Continuum-mediated dark matter-baryon scattering

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• 作者：Andrey Katz^a ; ^b ; ^{andrey.katz@cern.ch" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Matthew Reece^c ; ^{mreece@physics.harvard.edu" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Aqil Sajjad^c ; ^{sajjad@physics.harvard.edu" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author}
• 关键词：Dark matter direct detection ; Dark matter models ; Light dark matter mediators
• 刊名：Physics of the Dark Universe
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：June 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：12
• 期：Complete
• 页码：24-36
• 全文大小：870 K

文摘

Many models of dark matter scattering with baryons may be treated either as a simple contact interaction or as the exchange of a light mediator particle. We study an alternative, in which a continuum of light mediator states may be exchanged. This could arise, for instance, from coupling to a sector which is approximately conformal at the relevant momentum transfer scale. In the non-relativistic effective theory of dark matter–baryon scattering, which is useful for parametrizing direct detection signals, the effect of such continuum mediators is to multiply the amplitude by a function of the momentum transfer dddeb401950cf42bb8d1d5d" title="Click to view the MathML source">qdden">$q$, which in the simplest case is just a power law. We develop the basic framework and study two examples: the case where the mediator is a scalar operator coupling to the Higgs portal (which turns out to be highly constrained) and the case of an antisymmetric tensor operator O_μνdden">${\mathcal{O}}_{\mu \nu }$ that mixes with the hypercharge field strength and couples to dark matter tensor currents, which has an interesting viable parameter space. We describe the effect of such mediators on the cross sections and recoil energy spectra that could be observed in direct detection.