Evading Direct Dark Matter Detection in Higgs Portal Models

TL;DR

This paper explores how gauge field Higgs portal dark matter models can evade direct detection constraints by introducing lighter unstable states that enable efficient annihilation, maintaining the thermal WIMP paradigm.

Contribution

It demonstrates a natural realization of secluded dark matter in gauge field models, allowing relic abundance and detection limits to be independently controlled.

Findings

Unstable lighter states enable efficient DM annihilation.

Relic abundance and detection constraints can be decoupled.

Secluded dark matter naturally arises in this framework.

Abstract

Many models of Higgs portal Dark Matter (DM) find themselves under pressure from increasingly tight direct detection constraints. In the framework of gauge field DM, we study how such bounds can be relaxed while retaining the thermal WIMP paradigm. When the hidden sector gauge symmetry is broken via the Higgs mechanism, the hidden sector generally contains unstable states which are lighter than dark matter. These states provide DM with an efficient annihilation channel. As a result, the DM relic abundance and the direct detection limits are controlled by different parameters, and the two can easily be reconciled. This simple setup realizes the idea of `secluded' dark matter naturally.