# Very Light Asymmetric Dark Matter

## TL;DR

This paper explores the possibility of very light, charged dark matter produced via the Affleck-Dine mechanism, with potential observable effects through Higgs portal interactions, expanding the scope of dark matter models.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel scenario of very light, charged asymmetric dark matter and analyzes its production, depletion mechanisms, and phenomenology via the Higgs portal.

## Key findings

- Asymmetric dark matter can be produced with the Affleck-Dine mechanism.
- Symmetric pairs can be depleted through couplings to additional fields.
- Dark matter may interact with the visible sector via the Higgs portal.

## Abstract

Very light dark matter is usually taken to consist of uncharged bosons such as axion-like particles or dark photons. Here, we consider the prospect of very light, possibly even sub-eV dark matter carrying a net charge that is (approximately) conserved. By making use of the Affleck-Dine mechanism for its production, we show that a sizable fraction of the energy density can be stored in the asymmetric component. We furthermore argue that there exist regions of parameter space where the energy density contained in symmetric particle-antiparticle pairs without net charge can to some degree be depleted by considering couplings to additional fields. Finally, we make an initial foray into the phenomenology of this scenario by considering the possibility that dark matter is coupled to the visible sector via the Higgs portal.