One-loop corrections for Higgs-portal dark matter

TL;DR

This paper investigates one-loop quantum corrections to dark matter annihilation in Higgs-portal models, revealing significant impacts on parameter space constraints and emphasizing the importance of higher-order effects in dark matter phenomenology.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of one-loop corrections to scalar dark matter annihilation in Higgs-portal models, showing these corrections can substantially alter previous tree-level bounds.

Findings

One-loop corrections can deform the allowed parameter space by about 10%.

Corrections are significant even for dark matter masses below 1 TeV.

Results suggest higher-order effects are crucial for accurate dark matter constraints.

Abstract

Models endowed with Higgs portals can probe into the hidden sectors of particle physics while providing stable dark matter candidates. Previous tree-level computations in such scenarios have shown that experimental bounds constrain dark matter to a very narrow region in parameter space. Aiming at improving the study of the implications of those constraints, we inspect one-loop corrections to the annihilation cross section for scalar dark matter into observable fermions. We find that these loop contributions might be enough to drastically change those results by deforming in about 10% the allowed parameter space for dark matter particles with masses even below 1 TeV. These findings encourage further investigation.