Electroweak corrections in a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone Dark Matter model revisited

Abstract

Having so far only indirect evidence for the existence of Dark Matter a plethora of experiments aims at direct detection of Dark Matter through the scattering of Dark Matter particles off atomic nuclei. For the correct interpretation and identification of the underlying nature of the Dark Matter constituents higher-order corrections to the cross section of Dark Matter-nucleon scattering are important, in particular in models where the tree-level cross section is negligibly small. In this work we revisit the electroweak corrections to the dark matter-nucleon scattering cross section in a model with a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson as the Dark Matter candidate. Two calculations that already exist in the literature, apply different approaches resulting in different final results for the cross section in some regions of the parameter space leading us to redo the calculation and analyse the two approaches to clarify the situation. We furthermore update the experimental constraints and examine the regions of the parameter space where the cross section is above the neutrino floor but which can only be probed in the far future.

The Higgs-portal for dark matter: effective field theories versus concrete realizations

“…We also remark that one can accommodate a variant of this scenario in which the DM is a pseudo-Goldstone boson of the aforementioned global U( 1) symmetry [64][65][66]. Despite of its interesting phenomenology, especially for what concerns DM direct detection [67][68][69][70], we will not consider this scenario here.…”

Reconciling Higgs physics and pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone dark matter in the S2HDM using a genetic algorithm

“…As already pointed out in section 1, one of the attractive features of the S2HDM is that due to the pNG nature of the DM particle the cross sections for the scattering of χ on nuclei vanish at leading order in the limit of vanishing momentum transfer [36], such that at this order direct-detection experiments are not sensitive to the presence of χ. In addition, it was shown in models with a single Higgs doublet field and a complex singlet field that the loop contributions to the direct-detection cross sections are small, and the predicted direct-detection scattering cross sections remain far below the current (and near future) sensitivity of direct-detection experiments [21,22,28]. In the type II S2HDM the masses of the additional doublet particle states H(= h 2 or h 3 ), A and H ± are required to be substantially larger than the DM masses m χ considered in our analysis (see discussion above), such that we can safely assume that the relevant loop corrections to the DM-nuclei scattering cross sections are captured by the pNG DM model with only one Higgs doublet.…”

“…A particle that naturally has this feature is the so-called pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (pNG) DM [14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. As a result, BSM models that predict the existence of a stable pNG in order to account for the DM relic abundance have recently gained a lot of attention [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30].…”

Phase transition gravitational waves from pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone dark matter and two Higgs doublets

“…Such a situation can be circumvented if one can effectively suppress DM-nucleon scattering at zero momentum transfer without reducing DM annihilation at the freeze-out epoch. An appealing approach to achieve this is provided by Higgs-portal pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (pNGB) DM models [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], where the DM candidate is a pNGB protected by a global symmetry which is softly broken by quadratic mass terms. The pNGB nature makes the tree-level DM-nucleon scattering amplitude vanish in the zero momentum transfer limit [7].…”

“…The pNGB nature makes the tree-level DM-nucleon scattering amplitude vanish in the zero momentum transfer limit [7]. Although loop corrections give rise to a nonzero scattering cross section, one-loop calculations show that near future direct detection experiments would not be able to probe the pNGB DM [8,9,19]. Therefore, other experimental approaches are crucial for exploring these models.…”