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Resonant Interactions of Dark Matter Particles Using Effective Field Theory

Johnson, Evan Wesley
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3756-8842
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1563412934740044

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Physics.
The particle nature of dark matter is a compelling mystery in physics. Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are a well motivated hypothesis for the dark matter particle, and supersymmetric (SUSY) theories contain natural candidates. WIMP annihilation into Standard Model particles provides key constraints on properties of the dark matter and therefore on the large SUSY parameter space. Resonances associated with bound states of WIMPs can be important, because annihilation of WIMPs in bound states can increase the overall annihilation rate, thus possibly strengthening existing constraints on dark matter models. Orders-of-magnitude "Sommerfeld enhancements" to annihilation rates can arise near a sequence of TeV-scale critical values of the WIMP mass where there is a zero-energy S-wave resonance at the WIMP-pair scattering threshold. Close to these critical values, the low-energy behavior of the WIMPs can be described by a zero-range effective field theory (ZREFT) in which they interact nonperturbatively through contact interactions and through Coulomb interactions. In this thesis, we develop the ZREFT for a specific dark matter model: the weak-isospin triplet, hypercharge singlet 'wino' from supersymmetry. We first develop the framework of ZREFT for the simple case where the winos only have short-range weak interactions and do not pair-annihilate. The parameters of ZREFT are determined by matching the analytic wino-wino scattering amplitudes of ZREFT with scattering amplitudes calculated numerically by solving the Schrödinger equation for winos interacting through a potential due to the exchange of weak gauge bosons. ZREFT at leading order in the power counting gives a good description of the two-body observables, and the description can be systematically improved by going to next-to-leading order. The power of ZREFT is illustrated by computing the bound-state formation rate in the S-wave collision of two winos with two soft photons emitted. We next introduce the Coulomb interaction between charged winos. The analytic wino-wino scattering amplitudes for ZREFT with Coulomb resummation are matched with numerical scattering amplitudes for winos interacting through a potential from the exchange of photons as well as weak gauge bosons. ZREFT at leading order with Coulomb resummation gives a good description of the low-energy two-body observables. Finally, we take into account the effects of wino-pair annihilation into electroweak gauge bosons. In ZREFT, this is accomplished by analytically continuing the real parameters for the contact interaction to complex values. The complex parameters are determined by matching to numerical scattering amplitudes for winos whose interaction potential also has an imaginary term due to annihilation into pairs of electroweak gauge bosons. ZREFT at leading order gives an accurate analytic description of low-energy wino-wino scattering, inclusive wino-pair annihilation, and a wino-pair bound state. ZREFT can also be applied to partial annihilation rates, such as the Sommerfeld enhancement of the annihilation rate of wino pairs into monochromatic photons, which is extremely important for indirect detection searches for dark matter annihilating in our Milky Way galaxy.
Eric Braaten (Advisor)
Stuart Raby (Committee Member)
Yuri Kovchegov (Committee Member)
Richard Kass (Committee Member)
206 p.
Physics
Dark matter; supersymmetry; susy; indirect detection of dark matter; effective field theory; EFT; particle phenomenology; phenomenology; pheno;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Johnson, E. W. (2019). Resonant Interactions of Dark Matter Particles Using Effective Field Theory [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1563412934740044

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Johnson, Evan. Resonant Interactions of Dark Matter Particles Using Effective Field Theory. 2019. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1563412934740044.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Johnson, Evan. "Resonant Interactions of Dark Matter Particles Using Effective Field Theory." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1563412934740044

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1563412934740044
263
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.