We present a purely gravitational infra-red-calculable production mechanism for dark matter (DM) . The source of both the DM relic abundance and the hot Standard Model (SM) plasma is a primordial density of micro black holes (BHs), which evaporate via Hawking emission into both the dark and SM sectors. The mechanism has four qualitatively different regimes depending upon whether the BH evaporation is 'fast' or 'slow' relative to the initial Hubble rate, and whether the mass of the DM particle is 'light' or 'heavy' compared to the initial BH temperature. For each of these regimes we calculate the DM yield, Y, as a function of the initial state and DM mass and spin. In the 'slow' regime Y depends on only the initial BH mass over a wide range of initial conditions, including scenarios where the BHs are a small fraction of the initial energy density. The DM is produced with a highly non-thermal energy spectrum, leading in the 'light' DM mass regime (~260 eV and above depending on DM spin) to a strong constraint from free-streaming, but also possible observational signatures in structure formation in the spin 3/2 and 2 cases. The 'heavy' regime (~1.2 × 108 GeV to MPl depending on spin) is free of these constraints and provides new possibilities for DM detection. In all cases there is a dark radiation component predicted.

Motivated by recent constructions of TeV-scale strongly-coupled dynamics, either associated with the Higgs sector itself as in pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (pNGB) Higgs models or in theories of asymmetric dark matter, we show that stable solitonic Qballs can be formed from light pion-like pNGB fields carrying a conserved global quantum number in the presence of the Higgs field. We focus on the case of thick-wall Q-balls, where solutions satisfying all constraints are shown to exist over a range of parameter values. In the limit that our approximations hold, the Q-balls are weakly bound and parametrically large, and the form of the interactions of the light physical Higgs with the Q-ball is determined by the breaking of scale symmetry.

The direct detection of dark matter is a key problem in astroparticle physics that generally requires the use of deep-underground laboratories for a low-background environment where the rare signals from dark matter interactions can be observed. This work reports on the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory – currently under construction and the first such laboratory in the Southern Hemisphere – and the associated research program. A particular focus will be given to ANU’s contribution to SABRE, a NaI:Tl dark matter, direct detection experiment that aims to confirm or refute the long-standing DAMA result. Preliminary measurements of the NaI:Tl quenching factor and characterisation of the SABRE liquid scintillator veto are reported.

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Q-balls -whether in the single-field or multi-field context -are usually studied in theories containing only one stabilising symmetry. However, this is not the most general scenario. In this paper, we study a class of theories with multiple symmetries. We consider both the traditional thin-and thick-wall limits of these theories, deriving sufficient conditions for existence in the latter case. Moreover, we also introduce a new state that could exist in this class of theory -a cored Q-ball. We show that this new state can be energetically stable, but leave a detailed phenomenological study to later work.