CoGeNT, DAMA, and Light Neutralino Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper explores an extended supersymmetric model with a light singlino and scalar Higgs to explain recent direct detection signals of light dark matter particles around 5-10 GeV, consistent with collider constraints.

Contribution

It proposes a minimal extension of the MSSM involving a singlet superfield that can produce the observed dark matter signals while remaining collider-compatible.

Findings

Light singlino dark matter interacts via a light scalar Higgs.

Model explains CoGeNT and DAMA/LIBRA signals.

Relic abundance matches observed dark matter density.

Abstract

Recent observations by the CoGeNT collaboration (as well as long standing observations by DAMA/LIBRA) suggest the presence of a $\sim 5$-10 GeV dark matter particle with a somewhat large elastic scattering cross section with nucleons ($\sigma\sim 10^{-40}$ cm$^2$).Within the context of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), neutralinos in this mass range are not able to possess such large cross sections, and would be overproduced in the early universe. Simple extensions of the MSSM, however, can easily accommodate these observations. In particular, the extension of the MSSM by a chiral singlet superfield allows for the possibility that the dark matter is made up of a light singlino that interacts with nucleons largely through the exchange of a fairly light ($\sim$30-70 GeV) singlet-like scalar higgs, $\hi$. Such a scenario is consistent with all current collider constraints and can generate the signals reported by CoGeNT and DAMA/LIBRA. Furthermore, there is a generic limit of the extended model in which there is a singlet-like pseudoscalar higgs, $\ai$, with $\mai\sim \mhi$ and in which the $\chi^0\chi^0$ and $b\anti b, s\anti s$ coupling magnitudes of the $\hi$ and $\ai$ are very similar. In this case, the thermal relic abundance is automatically consistent with the measured density of dark matter if $\mchi$ is sufficiently small that $\chi^0\chi^0\to b\anti b$ is forbidden.