Complementary Constraints on Light Dark Matter from Heavy Quarkonium Decays

TL;DR

This paper derives model-independent constraints on light dark matter from quarkonium decay data at electron-positron colliders, complementing direct detection and gamma-ray search bounds.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive, model-independent analysis of dark matter interactions via quarkonium decays, highlighting the effectiveness of B and charm factories for light dark matter.

Findings

Bounds on dark matter-nucleon scattering cross sections.

Constraints on dark matter annihilation cross sections from gamma-ray data.

Comparison showing collider bounds complement direct detection.

Abstract

We investigate constraints on the properties of light dark matter which can be obtained from analysis of invisible quarkonium decays at high intensity electron-positron colliders in the framework of a low energy effective field theory. A matrix element analysis of all contact operators pertinent for these meson decays allows for a model-independent calculation of associated dark matter-nucleon scattering and dark matter annihilation cross sections. Assuming dark matter couples universally to all quark flavors, we then obtain bounds on nucleon scattering which complement direct dark matter detection searches. In contrast to similar analyses of monojet searches at high energy colliders, B and charm factories are more suitable probes of light dark matter interactions with less massive mediators. Relevant bounds on dark matter annihilation arising from gamma ray searches of dwarf spheroidal galaxies are also presented.