WIMP Dark Matter within the dark photon portal

TL;DR

This paper investigates the dark photon portal as a connection to dark matter, analyzing constraints from relic density and direct detection for fermionic and scalar dark matter up to 1 TeV.

Contribution

It provides new bounds on dark photon parameters and identifies viable regions consistent with relic density and direct detection limits.

Findings

Derived lower limits on dark photon parameters from relic density constraints.

Compared dark matter-proton cross sections with experimental upper bounds.

Identified allowed parameter space regions compatible with current constraints.

Abstract

We test the dark photon as a portal connecting to the dark sector in the case of Dirac fermion and complex scalar dark matter with masses up to 1 TeV. Both the dark photon and the $Z$ boson contribute to the dark matter annihilation and dark matter--nucleon scattering processes. We derive the lower limits on the dark parameters from thermal relic density. The corresponding spin-independent dark matter--proton cross sections are compared with the upper bounds set by direct detection. We explore the allowed regions of the dark parameter space that are consistent with these constraints.