How Dark Are Majorana WIMPs? Signals from MiDM and Rayleigh Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper explores the detection signals of Majorana dark matter particles interacting with photons, focusing on magnetic dipole transitions and Rayleigh scattering effects, and assesses their implications for current and future experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of Majorana WIMP interactions with photons, including the effects of excited states and effective operators, expanding understanding of potential detection signatures.

Findings

Magnetic inelastic Dark Matter can produce detectable signals over a wide parameter range.

Rayleigh scattering operators lead to gamma-ray lines and nuclear recoils.

Potential explanation for the 130 GeV gamma-ray line from the galactic center.

Abstract

The effective interactions of dark matter with photons are fairly restricted. Yet both direct detection as well as monochromatic gamma ray signatures depend sensitively on the presence of such interactions. For a Dirac fermion, electromagnetic dipoles are possible, but are very constrained. For Majorana fermions, no such terms are allowed. We consider signals of an effective theory with a Majorana dark matter particle and its couplings to photons. In the presence of a nearby excited state, there is the possibility of a magnetic dipole transition (Magnetic inelastic Dark Matter or MiDM), which yields both direct and indirect detection signals, and, intriguingly, yields essentially the same size over a wide range of dipole strengths. Absent an excited state, the leading interaction of WIMPs is similar to the Rayleigh scattering of low energy photons from neutral atoms, which may be captured by an effective operator of dimension 7 of the form $\bar{\chi}\chi F_{\mu\nu}F^{\mu\nu}$. While it can be thought of as a phase of the Magnetic inelastic Dark Matter scenario where the excited state is much heavier than the ground state, it can arise from other theories as well. We study the resulting phenomenology of this scenario: gamma ray lines from the annihilation of WIMPs; nuclear recoils in direct detection; and direct production of the WIMP pair in high-energy colliders. Considering recent evidence in particular for a 130 GeV line from the galactic center, we discuss the detection prospects at upcoming experiments.