Dark matter at the pseudoscalar Higgs resonance in the phenomenological MSSM and SUSY GUTs

Abstract

We study dark matter at the MSSM pseudoscalar Higgs resonance (A-funnel), which is one of the few remaining MSSM thermal dark matter candidates in the 100 − 1000 GeV range safe from direct detection constraints. To illustrate the various factors at play, this study is performed in two contrasting set-ups: a bottom-up phenomenological MSSM (pMSSM) approach that allows significant freedom, and the top-down, highly constrained Yukawa unified SO(10) GUT model. In the pMSSM, for µ > 0, the entire parameter space lies above the coherent neutrino background and mostly within reach of XENON1T and LZ, while blind spots exist at m A > 800 GeV for µ < 0; the strongest constraints come from A/H → τ τ searches at the LHC. For Yukawa unified models, the confluence of B s → µ + µ − constraints, fits to the bottom quark and Higgs masses, and gluino mass bounds from the LHC result in a prediction: realizing the pseudoscalar resonance requires gaugino mass non-universality, with a mass ratio that is determined to within a small range. * anandakrishnan.1@osu.edu †

Light stops, blind spots, and isospin violation in the MSSM

“…is satisfied, and the resulting suppression of the SI cross section has been identified numerically [39,[55][56][57] and further studied analytically [38]. In the latter case, an explicit formula [38] for the blind spot can be found for moderate to large values of tan β and m A > m h :…”

“…We examine in detail the contributions from Higgs and third-generation squark exchange, and study the interplay of collider, flavor, and DM constraints. As in previous analyses of the Higgs sector [30,[37][38][39], our scheme allows us to identify so-called blind spots in parameter space, where the…”

“…SI cross section is strongly suppressed by either a particular set of parameters [30,37], or destructive interference [38,39] in the scattering amplitude. This effect was first identified numerically through a scan of the CMSSM parameter space [55][56][57], while lower bounds on the χ-nucleon cross sections were first discussed in [58] for both the CMSSM and a generalized MSSM framework.…”

“…To date, the focus has largely concerned the role of the Higgs sector, both in the decoupling limit where a single SM-like Higgs h is present in the spectrum [30,37], or in the more general case [38,39] where the heavier CP -even Higgs H is included. This focus is chiefly motivated by the fact that current bounds on the masses of gluinos and (degenerate) squarks of the first two generations are larger than about 1 TeV [40,41], and so their contribution to the SI cross section can be safely ignored.…”

Dark Matter: Connecting LHC searches to direct detection

“…2 we show four simplified spectra which are increasingly natural (A to D). Interestingly, in all scenarios blind spots [9,10,11,12] of these blind spots isospin violation is enhanced, making a precise determination of the scalar couplings to nucleons crucial [13]. 1 In the case in which DM interactions are transmitted by the SM Higgs only, a blind spot occurs at M 1 + µs 2β = 0 as shown in the right plot of Fig.…”