GeV (low), a WIMP with mass around 60-70 GeV (middle) an…
In this study, the sensitivity of future lepton colliders to WIMP dark matter is evaluated assuming WIMP pair production accompanied by a photon from initial state radiation, through which the process can be identified. A full detector simulation for the International Large Detector (ILD) concept at the International Linear Collider (ILC) is performed for a \com energy of 500\,GeV. Energy scales of up to $3$\,TeV can be tested for different effective operators for WIMP masses almost up to half the \com energy. The sensitivity benefits from the polarised beams, which can reduce the main SM back…
The origin of both the diffuse high-latitude MeV gamma-ray emission and the 511 keV line flux from the Galactic bulge are uncertain. Previous studies have invoked dark matter physics to independently explain these observations, though as yet none has been able to explain both of these emissions within the well-motivated framework of Weakly-Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). Here we use an unstable WIMP dark matter model to show that it is in fact possible to simultaneously reconcile both of these observations, and in the process show a remarkable coincidence: decaying dark matter with MeV …
We consider an extension of the Standard Model that explains the neutrino masses and has a rich dark matter phenomenology. The model has two dark matter candidates, a vector WIMP and a fermion FIMP, and the sum of their relic densities matches the total dark matter abundance. We extensively study the dark matter production mechanisms and its connection with the neutrino sector, together with various bounds from present and future experiments. The extra scalar field in the model may induce a first-order phase transition in the early Universe. We study the production of stochastic gravitational …
Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are arguably the most natural DM candidates from a particle physics point of view. After their number density has frozen out in the early universe, determining their relic density today, WIMPs are still kept very close to thermal equilibrium by scattering events with standard model particles. The complete decoupling from the thermal bath happens as late as around 1-10 MeV, thereby setting an important cosmological scale that can directly be translated into a small-scale cutoff of the spectrum of matter density fluctuations. We present here a full an…
We examine a real electroweak triplet scalar field as dark matter, abandoning the requirement that its relic abundance is determined through freeze out in a standard cosmological history (a situation which we refer to as a 'miracle-less WIMP'). We extract the bounds on such a particle from collider searches, searches for direct scattering with terrestrial targets, and searches for the indirect products of annihilation. Each type of search provides complementary information, and each is most effective in a different region of parameter space. LHC searches tend to be highly dependent on the mass…
Recent observations suggest that the number of relativistic degrees of freedom in the early universe might exceed what is predicted in the standard cosmological model. If even a small, percent-level fraction of dark matter particles are produced relativistically, they could mimic the effect of an extra realistic species at matter-radiation equality while obeying BBN, CMB and Structure Formation bounds. We show that this scenario is quite naturally realized with a weak-scale dark matter particle and a high-scale ``mother'' particle within a well motivated 3-3-1 gauge model, which is particularl…
Measurement of the extragalactic background (EGBR) of diffuse gamma-rays is perhaps one of the most challenging tasks for future gamma-ray observatories, such as GLAST. This is because any determination will depend on accurate subtraction of the galactic diffuse and celestial foregrounds, as well as point sources. However, the EGBR is likely to contain very rich information about the high energy-gamma ray sources of the Universe at cosmological distances. We focus on the ability of GLAST to detect a signal from dark matter in the EGBR. We present sensitivities for generic thermal WIMPs and the…
WIMPs are promising dark matter candidates. A WIMP occasionally collides with a mirror equipped with interferometric gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA and the Einstein Telescope (ET). When WIMPs collide with a mirror of an interferometer, we expect that characteristic motions of the pendulum and mirror are excited, and those signals could be extracted by highly sophisticated sensors developed for gravitational wave detection. We analyze the motions of the pendulum and mirror, and estimate the detectability of these motions. For the "Thin-ET" detector, the signal-to-noise …
Brane world theories contain additional degrees of freedom related to the geometry of the extra dimension space which can be understood as brane oscillations (branons). In the case where the fundamental gravitational scale is much larger than the brane tension scale, these branons are the only extra degrees of freedom at low energies coming from the extra dimensions. Branons are generically stable, weakly interacting and massive. They could be produced in the next generation colliders and at the same time they are natural WIMP like candidates for dark matter.
We present a model with dark matter in an anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking hidden sector with a U(1)xU(1) gauge symmetry. The symmetries of the model stabilize the dark matter and forbid the introduction of new mass parameters. As a result, the thermal relic density is completely determined by the gravitino mass and dimensionless couplings. Assuming non-hierarchical couplings, the thermal relic density is ~ 0.1, independent of the dark matter's mass and interaction strength, realizing the WIMPless miracle. The model has several striking features. For particle physics, stability of the d…
