MIT Libraries logoDSpace@MIT

MIT
View Item 
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • View Item
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

GeV-scale thermal WIMPs: Not even slightly ruled out

Author(s)
Beacom, John F.; Ng, Kenny C. Y.; Leane, Rebecca K; Slatyer, Tracy Robyn
Thumbnail
DownloadPhysRevD.98.023016.pdf (890.1Kb)
PUBLISHER_CC

Publisher with Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution

Terms of use
Creative Commons Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) have long reigned as one of the leading classes of dark matter candidates. The observed dark matter abundance can be naturally obtained by freezeout of weak-scale dark matter annihilations in the early Universe. This “thermal WIMP” scenario makes direct predictions for the total annihilation cross section that can be tested in present-day experiments. While the dark matter mass constraint can be as high as m[subscript χ]≳100  GeV for particular annihilation channels, the constraint on the total cross section has not been determined. We construct the first model-independent limit on the WIMP total annihilation cross section, showing that allowed combinations of the annihilation-channel branching ratios considerably weaken the sensitivity. For thermal WIMPs with s-wave 2→2 annihilation to visible final states, we find the dark matter mass is only known to be m[subscript χ]≳20  GeV. This is the strongest largely model-independent lower limit on the mass of thermal-relic WIMPs; together with the upper limit on the mass from the unitarity bound (m[subscript χ]≲100  TeV), it defines what we call the “WIMP window.” To probe the remaining mass range, we outline ways forward.
Date issued
2018-07
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/117395
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Journal
Physical Review D
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Leane, Rebecca K., et al. “GeV-Scale Thermal WIMPs: Not Even Slightly Ruled Out.” Physical Review D, vol. 98, no. 2, July 2018.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
2470-0010
2470-0029

Collections
  • MIT Open Access Articles

Browse

All of DSpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

My Account

Login

Statistics

OA StatisticsStatistics by CountryStatistics by Department
MIT Libraries
PrivacyPermissionsAccessibilityContact us
MIT
Content created by the MIT Libraries, CC BY-NC unless otherwise noted. Notify us about copyright concerns.