The waning of the WIMP? A review of models, searches, and constraints

First Results in the Search for Dark Sectors at NA64 with the CERN SPS High Energy Muon Beam

We report the first search for dark sectors performed at the NA64 experiment employing a high energy muon beam and a missing energy-momentum technique. Muons from the M2 beamline at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron with a momentum of 160  GeV/c are directed to an active target. The signal signature consists of a single scattered muon with momentum <80  GeV/c in the final state, accompanied by missing energy, i.e., no detectable activity in the downstream calorimeters. For a total dataset of (1.98±0.02)×10^{10} muons on target, no event is observed in the expected signal region. This allows us to set new limits on the remaining (m_{Z^{'}},g_{Z^{'}}) parameter space of a new Z^{'} (L_{μ}-L_{τ}) vector boson which could explain the muon (g-2)_{μ} anomaly. Additionally, our study excludes part of the parameter space suggested by the thermal dark matter relic abundance. Our results pave the way to explore dark sectors and light dark matter with muon beams in a unique and complementary way to other experiments.

Axion Paradigm with Color-Mediated Neutrino Masses

We propose a generalized Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov-type axion framework in which colored fermions and scalars act as two-loop Majorana neutrino-mass mediators. The global Peccei-Quinn symmetry under which exotic fermions are charged solves the strong CP problem. Within our general proposal, various setups can be distinguished by probing the axion-to-photon coupling at helioscopes and haloscopes. We also comment on axion dark-matter production in the early Universe.

Dark Photon Searches via Higgs Boson Production at the LHC and Beyond

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 masses of portal (messenger) fields connecting the dark and the observable sectors. A violation of this expectation is provided by dark photon production mediated by the Higgs boson, thanks to the non-decoupling Higgs properties. Higgs boson production at colliders, followed by the Higgs decay into a photon and a dark photon, provides then a very promising production mechanism for the dark photon discovery, being insensitive in particular regimes to the UV scale of the new physics. This decay channel gives rise to a peculiar signature characterized by a monochromatic photon with energy half the Higgs mass (in the Higgs rest frame) plus missing energy. We show how such resonant photon-plus-missing-energy signature can uniquely be connected to a dark photon production. Higgs boson production and decay into a photon and a dark photon as a source of dark photons is reviewed at the Large Hadron Collider, in light of the present bounds on the corresponding signature by the CMS and ATLAS collaborations. Perspectives for the dark photon production in Higgs-mediated processes at future e+e− colliders are also discussed.

CP Violation for the Heavens and the Earth

Electroweak baryogenesis can be driven by the top quark in a general two Higgs doublet model with extra Yukawa couplings. Higgs quartics provide the first order phase transition, while extra top Yukawa coupling ρtt can fuel the cosmic baryon asymmetry through the λtImρtt product, with flavor-changing ρtc coupling as backup. The impressive ACME 2018 bound on the electron electric dipole moment calls for an extra electron coupling ρee for exquisite cancellation among dangerous diagrams, broadening the baryogenesis solution space. The mechanism suggests that extra Yukawa couplings echo the hierarchical structure of standard Yukawa couplings. Phenomenological consequences in the Higgs search and flavor physics are discussed, with μ and τ EDM touched upon.

Bose–Einstein Condensate Dark Matter That Involves Composites

Improving the Bose–Einstein condensate model of dark matter through the repulsive three-particle interaction to better reproduce observables such as rotation curves reveals both different thermodynamic phases and few-particle correlations. Using the numerically found solutions of the Gross–Pitaevskii equation for averaging the products of local densities and for calculating thermodynamic functions at zero temperature, it is shown that the few-particle correlations imply a first-order phase transition and are reduced to the product of single-particle averages with a simultaneous increase in pressure, density, and quantum fluctuations. Under given conditions, dark matter exhibits the properties of an ideal gas with an effective temperature determined by quantum fluctuations. Characteristics of oscillations between bound and unbound states of three particles are estimated within a simple random walk approach to qualitatively model the instability of particle complexes. On the other hand, the density-dependent conditions for the formation of composites are analyzed using chemical kinetics without specifying the bonds formed. The obtained results can be extended to the models of multicomponent dark matter consisting of composites formed by particles with a large scattering length.

Collider Searches for Dark Matter through the Higgs Lens

Despite the fact that dark matter constitutes one of the cornerstones of the standard cosmological paradigm, its existence has so far only been inferred from astronomical observations, and its microscopic nature remains elusive. Theoretical arguments suggest that dark matter might be connected to the symmetry-breaking mechanism of the electroweak interactions or of other symmetries extending the Standard Model of particle physics. The resulting Higgs bosons, including the 125 GeV spin-0 particle discovered recently at the Large Hadron Collider, therefore represent a unique tool to search for dark matter candidates at collider experiments. This article reviews some of the relevant theoretical models as well as the results from the searches for dark matter in signatures that involve a Higgs-like particle at the Large Hadron Collider.

Cold Particle Dark Matter

Possible dark matter candidates in particle physics span a mass range extending over fifty orders of magnitude. In this review, we consider the range of masses from a few keV to a few hundred TeV, which is relevant for cold particle dark matter. We will consider models where dark matter arises as weakly coupled elementary fields and models where dark matter is a composite state bound by a new strong interaction. Different production mechanisms for dark matter in these models will be described. The landscape of direct and indirect searches for dark matter and some of the resulting constraints on models will be briefly discussed.

Fundamental Properties of the Dark and the Luminous Matter from the Low Surface Brightness Discs

Dark matter (DM) is one of the biggest mystery in the Universe. In this review, we start reporting the evidences for this elusive component and discussing about the proposed particle candidates and scenarios for such phenomenon. Then, we focus on recent results obtained for rotating disc galaxies, in particular for low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies. The main observational properties related to the baryonic matter in LSBs, investigated over the last decades, are briefly recalled. Next, these galaxies are analyzed by means of the mass modelling of their rotation curves both individual and stacked. The latter analysis, via the universal rotation curve (URC) method, results really powerful in giving a global or universal description of the properties of these objects. We report the presence in LSBs of scaling relations among their structural properties that result comparable with those found in galaxies of different morphologies. All this confirms, in disc systems, the existence of a strong entanglement between the luminous matter (LM) and the dark matter (DM). Moreover, we report how in LSBs the tight relationship between their radial gravitational accelerations g and their baryonic components gb results to depend also on the stellar disk length scale and the radius at which the two accelerations have been measured. LSB galaxies strongly challenge the ΛCDM scenario with the relative collisionless dark particle and, alongside with the non-detection of the latter, contribute to guide us towards a new scenario for the DM phenomenon.

Muon g-2 and B Anomalies from Dark Matter

In light of the recent result of the muon g-2 experiment and the update on the test of lepton flavor universality R_{K} published by the LHCb Collaboration, we systematically study for the first time a set of models with minimal field content that can simultaneously give (i) a thermal dark matter candidate; (ii) large loop contributions to b→sℓℓ processes able to address R_{K} and the other B anomalies; (iii) a natural solution to the muon g-2 discrepancy through chirally enhanced contributions. Moreover, this type of model with heavy particles and chiral enhancement can evade the strong limits from direct searches but can be tested at present and future colliders and direct-detection searches.

Dark Matter Freeze-Out via Catalyzed Annihilation

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 in which the depletion of dark matter proceeds via 2χ→2A^{'} and 3A^{'}→2χ processes, where 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 classical weakly interacting massive particles and strongly interacting massive particles. The paradigm applies for a secluded weakly interacting dark sector with dark matter in the MeV-TeV mass range. The catalyzed annihilation paradigm is compatible with cosmic microwave background and big bang nucleosynthesis constraints, with enhanced indirect detection signals.

Dark Matter Searches at LNF

In recent years, the absence of experimental evidence for searches dedicated to dark matter has triggered the development of new ideas on the nature of this entity, which manifests at the cosmological level. Some of these can be explored by small experiments with a short timescale and an investment that can be afforded by national laboratories, such as the Frascati one. This is the main reason why a laboratory that, traditionally, was focused in particle physics studies with accelerators has begun intense activity in this field of research.

Multimessenger Probes for New Physics in Light of A. Sakharov’s Legacy in Cosmoparticle Physics

A.D. Sakharov’s legacy in now standard model of the Universe is not reduced to baryosynthesis but extends to the foundation of cosmoparticle physics, which studies the fundamental relationship of cosmology and particle physics. Development of cosmoparticle physics involves cross-disciplinary physical, astrophysical and cosmological studies of physics Beyond the Standard model (BSM) of elementary particles. To probe physical models for inflation, baryosynthesis and dark matter cosmoparticle physics pays special attention to model dependent messengers of the corresponding models, making their tests possible. Positive evidence for such exotic phenomena as nuclear interacting dark atoms, primordial black holes or antimatter globular cluster in our galaxy would provide the selection of viable BSM models determination of their parameters.

Exploring direct detection suppressed regions in a simple 2-scalar mediator model of scalar dark matter

We explore regions of parameter space that give rise to suppressed direct detection cross sections in a simple model of scalar dark matter with a scalar portal that mixes with the standard model Higgs. We found that even this simple model allows considerable room in the parameter space that has not been excluded by direct detection limits. A number of effects leading to this result have been previously noted. Our main new result explores interference effects between different contributions to DM annihilation when the DM mass is larger than the scalar portal mass. New annihilation channels open up and the parameters of the model need to compensate to give the correct DM relic abundance, resulting in smaller direct detection cross sections. We find that even in a very simple model of DM there are still sizeable regions of parameter space that are not ruled out by experiment.

Direct Detection of Hawking Radiation from Asteroid-Mass Primordial Black Holes

Light, asteroid-mass primordial black holes, with lifetimes in the range between hundreds to several millions times the age of the Universe, are well-motivated candidates for the cosmological dark matter. Using archival COMPTEL data, we improve over current constraints on the allowed parameter space of primordial black holes as dark matter by studying their evaporation to soft gamma rays in nearby astrophysical structures. We point out that a new generation of proposed MeV gamma-ray telescopes will offer the unique opportunity to directly detect Hawking evaporation from observations of nearby dark matter dense regions and to constrain, or discover, the primordial black hole dark matter.

New Physics of Strong Interaction and Dark Universe

The history of dark universe physics can be traced from processes in the very early universe to the modern dominance of dark matter and energy. Here, we review the possible nontrivial role of strong interactions in cosmological effects of new physics. In the case of ordinary QCD interaction, the existence of new stable colored particles such as new stable quarks leads to new exotic forms of matter, some of which can be candidates for dark matter. New QCD-like strong interactions lead to new stable composite candidates bound by QCD-like confinement. We put special emphasis on the effects of interaction between new stable hadrons and ordinary matter, formation of anomalous forms of cosmic rays and exotic forms of matter, like stable fractionally charged particles. The possible correlation of these effects with high energy neutrino and cosmic ray signatures opens the way to study new physics of strong interactions by its indirect multi-messenger astrophysical probes.

Non-Relativistic Limit of Embedding Gravity as General Relativity with Dark Matter

Regge-Teitelboim embedding gravity is the modified gravity based on a simple string-inspired geometrical principle—our spacetime is considered here as a 4-dimensional surface in a flat bulk. This theory is similar to the recently popular theory of mimetic gravity—the modification of gravity appears in both theories as a result of the change of variables in the action of General Relativity. Embedding gravity, as well as mimetic gravity, can be used in explaining the dark matter mystery since, in both cases, the modified theory can be presented as General Relativity with additional fictitious matter (embedding matter or mimetic matter). For the general case, we obtain the equations of motion of embedding matter in terms of embedding function as a set of first-order dynamical equations and constraints consistent with them. Then, we construct a non-relativistic limit of these equations, in which the motion of embedding matter turns out to be slow enough so that it can play the role of cold dark matter. The non-relativistic embedding matter turns out to have a certain self-interaction, which could be useful in the context of solving the core-cusp problem that appears in the Λ-Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM) model.

New Freezeout Mechanism for Strongly Interacting Dark Matter

We present a new mechanism for thermally produced dark matter, based on a semi-annihilation-like process, χ+χ+SM→χ+SM, with intriguing consequences for the properties of dark matter. First, its mass is low, ≲1  GeV (but ≳5  keV to avoid structure-formation constraints). Second, it is strongly interacting, leading to kinetic equilibrium between the dark and visible sectors, avoiding the structure-formation problems of χ+χ+χ→χ+χ models. Third, in the 3→2 process, one dark matter particle is consumed, giving the standard-model particle a monoenergetic recoil. We show that this new scenario is presently allowed, which is surprising (perhaps a "minor miracle"). However, it can be systematically tested by novel analyses in present and near-term experiments. In particular, the Co-SIMP model for thermal-relic dark matter can explain the XENON1T excess.

Quasielastic Lepton Scattering off Two-Component Dark Matter in Hypercolor Model

The interaction of high-energy leptons with components of Dark Matter in a hypercolor model is considered. The possibility of detection, using IceCube secondary neutrinos produced by quasielastic scattering of cosmic ray electrons off hidden mass particles, is investigated. The dominant contribution to the cross section results from diagrams with scalar exchanges. A strong dependence of the total cross section on the Dark Matter components mass is also found.

Rapid Bound State Formation of Dark Matter in the Early Universe

The formation and decay of dark matter (DM) bound states deplete the thermal relic density during the chemical decoupling process, allowing for larger DM masses. While so far the bound state formation (BSF) has been described via the emission of an on-shell mediator, we point out that this particular process does not have to be the dominant one in general. If the mediator is coupled in a direct way to any relativistic species present in the early Universe, we demonstrate that BSF can much more efficiently occur through particle scattering. Consequently, DM can be heavier than previously expected.

New Bounds from Positronium Decays on Massless Mirror Dark Photons

We present the results of a search for a hidden mirror sector in positronium decays with a sensitivity comparable with the bounds set by the prediction of the primordial He^{4} abundance from big bang nucleosynthesis. No excess of events compatible with decays into the dark sector is observed, resulting in an upper limit for the branching ratio of this process of 3.0×10^{-5} (90% C.L.). This is an order of magnitude more stringent than the current existing laboratory bounds and it constrains the mixing strength of ordinary photons to dark mirror photons at a level of ϵ<5.0×10^{-8}.

An Introduction to Particle Dark Matter

We review the features of Dark Matter as a particle, presenting some old and new instructive models, and looking for their physical implications in the early universe and in the process of structure formation. We also present a schematic of Dark Matter searches and introduce the most promising candidates to the role of Dark Matter particle.

Constraints on Axionlike Dark Matter with Masses Down to 10^{-23} eV/c^{2}

We analyzed a 6.7-yr span of data from a rotating torsion-pendulum containing ≈10^{23} polarized electrons to search for the "wind" arising from ultralight, axionlike dark matter with masses between 10^{-23} and 10^{-18}  eV/c^{2}. Over much of this range we set a 95% confidence limit F_{a}/C_{e}>2×10^{15}  eV on the axionlike decay constant.

Scalar singlet dark matter in non-standard cosmologies

We study production of dark matter (DM) in models with a non-standard expansion history. We consider both freeze-out and freeze-in mechanisms for producing the observed DM abundance in a model where the DM consists of scalar singlet particles coupled to the Standard Model sector via the Higgs portal. We show that a non-standard expansion phase can lead to a significant change in the DM abundance and therefore to observational ramifications. For example, for DM freeze-in the required portal coupling can be much larger, whereas for DM freeze-out much smaller values become allowed. We evaluate the relevant constraints and discuss prospects for direct detection of such DM.

Directly Detecting Sub-GeV Dark Matter with Electrons from Nuclear Scattering

Dark matter (DM) particles with mass in the sub-GeV range are an attractive alternative to heavier weakly interacting massive particles, but direct detection of such light particles is challenging. If, however, DM-nucleus scattering leads to ionization of the recoiling atom, the resulting electron may be detected even if the nuclear recoil is unobservable. We demonstrate that including this effect significantly enhances direct detection sensitivity to sub-GeV DM. Existing experiments set world-leading limits, and future experiments may probe the cross sections relevant for thermal freeze-out.

Detecting fluorescent dark matter with X-ray lasers

Fluorescent dark matter has been suggested as a possible explanation of both the 3.5 keV excess in the diffuse emission of the Perseus Cluster and of the deficit at the same energy in the central active galaxy within that cluster, NGC 1275. In this work we point out that such a dark matter candidate can be searched for at the new X-ray laser facilities that are currently being built and starting to operate around the world. We present one possible experimental set up where the laser is passed through a narrow cylinder lined with lead shielding. Fluorescent dark matter would be excited upon interaction with the laser photons and travel across the lead shielding to decay outside the cylinder, in a region which has been instrumented with X-ray detectors. For an instrumented length of 7 cm at the LCLS-II laser we expect O (1-10) such events per week for parameters which explain the astronomical observations.

WIMP dark matter candidates and searches-current status and future prospects

We review several current aspects of dark matter theory and experiment. We overview the present experimental status, which includes current bounds and recent claims and hints of a possible signal in a wide range of experiments: direct detection in underground laboratories, gamma-ray, cosmic ray, x-ray, neutrino telescopes, and the LHC. We briefly review several possible particle candidates for a weakly interactive massive particle (WIMP) and dark matter that have recently been considered in the literature. We pay particular attention to the lightest neutralino of supersymmetry as it remains the best motivated candidate for dark matter and also shows excellent detection prospects. Finally we briefly review some alternative scenarios that can considerably alter properties and prospects for the detection of dark matter obtained within the standard thermal WIMP paradigm.

Self-Heating Dark Matter via Semiannihilation

The freeze-out of dark matter (DM) depends on the evolution of the DM temperature. The DM temperature does not have to follow the standard model one, when the elastic scattering is not sufficient to maintain the kinetic equilibrium. We study the temperature evolution of the semiannihilating DM, where a pair of the DM particles annihilate into one DM particle and another particle coupled to the standard model sector. We find that the kinetic equilibrium is maintained solely via semiannihilation until the last stage of the freeze-out. After the freeze-out, semiannihilation converts the mass deficit to the kinetic energy of DM, which leads to nontrivial evolution of the DM temperature. We argue that the DM temperature redshifts like radiation as long as the DM self-interaction is efficient. We dub this novel temperature evolution as self-heating. Notably, the structure formation is suppressed at subgalactic scales like keV-scale warm DM but with GeV-scale self-heating DM if the self-heating lasts roughly until the matter-radiation equality. The long duration of the self-heating requires the large self-scattering cross section, which in turn flattens the DM density profile in inner halos. Consequently, self-heating DM can be a unified solution to apparent failures of cold DM to reproduce the observed subgalactic scale structure of the Universe.