Enabling forbidden dark matter

Journal Article · 20 October 2017 · Physical Review D

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.96.083521 · OSTI ID:1400426

Cline, James M. ^[1]; Liu, Hongwan ^[2]; Slatyer, Tracy R.  ^[2]; Xue, Wei ^[2]

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1. European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva (Switzerland); Rue Univ., Montreal, QC (Canada)
2. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

The thermal relic density of dark matter is conventionally set by two-body annihilations. We point out that in many simple models, 3 → 2 annihilations can play an important role in determining the relic density over a broad range of model parameters. This occurs when the two-body annihilation is kinematically forbidden, but the 3 → 2 process is allowed; we call this scenario not-forbidden dark matter. We illustrate this mechanism for a vector-portal dark matter model, showing that for a dark matter mass of m_χ ~ MeV-10 GeV, 3 → 2 processes not only lead to the observed relic density, but also imply a selfinteraction cross section that can solve the cusp/core problem. This can be accomplished while remaining consistent with stringent CMB constraints on light dark matter, and can potentially be discovered at future direct detection experiments.

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0013999; SC00012567
• OSTI ID: 1400426
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1503863
• Journal Information: Physical Review D, Vol. 96, Issue 8; ISSN 2470-0010
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English