A bstract We explore the possibility that dark matter is a pair of vector-like fermionic SU(2) L doublets and propose a novel mechanism of dark matter production that proceeds through the confinement of the weak sector of the Standard Model. This confinement phase causes the Standard Model doublets and dark matter to confine into pions. The dark pions freeze-out before the weak sector deconfines and generate a relic abundance of dark matter. We solve the Boltzmann equations for this scenario to determine the scale of confinement and constituent dark matter mass required to produce the observed relic density. We determine which regions of this parameter space evade direct detection, collider bounds, and successfully produce the observed relic density of dark matter. For a TeV scale pair of vector-like fermionic SU(2) L doublets, we find the weak confinement scale to be ∼ 700 TeV.
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Dark matter freeze out during an early cosmological period of QCD confinement
A bstract 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.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1915005
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10249146
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of High Energy Physics
- Volume:
- 2020
- Issue:
- 7
- ISSN:
- 1029-8479
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2020)192
