Bertone, G., Cerdeño, D. G., Fornasa, M., Ruiz de Austri, R., & Trotta, R. (2010). Identification of dark matter particles with LHC and direct detection data. Phys. Rev. D, 82(5), 055008–7pp.
Abstract: Dark matter (DM) is currently searched for with a variety of detection strategies. Accelerator searches are particularly promising, but even if weakly interacting massive particles are found at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), it will be difficult to prove that they constitute the bulk of the DM in the Universe Omega(DM). We show that a significantly better reconstruction of the DM properties can be obtained with a combined analysis of LHC and direct detection data, by making a simple Ansatz on the weakly interacting massive particles local density rho(0)((chi) over bar1), i.e., by assuming that the local density scales with the cosmological relic abundance, (rho(0)((chi) over bar1)/rho(DM)) = (Omega(0)((chi) over bar1)/Omega(DM)). We demonstrate this method in an explicit example in the context of a 24-parameter supersymmetric model, with a neutralino lightest supersymmetric particle in the stau coannihilation region. Our results show that future ton-scale direct detection experiments will allow to break degeneracies in the supersymmetric parameter space and achieve a significantly better reconstruction of the neutralino composition and its relic density than with LHC data alone.
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Capozzi, F., Ferreira, R. Z., Lopez-Honorez, L., & Mena, O. (2023). CMB and Lyman-alpha constraints on dark matter decays to photons. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 06(6), 060–23pp.
Abstract: Dark matter energy injection in the early universe modifies both the ionization history and the temperature of the intergalactic medium. In this work, we improve the CMB bounds on sub-keV dark matter and extend previous bounds from Lyman-& alpha; observations to the same mass range, resulting in new and competitive constraints on axion-like particles (ALPs) decaying into two photons. The limits depend on the underlying reionization history, here accounted self-consistently by our modified version of the publicly available DarkHistory and CLASS codes. Future measurements such as the ones from the CMB-S4 experiment may play a crucial, leading role in the search for this type of light dark matter candidates.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., et al. (2019). Combination of Searches for Invisible Higgs Boson Decays with the ATLAS Experiment. Phys. Rev. Lett., 122(23), 231801–20pp.
Abstract: Dark matter particles, if sufficiently light, may be produced in decays of the Higgs boson. This Letter presents a statistical combination of searches for H -> invisible decays where H is produced according to the standard model via vector boson fusion, Z(ll)H, and W/Z(had)H, all performed with the ATLAS detector using 36.1 fb(-1) of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV at the LHC. In combination with the results at root s = 7 and 8 TeV, an exclusion limit on the H -> invisible branching ratio of 0.26(0.17(-0.05)(+0.07)) at 95% confidence level is observed (expected).
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Carcamo Hernandez, A. E., Valle, J. W. F., & Vaquera-Araujo, C. A. (2020). Simple theory for scotogenic dark matter with residual matter-parity. Phys. Lett. B, 809, 135757–10pp.
Abstract: Dark matter stability can result from a residual matter-parity symmetry surviving spontaneous breaking of an extended gauge symmetry. We propose the simplest scotogenic dark matter completion of the original SVS theory [1], in which the “dark sector” particles as well as matter-parity find a natural theoretical origin within the model. We briefly comment on its main features.
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Leite, J., Popov, O., Srivastava, R., & Valle, J. W. F. (2020). A theory for scotogenic dark matter stabilised by residual gauge symmetry. Phys. Lett. B, 802, 135254–10pp.
Abstract: Dark matter stability can result from a residual matter-parity symmetry, following naturally from the spontaneous breaking of the gauge symmetry. Here we explore this idea in the context of the SU(3)(c) circle times SU(3)L circle times U(1)(x) circle times U(1)(N) electroweak extension of the standard model. The key feature of our new scotogenic dark matter theory is the use of a triplet scalar boson with anti-symmetric Yukawa couplings. This naturally implies that one of the light neutrinos is massless and, as a result, there is a lower bound for the O nu beta beta decay rate.
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Witte, S. J., Rosauro-Alcaraz, S., McDermott, S. D., & Poulin, V. (2020). Dark photon dark matter in the presence of inhomogeneous structure. J. High Energy Phys., 06(6), 35pp.
Abstract: Dark photon dark matter will resonantly convert into visible photons when the dark photon mass is equal to the plasma frequency of the ambient medium. In cosmological contexts, this transition leads to an extremely efficient, albeit short-lived, heating of the surrounding gas. Existing work in this field has been predominantly focused on understanding the implications of these resonant transitions in the limit that the plasma frequency of the Universe can be treated as being perfectly homogeneous, i.e. neglecting inhomogeneities in the electron number density. In this work we focus on the implications of heating from dark photon dark matter in the presence of inhomogeneous structure (which is particularly relevant for dark photons with masses in the range 10(-15) eV less than or similar to m(A ') less than or similar to 10(-12) eV), emphasizing both the importance of inhomogeneous energy injection, as well as the sensitivity of cosmological observations to the inhomogeneities themselves. More specifically, we derive modified constraints on dark photon dark matter from the Ly-alpha forest, and show that the presence of inhomogeneities allows one to extend constraints to masses outside of the range that would be obtainable in the homogeneous limit, while only slightly relaxing their strength. We then project sensitivity for near-future cosmological surveys that are hoping to measure the 21cm transition in neutral hydrogen prior to reionization, and demonstrate that these experiments will be extremely useful in improving sensitivity to masses near similar to 10(-14) eV, potentially by several orders of magnitude. Finally, we discuss implications for reionization, early star formation, and late-time y-type spectral distortions, and show that probes which are inherently sensitive to the inhomogeneous state of the Universe could resolve signatures unique to the light dark photon dark matter scenario, and thus offer a fantastic potential for a positive detection.
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Jueid, A., Kip, J., Ruiz de Austri, R., & Skands, P. (2023). Impact of QCD uncertainties on antiproton spectra from dark-matter annihilation. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 04(4), 068–15pp.
Abstract: Dark-matter particles that annihilate or decay can undergo complex sequences of processes, including strong and electromagnetic radiation, hadronisation, and hadron de-cays, before particles that are stable on astrophysical time scales are produced. Antiprotons produced in this way may leave footprints in experiments such as AMS-02. Several groups have reported an excess of events in the antiproton flux in the rigidity range of 10-20 GV. However, the theoretical modeling of baryon production is not straightforward and relies in part on phenomenological models in Monte Carlo event generators. In this work, we assess the impact of QCD uncertainties on the spectra of antiprotons from dark-matter annihila-tion. As a proof-of-principle, we show that for a two-parameter model that depends only on the thermally-averaged annihilation cross section ((o -v)) and the dark-matter mass (Mx), QCD uncertainties can affect the best-fit mass by up to ti 14% (with large uncertainties for large DM masses), depending on the choice of Mx and the annihilation channel (bb over bar or W+W-), and (o -v) by up to ti 10%. For comparison, changes to the underlying diffusion parameters are found to be within 1%-5%, and the results are also quite resilient to the choice of cosmic-ray propagation model. These findings indicate that QCD uncertainties need to be included in future DM analyses. To facilitate full-fledged analyses, we provide the spectra in tabulated form including QCD uncertainties and code snippets to perform mass interpolations and quick DM fits. The code can be found in this GitHub [1] repository.
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IDS Collaboration(Stryjczyk, M. et al), & Nacher, E. (2020). Decay studies of the long-lived states in Tl-186. Phys. Rev. C, 102(2), 024322–9pp.
Abstract: Decay spectroscopy of the long-lived states in Tl-186 has been performed at the ISOLDE Decay Station at ISOLDE, CERN. The a decay from the low-spin (2(-)) state in Tl-186 was observed for the first time and a half-life of 3.4(-0.)(4)(+0.5) s was determined. Based on the alpha-decay energy, the relative positions of the long-lived states were fixed, with the (2(-)) state as the ground state, the 7((+)) state at 77(56) keV, and the 10((-)) state at 451(56) keV. The level scheme of the internal decay of the Tl-186(10((-))) state [T-1/2 = 3.40(9) s], which was known to decay solely through emission of 374-keV gamma-ray transition, was extended and a lower limit for the beta-decay branching b(beta) > 5.9(3)% was determined. The extracted retardation factors for the gamma decay of the 10((-) )state were compared to the available data in neighboring odd-odd thallium isotopes indicating the importance of the pi d(3/2) shell in the isomeric decay and significant structure differences between Tl-184 and Tl-186.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Henry, L., Jashal, B. K., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., et al. (2019). Measurement of the CP-violating phase phi(s) from B-s(0) -> J/psi pi(+)pi(-) decays in 13 TeV pp collisions. Phys. Lett. B, 797, 134789–12pp.
Abstract: Decays of B-s(0) and (B) over bar (0)(s) mesons into J/psi pi(+)pi(-) final states are studied in a data sample corresponding to 1.9 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity collected with the LHCb detector in 13 TeV pp collisions. A time-dependent amplitude analysis is used to determine the final-state resonance contributions, the CP-violating phase phi(s) = -0.057 +/- 0.060 +/- 0.011 rad, the decay-width difference between the heavier mass B-s(0) eigenstate and the B-0 meson of -0.050 +/- 0.004 +/- 0.004 ps(-1), and the CP-violating parameter vertical bar lambda vertical bar = 1.01(-0.06)(+0.08) +/- 0.03, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. These results are combined with previous LHCb measurements in the same decay channel using 7 TeV and 8 TeV pp collisions obtaining phi(s) = 0.002 +/- 0.044 +/- 0.012 rad, and vertical bar lambda vertical bar = 0.949 +/- 0.036 +/- 0.019.
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Capozzi, F., & Saviano, N. (2022). Neutrino Flavor Conversions in High-Density Astrophysical and Cosmological Environments. Universe, 8(2), 94–23pp.
Abstract: Despite being a well understood phenomenon in the context of current terrestrial experiments, neutrino flavor conversions in dense astrophysical environments probably represent one of the most challenging open problems in neutrino physics. Apart from being theoretically interesting, such a problem has several phenomenological implications in cosmology and in astrophysics, including the primordial nucleosynthesis of light elements abundance and other cosmological observables, nucleosynthesis of heavy nuclei, and the explosion of massive stars. In this review, we briefly summarize the state of the art on this topic, focusing on three environments: early Universe, core-collapse supernovae, and compact binary mergers.
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