Abstract
In most models of the dark sector, dark matter is charged under some new symmetry to make it stable. We explore the possibility that not just dark matter, but also the force carrier connecting it to the visible sector is charged under this symmetry. This dark mediator then acts as a Double-Dark Portal. We realize this setup in the dark mediator Dark matter model (dmDM), featuring a fermionic DM candidate χ with Yukawa couplings to light scalars ϕ i . The scalars couple to SM quarks via the operator \( \overline{q}q{\phi}_i^{\ast }{\phi}_j/{\varLambda}_{ij} \). This can lead to large direct detection signals via the 2 → 3 process χN → χN ϕ if one of the scalars has mass ≲ 10 keV. For dark matter Yukawa couplings y χ ∼ 10−3 −10−2, dmDM features a thermal relic dark matter candidate while also implementing the SIDM scenario for ameliorating inconsistencies between dwarf galaxy simulations and observations. We undertake the first systematic survey of constraints on light scalars coupled to the SM via the above operator. The strongest constraints are derived from a detailed examination of the light mediator’s effects on stellar astrophysics. LHC experiments and cosmological considerations also yield important bounds. Observations of neutron star cooling exclude the minimal model with one dark mediator, but a scenario with two dark mediators remains viable and can give strong direct detection signals. We explore the direct detection consequences of this scenario and find that a heavy \( \mathcal{O}\left(100\mathrm{GeV}\right) \) dmDM candidate fakes different \( \mathcal{O}\left(10\mathrm{GeV}\right) \) WIMPs at different experiments. Large regions of dmDM parameter space are accessible above the irreducible neutrino background.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Planck collaboration, P.A.R. Ade et al., Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters, Astron. Astrophys. 571 (2014) A16 [arXiv:1303.5076] [INSPIRE].
G. Jungman, M. Kamionkowski and K. Griest, Supersymmetric dark matter, Phys. Rept. 267 (1996) 195 [hep-ph/9506380] [INSPIRE].
G. Bertone and D. Merritt, Dark matter dynamics and indirect detection, Mod. Phys. Lett. A 20 (2005) 1021 [astro-ph/0504422] [INSPIRE].
M.W. Goodman and E. Witten, Detectability of certain dark matter candidates, Phys. Rev. D 31 (1985) 3059 [INSPIRE].
LUX collaboration, D.S. Akerib et al., First results from the LUX dark matter experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112 (2014) 091303 [arXiv:1310.8214] [INSPIRE].
CDMS collaboration, R. Agnese et al., Silicon detector dark matter results from the final exposure of CDMS II, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111 (2013) 251301 [arXiv:1304.4279] [INSPIRE].
XENON100 collaboration, E. Aprile et al., Dark matter results from 225 live days of XENON100 data, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109 (2012) 181301 [arXiv:1207.5988] [INSPIRE].
R. Bernabei et al., Dark matter investigation by DAMA at Gran Sasso, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 28 (2013) 1330022 [arXiv:1306.1411] [INSPIRE].
CoGeNT collaboration, C.E. Aalseth et al., CoGeNT: a search for low-mass dark matter using p-type point contact germanium detectors, Phys. Rev. D 88 (2013) 012002 [arXiv:1208.5737] [INSPIRE].
G. Angloher et al., Results from 730 kg days of the CRESST-II dark matter search, Eur. Phys. J. C 72 (2012) 1971 [arXiv:1109.0702] [INSPIRE].
D. Curtin, Z. Surujon and Y. Tsai, Direct detection with dark mediators, Phys. Lett. B 738 (2014) 477 [arXiv:1312.2618] [INSPIRE].
D. Tucker-Smith and N. Weiner, Inelastic dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 64 (2001) 043502 [hep-ph/0101138] [INSPIRE].
P.W. Graham, R. Harnik, S. Rajendran and P. Saraswat, Exothermic dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 82 (2010) 063512 [arXiv:1004.0937] [INSPIRE].
R. Essig, J. Kaplan, P. Schuster and N. Toro, On the origin of light dark matter species, arXiv:1004.0691 [INSPIRE].
J. March-Russell, J. Unwin and S.M. West, Closing in on asymmetric dark matter I: model independent limits for interactions with quarks, JHEP 08 (2012) 029 [arXiv:1203.4854] [INSPIRE].
S. Chang, A. Pierce and N. Weiner, Momentum dependent dark matter scattering, JCAP 01 (2010) 006 [arXiv:0908.3192] [INSPIRE].
R. Essig et al., Working group report: new light weakly coupled particles, arXiv:1311.0029 [INSPIRE].
D.S.M. Alves, S.R. Behbahani, P. Schuster and J.G. Wacker, Composite inelastic dark matter, Phys. Lett. B 692 (2010) 323 [arXiv:0903.3945] [INSPIRE].
G.D. Kribs, T.S. Roy, J. Terning and K.M. Zurek, Quirky composite dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 81 (2010) 095001 [arXiv:0909.2034] [INSPIRE].
M. Lisanti and J.G. Wacker, Parity violation in composite inelastic dark matter models, Phys. Rev. D 82 (2010) 055023 [arXiv:0911.4483] [INSPIRE].
J.M. Cline, A.R. Frey and G.D. Moore, Composite magnetic dark matter and the 130 GeV line, Phys. Rev. D 86 (2012) 115013 [arXiv:1208.2685] [INSPIRE].
B. Feldstein, A.L. Fitzpatrick and E. Katz, Form factor dark matter, JCAP 01 (2010) 020 [arXiv:0908.2991] [INSPIRE].
Y. Bai and P.J. Fox, Resonant dark matter, JHEP 11 (2009) 052 [arXiv:0909.2900] [INSPIRE].
E.D. Carlson, M.E. Machacek and L.J. Hall, Self-interacting dark matter, Astrophys. J. 398 (1992) 43 [INSPIRE].
D.N. Spergel and P.J. Steinhardt, Observational evidence for selfinteracting cold dark matter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84 (2000) 3760 [astro-ph/9909386] [INSPIRE].
S. Tulin, H.-B. Yu and K.M. Zurek, Beyond collisionless dark matter: particle physics dynamics for dark matter halo structure, Phys. Rev. D 87 (2013) 115007 [arXiv:1302.3898] [INSPIRE].
J.L. Feng, J. Kumar, D. Marfatia and D. Sanford, Isospin-violating dark matter, Phys. Lett. B 703 (2011) 124 [arXiv:1102.4331] [INSPIRE].
E.W. Kolb and M.S. Turner, The early universe, Front. Phys. 69 (1990) 1 [INSPIRE].
J.L. Feng, M. Kaplinghat, H. Tu and H.-B. Yu, Hidden charged dark matter, JCAP 07 (2009) 004 [arXiv:0905.3039] [INSPIRE].
A.H.G. Peter, M. Rocha, J.S. Bullock and M. Kaplinghat, Cosmological simulations with self-interacting dark matter II: Halo shapes vs. observations, arXiv:1208.3026 [INSPIRE].
S.J. Brice et al., A method for measuring coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering at a far off-axis high-energy neutrino beam target, Phys. Rev. D 89 (2014) 072004 [arXiv:1311.5958] [INSPIRE].
M.S. Turner, H.S. Kang and G. Steigman, The early universe, Westview Press, U.S.A. (1989).
M.K. Volkov, Y. Bystritskiy and E.A. Kuraev, 2γ-decays of scalar mesons (σ(600), f (0)(980) and a(0)(980)) in the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model, arXiv:0901.1981 [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Search for new physics in the multijets and missing momentum final state in proton-proton collisions at 8 TeV, CMS-PAS-SUS-13-012 (2013).
ATLAS collaboration, Search for new phenomena in monojet plus missing transverse momentum final states using 10 fb −1 of pp collisions at \( \sqrt{s}=8 \) TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, ATLAS-CONF-2012-147 (2012).
CMS collaboration, Search for new physics in monojet events in pp collisions at \( \sqrt{s}=8 \) TeV, CMS-PAS-EXO-12-048 (2012).
J. Alwall, M. Herquet, F. Maltoni, O. Mattelaer and T. Stelzer, MadGraph 5: going beyond, JHEP 06 (2011) 128 [arXiv:1106.0522] [INSPIRE].
T. Sjöstrand, S. Mrenna and P.Z. Skands, PYTHIA 6.4 physics and manual, JHEP 05 (2006) 026 [hep-ph/0603175] [INSPIRE].
M. Wyman, D.H. Rudd, R.A. Vanderveld and W. Hu, Neutrinos help reconcile Planck measurements with the local universe, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112 (2014) 051302 [arXiv:1307.7715] [INSPIRE].
F.-Y. Cyr-Racine, R. de Putter, A. Raccanelli and K. Sigurdson, Constraints on large-scale dark acoustic oscillations from cosmology, Phys. Rev. D 89 (2014) 063517 [arXiv:1310.3278] [INSPIRE].
G.G. Raffelt, Astrophysical axion bounds, Lect. Notes Phys. 741 (2008) 51 [hep-ph/0611350] [INSPIRE].
G.G. Raffelt, Stars as laboratories for fundamental physics, University Chicago Press, Chicago U.S.A. (1996).
G.G. Raffelt and G.D. Starkman, Stellar energy transfer by keV mass scalars, Phys. Rev. D 40 (1989)942 [INSPIRE].
H.K. Dreiner, J.-F. Fortin, J. Isern and L. Ubaldi, White dwarfs constrain dark forces, Phys. Rev. D 88 (2013) 043517 [arXiv:1303.7232] [INSPIRE].
S. DeGennaro et al., White dwarf luminosity and mass functions from Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectra, Astron. J. 135 (2008) 1 [arXiv:0709.2190] [INSPIRE].
B. Paxton et al., Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA), Astrophys. J. Suppl. 192 (2011) 3 [arXiv:1009.1622] [INSPIRE].
L. Mestel, On the theory of white dwarf stars. I. The energy sources of white dwarfs, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 112 (1952) 583.
H.C. Harris et al., The white dwarf luminosity function from sdss imaging data, Astron. J. 131 (2006)571 [astro-ph/0510820] [INSPIRE].
J. Krzesinski et al., A hot white dwarf luminosity function from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Astron. Astrophys. 508 (2009) 339.
D.G. Yakovlev and C.J. Pethick, Neutron star cooling, Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 42 (2004) 169 [astro-ph/0402143] [INSPIRE].
D.G. Yakovlev, O.Y. Gnedin, A.D. Kaminker and A.Y. Potekhin, Theory of cooling neutron stars versus observations, AIP Conf. Proc. 983 (2008) 379 [arXiv:0710.2047] [INSPIRE].
D. Page, U. Geppert and F. Weber, The cooling of compact stars, Nucl. Phys. A 777 (2006) 497 [astro-ph/0508056] [INSPIRE].
D. Page, J.M. Lattimer, M. Prakash and A.W. Steiner, Neutrino emission from Cooper pairs and minimal cooling of neutron stars, Astrophys. J. 707 (2009) 1131 [arXiv:0906.1621] [INSPIRE].
D.G. Yakovlev, W.C.G. Ho, P.S. Shternin, C.O. Heinke and A.Y. Potekhin, Cooling rates of neutron stars and the young neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 411 (2011) 1977 [arXiv:1010.1154] [INSPIRE].
D. Page, M. Prakash, J.M. Lattimer and A.W. Steiner, Rapid cooling of the neutron star in Cassiopeia A triggered by neutron superfluidity in dense matter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106 (2011) 081101 [arXiv:1011.6142] [INSPIRE].
P.S. Shternin, D.G. Yakovlev, C.O. Heinke, W.C.G. Ho and D.J. Patnaude, Cooling neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant: evidence for superfluidity in the core, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 412 (2011) L108 [arXiv:1012.0045] [INSPIRE].
A.Y. Potekhin, The physics of neutron stars, Phys. Usp. 53 (2010) 1235 [Usp. Fiz. Nauk 180 (2010) 1279] [arXiv:1102.5735] [INSPIRE].
D. Page, Pairing and the cooling of neutron stars, arXiv:1206.5011 [INSPIRE].
K.G. Elshamouty et al., Measuring the cooling of the neutron star in Cassiopeia A with all Chandra X-ray observatory detectors, Astrophys. J. 777 (2013) 22 [arXiv:1306.3387] [INSPIRE].
P. Demorest, T. Pennucci, S. Ransom, M. Roberts and J. Hessels, Shapiro delay measurement of a two solar mass neutron star, Nature 467 (2010) 1081 [arXiv:1010.5788] [INSPIRE].
E. H. Gundmundsson, C. J. Pehick and R. I. Epstein, Neutron star envelopes, Astrophys. J. 259 (1982) L19.
E.H. Gundmundsson, C.J. Pethick and R.I. Epstein, Structure of neutron star envelopes, Astrophys. J. 272 (1983) 286.
D. Page, J.M. Lattimer, M. Prakash and A.W. Steiner, Minimal cooling of neutron stars: a new paradigm, Astrophys. J. Suppl. 155 (2004) 623 [astro-ph/0403657] [INSPIRE].
S.L. Shapiro and S.A. Teukolsky, Black holes, white dwarfs, and neutron stars: The physics of compact objects, Wiley, New York U.S.A. (1983).
J.M. Lattimer, M. Prakash, C.J. Pethick and P. Haensel, Direct URCA process in neutron stars, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66 (1991) 2701 [INSPIRE].
B. Bertoni, A.E. Nelson and S. Reddy, Dark matter thermalization in neutron stars, Phys. Rev. D 88 (2013) 123505 [arXiv:1309.1721] [INSPIRE].
C. Kouvaris, WIMP annihilation and cooling of neutron stars, Phys. Rev. D 77 (2008) 023006 [arXiv:0708.2362] [INSPIRE].
SuperCDMS collaboration, R. Agnese et al., Search for low-mass weakly interacting massive particles using voltage-assisted calorimetric ionization detection in the SuperCDMS experiment, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112 (2014) 041302 [arXiv:1309.3259] [INSPIRE].
S. Ask et al., From lagrangians to events: computer tutorial at the MC4BSM-2012 workshop, arXiv:1209.0297 [INSPIRE].
G. Bélanger, F. Boudjema, A. Pukhov and A. Semenov, Dark matter direct detection rate in a generic model with MicrOMEGAs 2.2, Comput. Phys. Commun. 180 (2009) 747 [arXiv:0803.2360] [INSPIRE].
A. Crivellin, M. Hoferichter and M. Procura, Accurate evaluation of hadronic uncertainties in spin-independent WIMP-nucleon scattering: Disentangling two- and three-flavor effects, Phys. Rev. D 89 (2014) 054021 [arXiv:1312.4951] [INSPIRE].
J. Engel, Nuclear form-factors for the scattering of weakly interacting massive particles, Phys. Lett. B 264 (1991) 114 [INSPIRE].
J.D. Lewin and P.F. Smith, Review of mathematics, numerical factors and corrections for dark matter experiments based on elastic nuclear recoil, Astropart. Phys. 6 (1996) 87 [INSPIRE].
R.J. Barlow, Extended maximum likelihood, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 297 (1990) 496 [INSPIRE].
J. Billard, L. Strigari and E. Figueroa-Feliciano, Implication of neutrino backgrounds on the reach of next generation dark matter direct detection experiments, Phys. Rev. D 89 (2014) 023524 [arXiv:1307.5458] [INSPIRE].
B. Carroll and D. Ostlie, An introduction to modern astrophysics, 2nd edition, Addison-Wesley, Boston U.S.A. (2006).
R. Mitalas and K.R. Sills, On the photon diffusion time scale for the Sun, Astrophys. J. 401 (1992) 759.
MINOS collaboration, G. Barr, The MINOS experiment: 2012 results, PoS(ICHEP2012)398.
MINOS collaboration, P. Adamson et al., Measurements of atmospheric neutrinos and antineutrinos in the MINOS far detector, Phys. Rev. D 86 (2012) 052007 [arXiv:1208.2915] [INSPIRE].
Hyper-Kamiokande working group collaboration, T. Ishida, T2HK: J-PARC upgrade plan for future and beyond T2K, arXiv:1311.5287 [INSPIRE].
T2K collaboration, K. Abe et al., The T2K experiment, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 659 (2011) 106 [arXiv:1106.1238] [INSPIRE].
Super-Kamiokande collaboration, Y. Fukuda et al., The Super-Kamiokande detector, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 501 (2003) 418 [INSPIRE].
MiniBooNE collaboration, A.A. Aguilar-Arevalo et al., Improved search for \( {\overline{\nu}}_{\mu}\to {\overline{\nu}}_e \) oscillations in the MiniBooNE experiment, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 (2013) 161801 [arXiv:1207.4809] [INSPIRE].
LSND collaboration, G.B. Mills, Neutrino oscillation results from LSND, Nucl. Phys. Proc. Suppl. 91 (2001) 198 [INSPIRE].
Particle Data Group collaboration, J. Beringer et al., Review of particle physics, Phys. Rev. D 86 (2012) 010001 [INSPIRE].
J. Brod and M. Gorbahn, ϵ K at next-to-next-to-leading order: the charm-top-quark contribution, Phys. Rev. D 82 (2010) 094026 [arXiv:1007.0684] [INSPIRE].
J. Brod and M. Gorbahn, Next-to-next-to-leading-order charm-quark contribution to the CP-violation parameter ϵ K and ΔM K , Phys. Rev. Lett. 108 (2012) 121801 [arXiv:1108.2036] [INSPIRE].
A.J. Buras, F. Schwab and S. Uhlig, Waiting for precise measurements of \( {K}^{+}\to {\pi}^{+}\nu \overline{\nu} \) and \( {K}_L\to {\pi}^0\nu \overline{\nu} \), Rev. Mod. Phys. 80 (2008) 965 [hep-ph/0405132] [INSPIRE].
M.E. Peskin and T. Takeuchi, Estimation of oblique electroweak corrections, Phys. Rev. D 46 (1992) 381 [INSPIRE].
S. Dawson and E. Furlan, A Higgs conundrum with vector fermions, Phys. Rev. D 86 (2012) 015021 [arXiv:1205.4733] [INSPIRE].
Fermi-LAT collaboration, M. Ackermann et al., Dark matter constraints from observations of 25 Milky Way satellite galaxies with the Fermi Large Area Telescope, Phys. Rev. D 89 (2014) 042001 [arXiv:1310.0828] [INSPIRE].
M.C. Smith et al., The RAVE survey: constraining the local galactic escape speed, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 379 (2007) 755 [astro-ph/0611671] [INSPIRE].
XENON100 collaboration, E. Aprile et al., Dark matter results from 100 live days of XENON100 data, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107 (2011) 131302 [arXiv:1104.2549] [INSPIRE].
J.L. Feng, M. Kaplinghat and H.-B. Yu, Sommerfeld enhancements for thermal relic dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 82 (2010) 083525 [arXiv:1005.4678] [INSPIRE].
Open Access
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits any use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
ArXiv ePrint: 1405.1034
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
Curtin, D., Tsai, Y. The double-dark portal. J. High Energ. Phys. 2014, 136 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2014)136
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2014)136