Dark matter freeze-out during SU(2)L confinement

Howard, Jessica N.; Ipek, Seyda; Tait, Tim M.P.; Turner, Jessica

Abstract

We explore the possibility that dark matter is a pair of vector-like fermionic SU(2)L doublets and propose a novel mechanism of dark matter production that proceeds through the confinement of the weak sector of the Standard Model. This confinement phase causes the Standard Model doublets and dark matter to confine into pions. The dark pions freeze-out before the weak sector deconfines and generate a relic abundance of dark matter. We solve the Boltzmann equations for this scenario to determine the scale of confinement and constituent dark matter mass required to produce the observed relic density. We determine which regions of this parameter space evade direct detection, collider bounds, and successfully produce the observed relic density of dark matter. For a TeV scale pair of vector-like fermionic SU(2)L doublets, we find the weak confinement scale to be ∼ 700 TeV.

Citation

Howard, J. N., Ipek, S., Tait, T. M., & Turner, J. (2022). Dark matter freeze-out during SU(2)L confinement. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2022(2), Article 47. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep02%282022%29047

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 23, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Feb 7, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: May 4, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: May 5, 2022
• Journal: Journal of High Energy Physics
• Print ISSN: 1126-6708
• Electronic ISSN: 1029-8479
• Publisher: Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2022
• Issue: 2
• Article Number: 47
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep02%282022%29047
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1208031