Dark showers from sneaky dark matter
A bstract We present a minimal composite dark matter model, based on a SU( N d ) dark sector with n f dark quarks and a heavy t-channel mediator. For n f ≥ 4, the dark flavor symmetry guarantees the stability of a subset of the dark pions, which serve as our dark matter candidates. Their relic abundance is determined by dark sector annihilation with the remaining dark pions, which are unstable and decay. Due to their degenerate masses, the annihilation cross section is suppressed at low temperatures, thereby avoiding stringent constraints from indirect detection and opening up the GeV mass window. The decaying dark pions are naturally long lived. We obtain limits on the model from semi-visible or emerging jet searches and estimate the reach of future probes.
Authors
- Adrián Carmona (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6706-3458)
- Christiane Scherb (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8146-2623)
- Fatemeh Elahi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1300-5172)
- Pedro Schwaller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6307-3069)
Institutions
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Universidad de Granada (ES)
- Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE)
- University of California System (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of High Energy Physics
- Published
- 2025-06-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep06(2025)198
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.61
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
- CERN
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Junta de Andalucía
- European Regional Development Fund
- Agencia Estatal de Investigación
- Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
- High Energy Physics