The discreet charm of higgsino dark matter - a pocket review

TL;DR

This review discusses the viability and detection prospects of higgsino dark matter within low-scale supersymmetry, emphasizing its unique status among MSSM candidates and exploring experimental detection methods.

Contribution

It highlights that nearly pure higgsino is the most viable dark matter candidate in MSSM, with a comprehensive review of detection prospects and implications for supersymmetry models.

Findings

Higgsino is the only MSSM dark matter candidate consistent with recent data.

Detection prospects are promising in direct, collider, and astrophysical searches.

Higgsino properties are linked to the 125 GeV Higgs mass and supersymmetry breaking scale.

Abstract

We give a brief review of the current constraints and prospects for detection of higgsino dark matter in low-scale supersymmetry. In the first part we argue, after performing a survey of all potential dark matter particles in the MSSM, that the (nearly) pure higgsino is the only candidate emerging virtually unscathed from the wealth of observational data of recent years. In doing so by virtue of its gauge quantum numbers and electroweak symmetry breaking only, it maintains at the same time a relatively high degree of model-independence. In the second part we properly review the prospects for detection of a higgsino-like neutralino in direct underground dark matter searches, collider searches, and indirect astrophysical signals. We provide estimates for the typical scale of the superpartners and fine tuning in the context of traditional scenarios where the breaking of supersymmetry is mediated at about the scale of Grand Unification and where strong expectations for a timely detection of higgsinos in underground detectors are closely related to the measured 125 GeV mass of the Higgs boson at the LHC.