Enabling Forbidden Dark Matter

Abstract

The thermal relic density of dark matter is conventionally set by two-body annihilations. We point out that in many simple models, $3\to 2$ 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 $3\to 2$ 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 $m_{\chi }\sim \text{MeV - 10 GeV}$, $3\to 2$ processes not only lead to the observed relic density, but also imply a self-interaction 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.

12 pages, 8 figures. Updated to match version to be published in PRD. Minor corrections to the cross sections and the Boltzmann equations have been made. More detailed discussions of the secluded case, the Boltzmann equations and the computation of the cross sections have been included

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