Thermal Relic Dark Matter Beyond the Unitarity Limit

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model where thermal relic dark matter can have masses much larger than the unitarity limit, by involving new strong dynamics and baryonic hadrons with large radii, enabling PeV-scale dark matter.

Contribution

It introduces a simple model with new strong dynamics allowing dark matter masses beyond the unitarity limit through baryonic hadrons.

Findings

Dark matter mass can reach the PeV scale.

Annihilation occurs via large-radius baryonic hadrons.

Model extends the mass limit for thermal relic dark matter.

Abstract

We discuss a simple model of thermal relic dark matter whose mass can be much larger than the so-called unitarity limit on the mass of point-like particle dark matter. The model consists of new strong dynamics with one flavor of fermions in the fundamental representation which is much heavier than the dynamical scale of the new strong dynamics. Dark matter is identified with the lightest baryonic hadron of the new dynamics. The baryonic hadrons annihilate into the mesonic hadrons of the new strong dynamics when they have large radii. Resultantly, thermal relic dark matter with a mass in the PeV range is possible.