Weak mixing below the weak scale in dark-matter direct detection

TL;DR

This paper investigates how dark matter interacts with nuclei through axial-vector couplings to heavy quarks, emphasizing the importance of weak corrections and QCD effects below the weak scale.

Contribution

It provides a detailed calculation of Higgs and weak gauge-boson exchange effects, including resummation of leading-logarithmic QCD corrections, in dark matter effective theories.

Findings

QCD corrections significantly impact dark matter-nucleus scattering predictions.

Resummation of leading-logarithmic corrections improves theoretical accuracy.

Weak gauge-boson exchanges are relevant for heavy-quark axial interactions.

Abstract

If dark matter couples predominantly to the axial-vector currents with heavy quarks, the leading contribution to dark-matter scattering on nuclei is either due to one-loop weak corrections or due to the heavy-quark axial charges of the nucleons. We calculate the effects of Higgs and weak gauge-boson exchanges for dark matter coupling to heavy-quark axial-vector currents in an effective theory below the weak scale. By explicit computation, we show that the leading-logarithmic QCD corrections are important, and thus resum them to all orders using the renormalization group.