Mixed WIMP-axion dark matter

TL;DR

This paper investigates a two-component dark matter model involving the QCD axion and a scalar particle, analyzing experimental constraints and identifying a viable parameter space where the scalar is half the Higgs mass, evading detection bounds.

Contribution

The study provides a comprehensive analysis of a mixed WIMP-axion dark matter model using latest experimental data, highlighting a specific viable mass region due to a cancellation mechanism.

Findings

Model constrained mainly by dark matter detection experiments.

Viable parameter space exists where scalar dark matter is half the Higgs mass.

Collider bounds are weak compared to detection experiments.

Abstract

We study the experimental constraints on a model of a two-component dark matter, consisting of the QCD axion, and a scalar particle, both contributing to the dark matter relic abundance of the Universe. The global Peccei-Quinn symmetry of the theory can be spontaneously broken down to a residual $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry, thereby identifying this scalar as a stable weakly interacting massive particle, i.e., a dark matter candidate, in addition to the axion. We perform a comprehensive study of the model using the latest data from dark matter direct and indirect detection experiments, as well as new physics searches at the Large Hadron Collider. We find that although the model is mostly constrained by the dark matter detection experiments, it is still viable around a small region of the parameter space where the scalar dark matter is half as heavy as the Standard Model Higgs. In this allowed region, the bounds from these experiments are evaded due to a cancellation mechanism in the dark matter--Higgs coupling. The collider search results, however, are shown to impose weak bounds on the model.