Pith. sign in

REVIEW 7 cited by

Testing Thermal-Relic Dark Matter with a Dark Photon Mediator

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 2505.04626 v1 pith:5BGN4BSN submitted 2025-05-07 hep-ph astro-ph.COhep-ex

classification hep-phastro-ph.COhep-ex
keywords darkannihilationdirectregimematterexcludedmodelonly
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
0 comments
abstract

In light of recent DAMIC-M results, we present the status of thermal-relic dark matter $\chi$ coupled to a kinetically-mixed dark photon $A^\prime$. In the predictive "direct annihilation" regime, $m_{A'} > m_\chi$, the relic abundance depends on the kinetic mixing parameter, and there is a minimum value compatible with thermal freeze out. Using only electron and nuclear recoil direct detection results, we find that for complex scalar dark matter, the direct-annihilation regime is now excluded for nearly all values of $m_\chi$; the only exception is the resonant annihilation regime where $m_{A'}\approx 2 m_\chi$. Direct annihilation relic targets for other representative models, including Majorana and Pseudo-Dirac candidates, remain viable across a wide range of model parameters, but will be tested with a combination of dedicated accelerator searches in the near future. In the opposite "secluded annihilation" regime, where $m_\chi > m_{A'}$, this scenario is excluded by cosmic microwave background measurements for all $m_\chi \lesssim 30$ GeV. Similar conclusions in both the direct and secluded regimes hold for all anomaly-free vector mediators that couple to the first generation of electrically-charged Standard Model particles.

Discussion (0). Continue with ORCID to comment.

Forward citations

Cited by 7 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. Light Dark Matter Discovery Potential and Model Selection at LDMX

    hep-ph 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    LDMX Phase II is projected to discover R=2.5 thermal complex-scalar DM at 5σ and to discriminate dark-photon electromagnetic-moment models via 2D Bayes factors.

  2. Filling the Gap: Hunting for Vector Bosons at the MUonE Experiment with Displaced Decay Signature

    hep-ph 2025-11 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    MUonE's displaced-vertex search, combining muon-electron and muon-nucleus production, could probe vector-boson mediators up to ~150 MeV and close a documented parameter-space gap.

  3. New Thermal-Relic Targets for sub-GeV Dark Matter Direct Detection

    hep-ph 2026-03 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    For sub-GeV dark matter coupled to anomaly-free U(1) mediators, thermal freeze-out predicts electron-recoil cross sections that are already excluded for electrophilic mediators but still viable and discoverable for el...

  4. Information-theoretic astrophysical uncertainties in the effective theory of dark matter direct detection

    hep-ph 2026-01 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Using an information-theoretic bound on the halo velocity distribution, dark matter direct-detection limits vary from <10x to ~10,000x near threshold depending on the EFT operator, with higher velocity-weighting opera...

  5. Relaxed constraints for dark matter with axial coupling to a dark photon

    hep-ph 2025-10 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Axial coupling of Dirac dark matter to a kinetically-mixed dark photon suppresses the standard direct-detection signal and opens large allowed regions in the WIMP parameter space.

  6. Cosmic-ray boosted inelastic dark matter from neutrino-emitting active galactic nuclei

    hep-ph 2025-08 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    A cosmic-ray boosted, inelastic dark matter flux from two neutrino-emitting AGNs gives new Super-K and XENONnT limits that reach part of the thermal freeze-out target for sub-GeV dark matter.

  7. Sub-GeV Dark Matter Under Pressure from Direct Detection

    hep-ph 2025-07 conditional novelty 4.0 of 10

    PandaX-4T S2-only data yields world-leading sub-GeV dark matter-electron scattering limits for heavy mediators in the 20-200 MeV range, although the result largely overlaps with the collaboration's own just-released analysis.

Pith tools