A Classification of Dark Matter Candidates with Primarily Spin-Dependent Interactions with Matter

Abstract

We perform a model-independent classification of Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) dark matter candidates that have the property that their scattering off nucleons is dominated by spin-dependent interactions. We study renormalizable theories where the scattering of dark matter is elastic and arises at tree-level. We show that if the WIMP-nucleon cross section is dominated by spin-dependent interactions the natural dark matter candidates are either Majorana fermions or real vector bosons, so that the dark matter particle is its own anti-particle. In such a scenario, scalar dark matter is disfavored. Dirac fermion and complex vector boson dark matter are also disfavored, except for very specific choices of quantum numbers. We further establish that any such theory must contain either new particles close to the weak scale with Standard Model quantum numbers, or alternatively, a $Z^{\prime }$ gauge boson with mass at or below the TeV scale. In the region of parameter space that is of interest to current direct detection experiments, these particles naturally lie in a mass range that is kinematically accessible to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

46 pages, 13 figures, pdflatex. Results extended to the case of complex vector dark matter. References added

References in corpus (27)

• Gauge Singlet Scalars as Cold Dark Matter
• Inelastic Dark Matter
• Results from the Final Exposure of the CDMS II Experiment
• The Inert Doublet Model: an Archetype for Dark Matter
• Kaluza-Klein Dark Matter
• The Spin Structure of the Nucleon
• Phenomenology of the Littlest Higgs with T-Parity
• Nonexotic Neutral Gauge Bosons
• The Status of Inelastic Dark Matter
• Limits on spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon cross-sections from the XENON10 experiment
• Baryon Number in Warped GUTs : Model Building and (Dark Matter Related) Phenomenology
• Elastic Scattering and Direct Detection of Kaluza-Klein Dark Matter
• Little Higgs Dark Matter
• Deducing the nature of dark matter from direct and indirect detection experiments in the absence of collider signatures of new physics
• Model-Independent Jets plus Missing Energy Searches
• Nuclear Shell Model Calculations of Neutralino-Nucleus Cross Sections for Silicon 29 and Germanium 73
• Form Factor Dark Matter
• Dark Matter candidate in a Heavy Higgs Model - Direct Detection Rates
• Resonant Dark Matter
• Spin Dependence of Dark Matter Scattering
• Scalar Dark Matter From Theory Space
• Dark Matter in the Left Right Twin Higgs Model
• Discriminating dark matter candidates using direct detection
• On the Correlation Between the Spin-Independent and Spin-Dependent Direct Detection of Dark Matter
• Limits on a muon flux from Kaluza-Klein dark matter annihilations in the Sun from the IceCube 22-string detector
• Improved Naturalness and the Two Higgs Doublet Model
• Direct Detection Constraints on Dark Matter Event Rates in Neutrino Telescopes, and Collider Implications

Cited by in corpus (38)

• The Tevatron at the Frontier of Dark Matter Direct Detection
• Fermion Portal Dark Matter
• Global Constraints on Effective Dark Matter Interactions: Relic Density, Direct Detection, Indirect Detection, and Collider
• Gravitational waves and electroweak baryogenesis in a global study of the extended scalar singlet model
• Effective WIMPs
• Detecting Boosted Dark Matter from the Sun with Large Volume Neutrino Detectors
• Closing in on Asymmetric Dark Matter I: Model independent limits for interactions with quarks
• Illuminating Dark Matter at the ILC
• On the importance of loop-induced spin-independent interactions for dark matter direct detection
• Light Axial Vectors, Nuclear Transitions, and the ${}^8$Be Anomaly
• Neutrino Discovery Limit of Dark Matter Direct Detection Experiments in the Presence of Non-Standard Interactions
• Neutral SU(2) Gauge Extension of the Standard Model and a Vector-Boson Dark-Matter Candidate
• Origins of the Isospin Violation of Dark Matter Interactions
• Terrestrial and Martian Heat Flow Limits on Dark Matter
• Scalar assisted singlet doublet fermion dark matter model and electroweak vacuum stability
• Supersymmetry and LHC Missing Energy Signals
• Effective field theory interpretation of searches for dark matter annihilation in the Sun with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
• Light Singlino Dark Matter at the LHC
• Fermion WIMPless Dark Matter at DeepCore and IceCube
• Constraints on Majorana Dark Matter from the LHC and IceCube
• Partially Composite Dark Matter
• Tasting Flavoured Majorana Dark Matter
• Updated Collider and Direct Detection Constraints on Dark Matter Models for the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess
• Majorana Dark Matter in a new B-L model
• Phenomenological analysis of multi-pseudoscalar mediated dark matter models
• Electroweak Symmetry Non-Restoration from Dark Matter
• Accidental scale-invariant Majorana dark matter in leptoquark-Higgs portals
• Probing Radiative Neutrino Mass Generation through Monotop Production
• Prospecting bipartite Dark Matter through Gravitational Waves
• Asymmetric capture of Dirac dark matter by the Sun
• Probing mild-tempered neutralino dark matter through top-squark production at the LHC
• Thermal WIMPs and the Scale of New Physics: Global Fits of Dirac Dark Matter Effective Field Theories
• Neutron EDM constrains direct dark matter detection prospects
• Direct Detection Constraints on Dark Matter Event Rates in Neutrino Telescopes, and Collider Implications
• Confronting Dirac Fermionic Dark Matter with Recent Data
• Exploring Freeze-out and Freeze-in Dark Matter via Effective Froggatt-Nielsen Theory
• Indirect detection constraints on the scotogenic dark matter model
• Dark Matter EFT, the Third -- Neutrino WIMPs