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We study an extension of the Standard Model that addresses the hints of lepton flavour universality violation observed in B → K ( * ) l + l − decays at LHCb, while providing a viable candidate for dark matter. The model incorporates two new scalar fields and a Majorana fermion that induce one-loop contributions to B meson decays. We show that agreement with observational data requires the new couplings to be complex and that the Majorana fermion can reproduce the observed dark matter relic density. This combination of cosmological and flavour constraints sets an upper limit on the dark matter and mediator masses. We have studied LHC dijet and dilepton searches, finding that they rule out large regions of parameter space by setting lower bounds on the dark matter and mediator masses. In particular, dilepton bounds are much more constraining in a future high-luminosity phase. Finally, we have computed the scattering cross section of dark matter off nuclei and compared it to the sensitivity of current and future direct detection experiments, showing that parts of the parameter space could be accessible in the future to multi-ton experiments. Future collider and direct DM searches complement each other to probe large areas of the parameter space of this model. 1

We study the properties of the dark matter component of the radially anisotropic stellar population recently identified in the Gaia data, using magneto-hydrodynamical simulations of Milky Way-like halos from the Auriga project. We identify 10 simulated galaxies that approximately match the rotation curve and stellar mass of the Milky Way. Four of these have an anisotropic stellar population reminiscent of the Gaia structure. We find an anti-correlation between the dark matter mass fraction of this population in the Solar neighbourhood and its orbital anisotropy. We estimate the local dark matter density and velocity distribution for halos with and without the anisotropic stellar population, and use them to simulate the signals expected in future xenon and germanium direct detection experiments. We find that a generalized Maxwellian distribution fits the dark matter halo integrals of the Milky Way-like halos containing the radially anisotropic stellar population. For dark matter particle masses below approximately 10 GeV, direct detection exclusion limits for the simulated halos with the anisotropic stellar population show a mild shift towards smaller masses compared to the commonly adopted Standard Halo Model.

We consider the treatment of fermionic dark matter interacting with photons via dimension-5 and -6 effective operators, arguing that one should always use hypercharge gauge field form factors, instead of those of the photon. Beyond the simple observation that the electromagnetic form factor description breaks down at the electroweak scale, we show how the additional couplings to the Z boson predicted by the hypercharge form factors modify the relic density calculation and indirect detection limits for dark matter masses of a few tens of GeV and above. Furthermore, constraints from the invisible Z decay width can be competitive for masses below 10 GeV. We review the phenomenology of hypercharge form factors at the LHC as well as for direct and indirect detection experiments. We highlight where the electromagnetic and hypercharge descriptions lead to wildly different conclusions about the viable parameter space and the relative sensitivity of various probes, namely vector boson fusion versus mono-jet constraints from the LHC, and indirect versus direct searches, for larger dark matter masses. We find that the dimension-5 operators are strongly constrained by direct detection bounds, while for dimension-6 operators LHC mono-jet searches are competitive or better than the other probes we consider.

Experimental developments in neutrino telescopes are drastically improving their ability to constrain the annihilation cross-section of dark matter. In this paper, we employ an angular power spectrum analysis method to probe the galactic and extra-galactic dark matter signals. First we derive projections for a next generation of neutrino telescope that is inspired by KM3NeT. We emphasise that such analysis is much less sensitive to the choice of dark matter density profile. Remarkably, the projected sensitivity is improved by more than an order of magnitude with respect to the existing limits obtained by assuming the Burkert dark matter density profile describing the galactic halo. Second, we analyse minimal extensions to the Standard Model that will be maximally probed by the next generation of neutrino telescopes. As benchmark scenarios, we consider Dirac dark matter in s- and t-channel models with vector and scalar mediators. We follow a global approach by examining all relevant complementary experimental constraints. We find that neutrino telescopes will be able to competitively probe significant portions of parameter space. Interestingly, the anomaly-free L_μ-L_τ model can potentially be explored in regions where the relic abundance is achieved through freeze-out mechanism.

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In this work we introduce RAPIDD, a surrogate model that speeds up the computation of the expected spectrum of dark matter particles in direct detection experiments. RAPIDD replaces the exact calculation of the dark matter differential rate (which in general involves up to three nested integrals) with a much faster parametrization in terms of ordinary polynomials of the dark matter mass and couplings, obtained in an initial training phase. In this article, we validate our surrogate model on the multi-dimensional parameter space resulting from the effective field theory description of dark matter interactions with nuclei, including also astrophysical uncertainties in the description of the dark matter halo. As a concrete example, we use this tool to study the complementarity of different targets to discriminate simplified dark matter models. We demonstrate that RAPIDD is fast and accurate, and particularly well-suited to explore a multi-dimensional parameter space, such as the one in effective field theory approach, and scans with a large number of evaluations.

The recent measurement of the muon anomalous magnetic moment by the Fermilab E989 experiment, when combined with the previous result at BNL, has confirmed the tension with the SM prediction at $$4.2\,\sigma $$ 4.2 σ  CL, strengthening the motivation for new physics in the leptonic sector. Among the different particle physics models that could account for such an excess, a gauged $$U(1)_{L_\mu -L_{\tau }}$$ U ( 1 ) L μ - L τ stands out for its simplicity. In this article, we explore how the combination of data from different future probes can help identify the nature of the new physics behind the muon anomalous magnetic moment. In particular, we contrast $$U(1)_{L_\mu -L_{\tau }}$$ U ( 1 ) L μ - L τ with an effective $$U(1)_{L_\mu }$$ U ( 1 ) L μ -type model. We first show that muon fixed target experiments (such as NA64$$\mu $$ μ ) will be able to measure the coupling of the hidden photon to the muon sector in the region compatible with $$(g-2)_\mu $$ ( g - 2 ) μ , and will have some sensitivity to the hidden photon’s mass. We then study how experiments looking for coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$$\nu $$ ν NS) at spallation sources will provide crucial additional information on the kinetic mixing of the hidden photon. When combined with NA64$$\mu $$ μ results, the exclusion limits (or reconstructed regions) of future CE$$\nu $$ ν NS detectors will also allow for a better measurement of the mediator mass. Finally, the observation of nuclear recoils from solar neutrinos in dark matter direct detection experiments will provide unique information about the coupling of the hidden photon to the tau sector. The signal expected for $$U(1)_{L_\mu -L_{\tau }}$$ U ( 1 ) L μ - L τ is larger than for $$U(1)_{L_\mu }$$ U ( 1 ) L μ with the same kinetic mixing, and future multi-ton liquid xenon proposals (such as DARWIN) have the potential to confirm the former over the latter. We determine the necessary exposure and energy threshold for a potential $$5\,\sigma $$ 5 σ discovery of a $$U(1)_{L_\mu -L_{\tau }}$$ U ( 1 ) L μ - L τ boson, and we conclude that the future DARWIN observatory will be able to carry out this measurement if the experimental threshold is lowered to $$1\,{\mathrm {keV}}_{\mathrm {nr}} $$ 1 keV nr .