Abstract
Standard lore states that there is tension between the need to accommodate the relic density of a weakly interacting massive particle and direct searches for dark matter. However, the estimation of the relic density rests on an extrapolation of the cosmology of the early Universe to the time of freeze out, untethered by observations. We explore a nonstandard cosmology in which the strong coupling constant evolves in the early Universe, triggering an early period of QCD confinement at the time of freeze out. We find that depending on the nature of the interactions between the dark matter and the Standard Model, freeze out during an early period of confinement can lead to drastically different expectations for the relic density, allowing for regions of parameter space which realize the correct abundance but would otherwise be excluded by direct searches.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
J.L. Feng and J. Kumar, The WIMPless Miracle: Dark-Matter Particles without Weak-Scale Masses or Weak Interactions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 (2008) 231301 [arXiv:0803.4196] [INSPIRE].
XENON collaboration, Dark Matter Search Results from a One Ton-Year Exposure of XENON1T, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121 (2018) 111302 [arXiv:1805.12562] [INSPIRE].
D. Tucker-Smith and N. Weiner, Inelastic dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 64 (2001) 043502 [hep-ph/0101138] [INSPIRE].
M. Cirelli, N. Fornengo and A. Strumia, Minimal dark matter, Nucl. Phys. B 753 (2006) 178 [hep-ph/0512090] [INSPIRE].
J. Goodman, M. Ibe, A. Rajaraman, W. Shepherd, T.M.P. Tait and H.-B. Yu, Constraints on Dark Matter from Colliders, Phys. Rev. D 82 (2010) 116010 [arXiv:1008.1783] [INSPIRE].
M. Freytsis and Z. Ligeti, On dark matter models with uniquely spin-dependent detection possibilities, Phys. Rev. D 83 (2011) 115009 [arXiv:1012.5317] [INSPIRE].
C. Boehm, M.J. Dolan, C. McCabe, M. Spannowsky and C.J. Wallace, Extended gamma-ray emission from Coy Dark Matter, JCAP 05 (2014) 009 [arXiv:1401.6458] [INSPIRE].
S. Ipek, D. McKeen and A.E. Nelson, A Renormalizable Model for the Galactic Center Gamma Ray Excess from Dark Matter Annihilation, Phys. Rev. D 90 (2014) 055021 [arXiv:1404.3716] [INSPIRE].
M. Abdullah, A. DiFranzo, A. Rajaraman, T.M.P. Tait, P. Tanedo and A.M. Wijangco, Hidden on-shell mediators for the Galactic Center γ-ray excess, Phys. Rev. D 90 (2014) 035004 [arXiv:1404.6528] [INSPIRE].
MAGIC and Fermi-LAT collaborations, Limits to Dark Matter Annihilation Cross-Section from a Combined Analysis of MAGIC and Fermi-LAT Observations of Dwarf Satellite Galaxies, JCAP 02 (2016) 039 [arXiv:1601.06590] [INSPIRE].
M. Beltrán, D. Hooper, E.W. Kolb and Z.C. Krusberg, Deducing the nature of dark matter from direct and indirect detection experiments in the absence of collider signatures of new physics, Phys. Rev. D 80 (2009) 043509 [arXiv:0808.3384] [INSPIRE].
ATLAS collaboration, Search for dark matter and other new phenomena in events with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum using the ATLAS detector, JHEP 01 (2018) 126 [arXiv:1711.03301] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Search for dark matter produced with an energetic jet or a hadronically decaying W or Z boson at \( \sqrt{s} \) = 13 TeV, JHEP 07 (2017) 014 [arXiv:1703.01651] [INSPIRE].
S. Hamdan and J. Unwin, Dark Matter Freeze-out During Matter Domination, Mod. Phys. Lett. A 33 (2018) 1850181 [arXiv:1710.03758] [INSPIRE].
G.B. Gelmini and P. Gondolo, Neutralino with the right cold dark matter abundance in (almost) any supersymmetric model, Phys. Rev. D 74 (2006) 023510 [hep-ph/0602230] [INSPIRE].
S. Ipek and T.M.P. Tait, Early Cosmological Period of QCD Confinement, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122 (2019) 112001 [arXiv:1811.00559] [INSPIRE].
D. Croon, J.N. Howard, S. Ipek and T.M.P. Tait, QCD baryogenesis, Phys. Rev. D 101 (2020) 055042 [arXiv:1911.01432] [INSPIRE].
G. D’Ambrosio, G.F. Giudice, G. Isidori and A. Strumia, Minimal flavor violation: An Effective field theory approach, Nucl. Phys. B 645 (2002) 155 [hep-ph/0207036] [INSPIRE].
Y. Bai and T.M.P. Tait, Inelastic Dark Matter at the LHC, Phys. Lett. B 710 (2012) 335 [arXiv:1109.4144] [INSPIRE].
E.W. Kolb and M.S. Turner, The Early Universe, Front. Phys. 69 (1990) 1 [INSPIRE].
M.A. Shifman, A.I. Vainshtein and V.I. Zakharov, Remarks on Higgs Boson Interactions with Nucleons, Phys. Lett. B 78 (1978) 443 [INSPIRE].
R.J. Hill and M.P. Solon, Standard Model anatomy of WIMP dark matter direct detection II: QCD analysis and hadronic matrix elements, Phys. Rev. D 91 (2015) 043505 [arXiv:1409.8290] [INSPIRE].
K.A. Mohan, D. Sengupta, T.M.P. Tait, B. Yan and C.-P. Yuan, Direct Detection and LHC constraints on a t-Channel Simplified Model of Majorana Dark Matter at One Loop, JHEP 05 (2019) 115 [arXiv:1903.05650] [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
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
ArXiv ePrint: 2004.06727
Rights and permissions
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.
About this article
Cite this article
Berger, D., Ipek, S., Tait, T.M. et al. Dark matter freeze out during an early cosmological period of QCD confinement. J. High Energ. Phys. 2020, 192 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2020)192
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2020)192