Majorana Dark Matter Cross Sections with Nucleons at High Energies

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a Majorana fermionic dark matter particle interacts with nucleons at high energies, analyzing the effects of different mediators and experimental constraints on the scattering cross sections.

Contribution

It introduces a model with a light Z' portal to maintain sizable dark matter-nucleon interactions despite experimental bounds, extending previous non-relativistic analyses to relativistic regimes.

Findings

Z invisible decay width constrains dark matter couplings

Relativistic scattering alters cross section behavior

Light Z' portal allows large cross sections at ~10 GeV mass

Abstract

Non-relativistic dark matter scattering with nucleons is constrained by direct detection experiments. We use the XENON constraints on the spin-independent and spin-dependent cross section for dark matter scattering with nucleons to constrain a hypothetical Majorana fermionic dark matter particle's couplings to the Higgs boson and Z boson. In the procedure we illustrate the change in the dark matter nucleon cross section as one goes from non-relativistic, coherent scattering to relativistic, incoherent scattering. While the Z invisible decay width excludes directly couplings of dark matter to ordinary matter, by introducing a light Z' portal to the dark sector, a relatively large dark matter nucleon cross section can be preserved even with accelerator experiment constraints for dark matter with a mass of ~10 GeV