Flux-mediated Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel flux-mediated mechanism linking fermion dark matter to the Standard Model, enabling unsuppressed annihilations while evading direct detection constraints, and explores its parameter space.

Contribution

It presents a new model where four-form flux couples dark matter to the SM, affecting Higgs mass and dark matter annihilation channels.

Findings

Dark matter can annihilate into SM particles without suppression.

The model can evade XENON1T direct detection bounds.

Dark matter predominantly annihilates into singlet-like scalars.

Abstract

We propose a new mechanism to communicate between fermion dark matter and the Standard Model (SM) only through the four-form flux. The four-form couplings are responsible for the relaxation of the Higgs mass to the correct value and the initial displacement of the reheating pseudo-scalar field from the minimum. We show that the simultaneous presence of the pseudo-scalar coupling to fermion dark matter and the flux-induced Higgs mixing gives rise to unsuppressed annihilations of dark matter into the SM particles at present, whereas the direct detection bounds from XENON1T can be avoided. We suggest exploring the interesting bulk parameter space of the model for which dark matter annihilates dominantly into a pair of singlet-like scalars with similar mass as for dark matter.