Direct Detection is testing Freeze-in

Abstract

Dark Matter (DM) may belong to a hidden sector that is only feebly interacting with the Standard Model (SM) and may have never been in thermal equilibrium in the Early Universe. In this case, the observed abundance of dark matter particles could have built up through a process known as Freeze-in. We show that, for the first time, direct detection experiments are testing this DM production mechanism. This applies to scenarios where the SM and hidden sectors communicate through a light mediator particle of mass less than a few MeV. Through the exchange of such light mediator, the very same FIMP candidates can have self-interactions that are in the range required to address the small scale structure issues of collisionless cold dark matter.

7 pages, 4 figures. References added. Discussion of further constraints on parameters. Figures updated. Conclusions unchanged. Matches published version

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Cited by in corpus (57)

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• Recasting direct detection limits within micrOMEGAs and implication for non-standard Dark Matter scenarios
• Dark matter from dark photons: a taxonomy of dark matter production
• Hidden Inflaton Dark Matter
• Nano-Hertz gravitational waves from collapsing domain walls associated with freeze-in dark matter in light of pulsar timing array observations
• Freeze-in production of decaying dark matter in five steps
• Dark Matter from Freeze-In via the Neutrino Portal
• A feeble window on leptophilic dark matter
• Probing the freeze-in mechanism in dark matter models with $U(1{)}^{\prime }$ gauge extensions
• New Limits on Charged Dark Matter from Large-Scale Coherent Magnetic Fields
• Displaced new physics at colliders and the early universe before its first second
• Dark Matter Abundance from Sequential Freeze-in Mechanism
• Scale Invariant FIMP Miracle
• Probing Dark Matter freeze-in with long-lived particle signatures: MATHUSLA, HL-LHC and FCC-hh
• Dynamics of millicharged dark matter in supernova remnants
• Minimal self-interacting dark matter models with light mediator
• Dark Matter Constraints on Low Mass and Weakly Coupled B-L Gauge Boson
• A Dark Sink Enhances the Direct Detection of Freeze-in Dark Matter
• Millicharged Relics Reveal Massless Dark Photons
• Variations on the Vev Flip-Flop: Instantaneous Freeze-out and Decaying Dark Matter
• Astrophysical Tests of Dark Matter Self-Interactions
• Minimal Dark Matter Freeze-in with Low Reheating Temperatures and Implications for Direct Detection
• A testable hidden-sector model for Dark Matter and neutrino masses
• Dark matter as a heavy thermal hot relic
• Freeze-in Dark Matter via Light Dirac Neutrino Portal
• Indirect searches for dark matter bound state formation and level transitions
• WIMP and FIMP dark matter in the inert doublet plus singlet model
• Dark matter electromagnetic dipoles: the WIMP expectation
• Probing feebly interacting dark matter with monojet searches
• Direct detection of pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone dark matter with light mediator
• Unification for the Darkly Charged Dark Matter
• Testing freeze-in with axial and vector $Z^{\prime }$ bosons
• Freeze-in, glaciation, and UV sensitivity from light mediators
• Twin Cogenesis
• A long-lived stop with freeze-in and freeze-out dark matter in the hidden sector
• Demystifying Freeze-In Dark Matter at the LHC
• Conformal Portal to Dark Matter
• Probing multicomponent FIMP scenarios with gamma-ray telescopes
• Explorations of pseudo-Dirac dark matter having keV splittings and interacting via transition electric and magnetic dipole moments
• Forays into the dark side of the swamp
• eV Hubble Scale Inflation with Radiative Plateau: Very light Inflaton, Reheating & Dark Matter in B-L Extensions
• Perspectives and Outlook from HEP Window on the Universe
• Dark matter freeze-in via a light fermion mediator: forbidden decay and scattering
• Secluded Dark Matter in Gauged $B-L$ Model
• Multi-messenger FIMP
• Freezing In with Lepton Flavored Fermions
• Collider fingerprints of freeze-in dark matter produced during the fast expansion phase of Universe
• Freezing-in Cannibal Dark Sectors
• Feebly-interacting dark matter
• Velocity-dependent self-interacting dark matter from thermal freeze-out and tests in direct detections
• The Forward Physics Facility at the High-Luminosity LHC
• Scattering meets absorption in dark matter detection
• Producing and constraining self-interacting hidden sector dark matter
• LHC-friendly freeze-in dark matter via Higgs portal