Exploring the Null Results in the Direct Detection Experiments, and Neutrino Mass in an Extended Model Constrained through the Decays
arXiv:2509.10939 · doi:10.1007/JHEP12(2025)075
Abstract
The Direct Detection~(DD) experiments are vital for probing the particle nature of Dark Matter~(DM). However, in the absence of a scattering event, DD searches result in stringent bounds on the corresponding parameter space. The paper has considered a -extension of the Standard Model~(SM) and augmented the particle spectrum with -singlet vector-like leptons and scalars. A discrete symmetry stabilizes the lightest SM-singlet vector-like lepton as the viable DM candidate. In the proposed model, amplitude-level cancellation can be achieved for both DM-electron and DM-quark scatterings, leading to a trivial explanation for the continuous null results in the DD experiments. The framework can also induce one-loop corrections to the lepton anomalous magnetic moments and couplings. The experimental bounds on the decays are instrumental in constraining the model parameters. Particularly, using the decay, a stronger exclusion limit can be imposed on the parameter space. Further, in the presence of three heavy right-handed neutrinos, transforming as -even states, the model can explain all the neutrino mass and mixing constraints using the Type-I seesaw mechanism. Future experimental updates on the , decays and improved bounds on the theory can be crucial to test the proposed model. Moreover, future DD experiments searching for a DM-muon scattering might be significant to probe the considered DM-SM interaction.
51 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables