Particle Physics Implications for CoGeNT, DAMA, and Fermi

TL;DR

This paper explores particle physics models that could explain recent dark matter detection signals from CoGeNT and DAMA, and gamma-ray observations from Fermi, proposing scenarios where light dark matter interacts with the Standard Model and is consistent with cosmological abundance.

Contribution

It provides a model-independent analysis of particle physics scenarios that can explain direct detection signals and gamma-ray observations, ensuring thermal production aligns with cosmological data.

Findings

Multiple particle physics scenarios can explain CoGeNT, DAMA, and Fermi signals.

Models can produce the correct dark matter relic abundance.

Dark matter can interact via mediators with small masses or large couplings.

Abstract

Recent results from the CoGeNT collaboration (as well as the annual modulation reported by DAMA/LIBRA) point toward dark matter with a light (5-10 GeV) mass and a relatively large elastic scattering cross section with nucleons (\sigma ~ 10^{-40} cm^2). In order to possess this cross section, the dark matter must communicate with the Standard Model through mediating particles with small masses and/or large couplings. In this Letter, we explore with a model independent approach the particle physics scenarios that could potentially accommodate these signals. We also discuss how such models could produce the gamma rays from the Galactic Center observed in the data of the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope. We find multiple particle physics scenarios in which each of these signals can be accounted for, and in which the dark matter can be produced thermally in the early Universe with an abundance equal to the measured cosmological density.