Probing Gravitational Dark Matter

Abstract

So far all evidences of dark matter (DM) come from astrophysical and cosmological observations, due to gravitational interactions of the DM. It is possible that the true DM particle in the universe joins gravitational interactions only, but nothing else. Such a Gravitational DM (GDM) acts as a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP), which is conceptually simple and attractive. In this work, we explore this direction by constructing the simplest scalar GDM particle ${\chi }_s$. It is a $Z_2$ odd singlet under the standard model (SM) gauge group, and naturally joins the unique dimension-4 interaction with Ricci curvature, ${\xi }_s{\chi }_s^{2}R$, where ${\xi }_s$ is the dimensionless nonminimal coupling. We demonstrate that this gravitational interaction ${\xi }_s{\chi }_s^{2}R$, together with Higgs-curvature nonminimal coupling term ${\xi }_h{H}^{†}HR$, induces effective couplings between ${\chi }_s^2$ and SM fields which can account for the observed DM thermal relic abundance. We analyze the annihilation cross sections of GDM particles and derive the viable parameter space for realizing the DM thermal relic density. We further study the direct/indirect detections and the collider signatures of such a scalar GDM. These turn out to be highly predictive and testable.

33pp, JCAP Final Version. Only minor rewordings, references added

References in corpus (12)

• Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
• Observation of a new boson at a mass of 125 GeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC
• Observation of an anomalous positron abundance in the cosmic radiation
• Constraints on Dark Matter from Colliders
• Maverick dark matter at colliders
• Search for photon line-like signatures from Dark Matter annihilations with H.E.S.S
• Search for dark matter in events with heavy quarks and missing transverse momentum in $pp$ collisions with the ATLAS detector
• Updated cosmic-ray and radio constraints on light dark matter: Implications for the GeV gamma-ray excess at the Galactic center
• Antiproton constraints on the GeV gamma-ray excess: a comprehensive analysis
• Higgs Gravitational Interaction, Weak Boson Scattering, and Higgs Inflation in Jordan and Einstein Frames
• Erratum: Bounds on Invisible Higgs boson Decays from $t\bar{t}H$ Production
• Collider Bounds on Indirect Dark Matter Searches: The $WW$ Final State

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Dark matter decay through gravity portals