CP3 Lunch - Inert Multiplet Dark Matter and Direct Detection experiments - Ling Fu-Sin

by Dr Fu-Sin Ling (ULB)

Wednesday 7 Oct 2009, 13:00 → 13:50 Europe/Brussels

E.349

The addition of a new, odd under some parity symmetry and weakly interacting scalar multiplet provides a simple yet rich extension of the Standard Model which can account for Dark Matter. Direct detection experiments provide strong constraints on such models. When the additional multiplet is a doublet, two solutions provide a simultaneous fit of the DAMA modulation data and all the other constraints. Either the DM is light (mDM ~ 10 GeV) and scatters elastically with a nucleus, with Higgs portal type scalar interactions. Either the DM is heavy (mDM ~ 1 to 10 TeV) and scatters inelastically on nuclei, through a Z boson. For higher multiplets, at the renormalizable level, only multiplets with zero hypercharge are allowed. For real multiplets, the predicted signal is below current limits but above future ton sized experiments projections. If non renormalizable operators are allowed, suppressed by some cut-off scale, small mass splittings as needed for the inelastic solution of DAMA may naturally appear and rescue some models with non zero hypercharge.