An Ultimate Target for Dark Matter Searches

Abstract

The combination of S-matrix unitarity and the dynamics of thermal freeze-out for massive relic particles (denoted here simply by WIMPs) implies a lower limit on the density of such particles, that provide a (potentially sub-dominant) contribution to dark matter. This then translates to lower limits to the signal rates for a variety of techniques for direct and indirect detection of dark matter. For illustration, we focus on models where annihilation is s-wave dominated. We derive lower limits to the flux of gamma-rays from WIMP annihilation at the Galactic center; direct detection of WIMPs; energetic neutrinos from WIMP annihilation in the Sun; and the effects of WIMPs on the angular power spectrum and frequency spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation. The results suggest that a variety of dark-matter-search techniques may provide interesting avenues to seek new physics, even if WIMPs do not constitute all the dark matter. While the limits are quantitatively some distance from the reach of current measurements, they may be interesting for long-range planning exercises.

5 pages, 2 figures

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• First dark matter search results from a 4-kg CF${}_3$I bubble chamber operated in a deep underground site
• Upper Bound on the Dark Matter Total Annihilation Cross Section
• The Effects of Dark Matter Decay and Annihilation on the High-Redshift 21 cm Background
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Cited by in corpus (15)

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• A hidden confining world on the 750 GeV diphoton excess
• Stealth Dark Matter: Dark scalar baryons through the Higgs portal
• Status, Challenges and Directions in Indirect Dark Matter Searches
• Constraints on Spin-Dependent Dark Matter Scattering with Long-Lived Mediators from TeV Observations of the Sun with HAWC
• Glueball scattering cross section in lattice SU(2) Yang-Mills theory
• Hunting for super-heavy dark matter with the highest-energy cosmic rays
• A tale of dark matter capture, sub-dominant WIMPs, and neutrino observatories
• Bosonic-Seesaw Portal Dark Matter
• Light vector dark matter with scalar mediator and muon g-2 anomaly
• Majorana dark matter through the Higgs portal under the vacuum stability lamppost
• Search for pseudoscalar-mediated WIMPs in $t\to c$ transitions with missing energy
• Indirect dark matter searches at ultrahigh energy neutrino detectors