Search

We introduce a model for matter genesis in which both the baryonic and dark matter asymmetries originate from a first-order phase transition in a dark sector with an SU(3)×SU(2)×U(1) gauge group and minimal matter content. In the simplest scenario, we predict that dark matter is a dark antineutron with mass of either mn¯=1.36 GeV or mn¯=1.63 GeV. Alternatively, dark matter may be comprised of equal numbers of dark antiprotons and pions. In either scenario, this model is highly discoverable through both dark matter direct detection and dark photon search experiments. The strong dark matter self-interactions may ameliorate small-scale structure problems, while the strongly first-order phase transition may be confirmed at future gravitational wave observatories.

It is often said that asymmetric dark matter is light compared to typical weakly interacting massive particles. Here we point out a simple scheme with a neutrino portal and O(60 GeV) asymmetric dark matter which may be "added"to any standard electroweak baryogenesis scenario. The dark sector contains a copy of the Standard Model gauge group, as well as one matter family (at least), Higgs, and right-handed neutrino. After baryogenesis, some lepton asymmetry is transferred to the dark sector through the neutrino portal where dark sphalerons convert it into a dark baryon asymmetry. Dark hadrons form asymmetric dark matter and may be directly detected due to the vector portal. Surprisingly, even dark anti-neutrons may be directly detected if they have a sizeable electric dipole moment. The dark photons visibly decay in current and future experiments which probe complementary parameter space to dark matter direct detection searches. Exotic Higgs decays are excellent signals at future e+e- Higgs factories.

We present a model of self-interacting dark matter based on QCD-like theories and inspired by the proximity of a0(980 ± 20) to the KK¯ (990) threshold. Dark matter is comprised of dark pions which self-scatter via the σ resonance close to the ππ threshold. While the linear sigma model serves as a qualitative guide, a fully unitary description of the scattering in the strongly coupled regime is given by effective range theory. The introduction of a kinetically mixed dark photon allows the dark pion to either freeze-out or -in. We study the viable parameter space which explains the observed relic abundance while evading all current constraints. Searches for dark matter self interactions at different scales, (in)direct detection signals, and (in)visibly-decaying dark photons will test this model in the near future.

© 2020, The Author(s). The twin Higgs mechanism is a solution to the little hierarchy problem in which the top partner is neutral under the Standard Model (SM) gauge group. The simplest mirror twin Higgs (MTH) model — where a Z2 symmetry copies each SM particle — has too many relativistic degrees of freedom to be consistent with cosmological observations. We demonstrate that MTH models can have an observationally viable cosmology if the twin mass spectrum leads to twin neutrino decoupling before the SM and twin QCD phase transitions. Our solution requires the twin photon to have a mass of ∼ 20 MeV and kinetically mix with the SM photon to mediate entropy transfer from the twin sector to the SM. This twin photon can be robustly discovered or excluded by future experiments. Additionally, the residual twin degrees of freedom present in the early Universe in this scenario would be detectable by future observations of the cosmic microwave background.

© 2020, The Author(s). We present a very minimal model for baryogenesis by a dark first-order phase transition. It employs a new dark SU(2)D gauge group with two doublet Higgs bosons, two lepton doublets, and two singlets. The singlets act as a neutrino portal that transfer the generated asymmetry to the Standard Model. The model predicts ∆Neff = 0.09–0.13 detectable by future experiments as well as possible signals from exotic decays of the Higgs and Z bosons and stochastic gravitational waves.

Absorption of fermionic dark matter leads to a range of distinct and novel signatures at dark matter direct detection and neutrino experiments. We study the possible signals from fermionic absorption by nuclear targets, which we divide into two classes of four Fermi operators: neutral and charged current. In the neutral current signal, dark matter is absorbed by a target nucleus and a neutrino is emitted. This results in a characteristically different nuclear recoil energy spectrum from that of elastic scattering. The charged current channel leads to induced β decays in isotopes which are stable in vacuum as well as shifts of the kinematic endpoint of β spectra in unstable isotopes. To confirm the possibility of observing these signals in light of other constraints, we introduce UV completions of example higher dimensional operators that lead to fermionic absorption signals and study their phenomenology. Most prominently, dark matter which exhibits fermionic absorption signals is necessarily unstable leading to stringent bounds from indirect detection searches. Nevertheless, we find a large viable parameter space in which dark matter is sufficiently long lived and detectable in current and future experiments.

A recent cosmological bound on the gravitino mass, m3/2

Dark matter could be a thermal relic comprised of strongly interacting massive particles (SIMPs), where 3→2 interactions set the relic abundance. Such interactions generically arise in theories of chiral symmetry breaking via the Wess-Zumino-Witten term. In this work, we show that an axionlike particle can successfully maintain kinetic equilibrium between the dark matter and the visible sector, allowing the requisite entropy transfer that is crucial for SIMPs to be a cold dark matter candidate. Constraints on this scenario arise from beam dump and collider experiments, from the cosmic microwave background, and from supernovae. We find a viable parameter space when the axionlike particle is close in mass to the SIMP dark matter, with strong-scale masses of order a few hundred MeV. Many planned experiments are set to probe the parameter space in the near future.