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Achterberg, A., van Beekveld, M., Caron, S., Gomez-Vargas, G. A., Hendriks, L., & Ruiz de Austri, R. (2017). Implications of the Fermi-LAT Pass 8 Galactic Center excess on supersymmetric dark matter. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 12(12), 040–23pp.
Abstract: The Fermi Collaboration has recently updated their analysis of gamma rays from the center of the Galaxy. They reconfirm the presence of an unexplained emission feature which is most prominent in the region of 1-10 GeV, known as the Galactic Center GeV excess (GCE). Although the GCE is now fi rmly detected, an interpretation of this emission as a signal of self-annihilating dark matter (DM) particles is not unambiguously possible due to systematic effects in the gamma-ray modeling estimated in the Galactic Plane. In this paper we build a covariance matrix, collecting different systematic uncertainties investigated in the Fermi Collaboration's paper that affect the GCE spectrum. We show that models where part of the GCE is due to annihilating DM is still consistent with the new data. We also re-evaluate the parameter space regions of the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) that can contribute dominantly to the GCE via neutralino DM annihilation. All recent constraints from DM direct detection experiments such as PICO, LUX, PandaX and Xenon1T, limits on the annihilation cross section from dwarf spheroidal galaxies and the Large Hadron Collider limits are considered in this analysis. Due to a slight shift in the energy spectrum of the GC excess with respect to the previous Fermi analysis, and the recent limits from direct detection experiments, we find a slightly shifted parameter region of the MSSM, compared to our previous analysis, that is consistent with the GCE. Neutralinos with a mass between 85-220 GeV can describe the excess via annihilation into a pair of W-bosons or top quarks. Remarkably, there are models with low fine-tuning among the regions that we have found. The complete set of solutions will be probed by upcoming direct detection experiments and with dedicated searches in the upcoming data of the Large Hadron Collider.
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del Rio, A., Durrer, R., & Patil, S. P. (2018). Tensor bounds on the hidden universe. J. High Energy Phys., 12(12), 094–34pp.
Abstract: During single clock inflation, hidden fields (i.e. fields coupled to the inflaton only gravitationally) in their adiabatic vacua can ordinarily only affect observables through virtual effects. After renormalizing background quantities (fixed by observations at some pivot scale), all that remains are logarithmic runnings in correlation functions that are both Planck and slow roll suppressed. In this paper we show how a large number of hidden fields can partially compensate this suppression and generate a potentially observable running in the tensor two point function, consistently inferable courtesy of a large N resummation. We detour to address certain subtleties regarding loop corrections during inflation, extending the analysis of [1]. Our main result is that one can extract bounds on the hidden field content of the universe from bounds on violations of the consistency relation between the tensor spectral index and the tensor to scalar ratio, were primordial tensors ever detected. Such bounds are more competitive than the naive bound inferred from requiring inflation to occur below the strong coupling scale of gravity if deviations from the consistency relation can be bounded to within the sub-percent level. We discuss how one can meaningfully constrain the parameter space of various phenomenological scenarios and constructions that address naturalness with a large number of species (such as N-naturalness') with CMB observations up to cosmic variance limits, and possibly future 21cm and gravitational wave observations.
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Caron, S., Casas, J. A., Quilis, J., & Ruiz de Austri, R. (2018). Anomaly-free dark matter with harmless direct detection constraints. J. High Energy Phys., 12(12), 126–24pp.
Abstract: Dark matter (DM) interacting with the SM fields via a Z-boson (Z-portal') remains one of the most attractive WIMP scenarios, both from the theoretical and the phenomenological points of view. In order to avoid the strong constraints from direct detection and dilepton production, it is highly convenient that the Z has axial coupling to DM and leptophobic couplings to the SM particles, respectively. The latter implies that the associated U(1) coincides with baryon number in the SM sector. In this paper we completely classify the possible anomaly-free leptophobic Z with minimal dark sector, including the cases where the coupling to DM is axial. The resulting scenario is very predictive and perfectly viable from the present constraints from DM detection, EW observables and LHC data (di-lepton, di-jet and mono-jet production). We analyze all these constraints, obtaining the allowed areas in the parameter space, which generically prefer mZ less than or similar to 500 GeV, apart from resonant regions. The best chances to test these viable areas come from future LHC measurements.
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Escudero, M., Lopez-Pavon, J., Rius, N., & Sandner, S. (2020). Relaxing cosmological neutrino mass bounds with unstable neutrinos. J. High Energy Phys., 12(12), 119–44pp.
Abstract: At present, cosmological observations set the most stringent bound on the neutrino mass scale. Within the standard cosmological model (Lambda CDM), the Planck collaboration reports Sigma m(v)< 0.12 eV at 95 % CL. This bound, taken at face value, excludes many neutrino mass models. However, unstable neutrinos, with lifetimes shorter than the age of the universe <tau>(nu) less than or similar to t(U), represent a particle physics avenue to relax this constraint. Motivated by this fact, we present a taxonomy of neutrino decay modes, categorizing them in terms of particle content and final decay products. Taking into account the relevant phenomenological bounds, our analysis shows that 2-body decaying neutrinos into BSM particles are a promising option to relax cosmological neutrino mass bounds. We then build a simple extension of the type I seesaw scenario by adding one sterile state nu (4) and a Goldstone boson phi, in which nu (i)-> nu (4)phi decays can loosen the neutrino mass bounds up to Sigma m(v) similar to 1 eV, without spoiling the light neutrino mass generation mechanism. Remarkably, this is possible for a large range of the right-handed neutrino masses, from the electroweak up to the GUT scale. We successfully implement this idea in the context of minimal neutrino mass models based on a U(1)(mu-tau) flavor symmetry, which are otherwise in tension with the current bound on Sigma m(v).
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Barenboim, G., Blinov, N., & Stebbins, A. (2021). Smallest remnants of early matter domination. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 12(12), 026–50pp.
Abstract: The evolution of the universe prior to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis could have gone through a phase of early matter domination which enhanced the growth of small-scale dark matter structure. If this period was long enough, self-gravitating objects formed prior to reheating. We study the evolution of these dense early halos through reheating. At the end of early matter domination, the early halos undergo rapid expansion and eventually eject their matter. We find that this process washes out structure on scales much larger than naively expected from the size of the original halos. We compute the density profiles of the early halo remnants and use them to construct late-time power spectra that include these non-linear effects. We evolve the resulting power spectrum to estimate the properties of microhalos that would form after matter-radiation equality. Surprisingly, cosmologies with a short period of early matter domination lead to an earlier onset of microhalo formation compared to those with a long period. In either case, dark matter structure formation begins much earlier than in the standard cosmology, with most dark matter bound in microhalos in the late universe.
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Garani, R., Gasparotto, F., Mastrolia, P., Munch, H. J., Palomares-Ruiz, S., & Primo, A. (2021). Two-photon exchange in leptophilic dark matter scenarios. J. High Energy Phys., 12(12), 212–42pp.
Abstract: In leptophilic scenarios, dark matter interactions with nuclei, relevant for direct detection experiments and for the capture by celestial objects, could only occur via loop-induced processes. If the mediator is a scalar or pseudo-scalar particle, which only couples to leptons, the dominant contribution to dark matter-nucleus scattering would take place via two-photon exchange with a lepton triangle loop. The corresponding diagrams have been estimated in the literature under different approximations. Here, we present new analytical calculations for one-body two-loop and two-body one-loop interactions. The two-loop form factors are presented in closed analytical form in terms of generalized polylogarithms up to weight four. In both cases, we consider the exact dependence on all the involved scales, and study the dependence on the momentum transfer. We show that some previous approximations fail to correctly predict the scattering cross section by several orders of magnitude. Moreover, we quantitatively show that form factors in the range of momentum transfer relevant for local galactic dark matter, can be significantly smaller than their value at zero momentum transfer, which is the approach usually considered.
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Racker, J., & Rius, N. (2014). Helicitogenesis: WIMPy baryogenesis with sterile neutrinos and other realizations. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 163–19pp.
Abstract: We propose a mechanism for baryogenesis from particle decays or annihilations that can work at the TeV scale. Some heavy particles annihilate or decay into a heavy sterile neutrino N (with M greater than or similar to 0.5 TeV) and a “light” one nu (with m << 100 GeV), generating an asymmetry among the two helicity degrees of freedom of nu. This asymmetry is partially transferred to Standard Model leptons via fast Yukawa interactions and reprocessed into a baryon asymmetry by the electroweak sphalerons. We illustrate this mechanism in a WIMPy baryogenesis model where the helicity asymmetry is generated in the annihilation of dark matter. This model connects the baryon asymmetry, dark matter, and neutrino masses. Moreover it also complements previous studies on general requirements for baryogenesis from dark matter annihilation. Finally we discuss other possible realizations of this helicitogenesis mechanism.
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Lazaries, G., & Pallis, C. (2015). Shift symmetry and Higgs inflation in supergravity with observable gravitational waves. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 114–28pp.
Abstract: We demonstrate how to realize within supergravity a novel chaotic-type inflationary scenario driven by the radial parts of a conjugate pair of Higgs superfields causing the spontaneous breaking of a grand unified gauge symmetry at a scale assuming the value of the supersymmetric grand unification scale. The superpotential is uniquely determined at the renormalizable level by the gauge symmetry and a continuous R symmetry. We select two types of Kahler potentials, which respect these symmetries as well as an approximate shift symmetry. In particular, they include in a logarithm a dominant shift-symmetric term proportional to a parameter c together with a small term violating this symmetry and characterized by a parameter c(+). In both cases, imposing a lower bound on c, inflation can be attained with subplanckian values of the original inflaton, while the corresponding effective theory respects perturbative unitarity for r +/- = c(+)/c_ <= 1. These inflationary models do not lead to overproduction of cosmic defects, are largely independent of the one-loop radiative corrections and accommodate, for natural values of r +/-, observable gravitational waves consistently with all the current observational data. The inflaton mass is mostly confined in the range (3.7 – 8.1) x 10(10) GeV.
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Fileviez Perez, P., Murgui, C., & Plascencia, A. D. (2019). The QCD axion and unification. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 093–21pp.
Abstract: The QCD axion is one of the most appealing candidates for the dark matter in the Universe. In this article, we discuss the possibility to predict the axion mass in the context of a simple renormalizable grand unified theory where the Peccei-Quinn scale is determined by the unification scale. In this framework, the axion mass is predicted to be in the range ma, <^> (3-13) x 10-9 eV. We study the axion phenomenology and find that the ABRACADABRA and CASPEr-Electric experiments will be able to fully probe this mass window.
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Coito, L., Faubel, C., Herrero-Garcia, J., & Santamaria, A. (2021). Dark matter from a complex scalar singlet: the role of dark CP and other discrete symmetries. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 202–34pp.
Abstract: We study the case of a pseudo-scalar dark matter candidate which emerges from a complex scalar singlet, charged under a global U(1) symmetry, which is broken both explicitly and spontaneously. The pseudo-scalar is naturally stabilized by the presence of a remnant discrete symmetry: dark CP. We study and compare the phenomenology of several simplified models with only one explicit symmetry breaking term. We find that several regions of the parameter space are able to reproduce the observed dark matter abundance while respecting direct detection and invisible Higgs decay limits: in the resonances of the two scalars, featuring the known as forbidden or secluded dark matter, and through non-resonant Higgs-mediated annihilations. In some cases, combining different measurements would allow one to distinguish the breaking pattern of the symmetry. Moreover, this setup admits a light DM candidate at the sub-GeV scale. We also discuss the situation where more than one symmetry breaking term is present. In that case, the dark CP symmetry may be spontaneously broken, thus spoiling the stability of the dark matter candidate. Requiring that this does not happen imposes a constraint on the allowed parameter space. Finally, we consider an effective field theory approach valid in the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson limit and when the U(1) breaking scale is much larger than the electroweak scale.
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