Producing and constraining self-interacting hidden sector dark matter

Abstract

In this thesis, we start by reviewing all constraints applying on self-interacting DM with a light mediator considering well-known Higgs portal and Kinetic Mixing portal models as concrete examples. Then, we elaborate on the Sommerfeld effect, and we study its many implications on self-interacting DM models with light mediator. Next, we investigate how to account for the DM relic abundance in such portal models which present a generic structure with three populations (Standard Model, DM and mediator particles) connected to each other through three interactions resulting from two coupling strengths. It appears that this can be done through five different dynamical ways which give rise to nine regimes among which four are new. Those new production regimes are relevant for a situation where the hidden sector particles are not thermally connected to the visible vector particles. We further study the possibility of a thermally disconnected Hidden Sector and establish the general allowed parameter space for DM thermal candidates in the hidden-to-visible temperature ratio versus DM mass plane. We show that, in this framework, simple portal models such as the two we consider can alleviate tensions at small scale while offering suitable DM candidates. Other minimal self-interacting DM with light mediator frameworks which consistently fulfil all constraints are also proposed and explored.

260 pages, PhD thesis

References in corpus (33)

• A direct empirical proof of the existence of dark matter
• Results from a search for dark matter in the complete LUX exposure
• Too big to fail? The puzzling darkness of massive Milky Way subhaloes
• Dark Matter Results From 54-Ton-Day Exposure of PandaX-II Experiment
• Echoes of a Hidden Valley at Hadron Colliders
• Constraints on the Self-Interaction Cross-Section of Dark Matter from Numerical Simulations of the Merging Galaxy Cluster 1E 0657-5
• The non-gravitational interactions of dark matter in colliding galaxy clusters
• Neutrino Trident Production: A Powerful Probe of New Physics with Neutrino Beams
• The WIMPless Miracle: Dark Matter Particles without Weak-scale Masses or Weak Interactions
• Cores in Dwarf Galaxies from Dark Matter with a Yukawa Potential
• Search for dark matter annihilations towards the inner Galactic halo from 10 years of observations with H.E.S.S
• Search for $A^{\prime }\to {\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}$ decays
• Search for photon line-like signatures from Dark Matter annihilations with H.E.S.S
• Too Big to Fail in the Local Group
• Turning off the Lights: How Dark is Dark Matter?
• Cosmological constraints on exotic injection of electromagnetic energy
• NGC 3741: dark halo profile from the most extended rotation curve
• Resonant Dark Forces and Small Scale Structure
• Discovering New Light States at Neutrino Experiments
• The velocity function in the local environment from LCDM and LWDM constrained simulations
• Helioscope Bounds on Hidden Sector Photons
• A Natural Supersymmetric Model with MeV Dark Matter
• Thermal Dark Matter From A Highly Decoupled Sector
• Cosmological Constraints on Very Dark Photons
• Dark Sectors 2016 Workshop: Community Report
• Signatures of a hidden cosmic microwave background
• Supernova Bounds on the Dark Photon Using its Electromagnetic Decay
• M31 Satellite Masses Compared to LCDM Subhaloes
• Search for an invisibly decaying Higgs boson or dark matter candidates produced in association with a $Z$ boson in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector
• Spontaneous Freeze Out of Dark Matter From an Early Thermal Phase Transition
• Updated Constraints on Self-Interacting Dark Matter from Supernova 1987A
• Rate of dark photon emission from electron positron annihilation in massive stars