Ruben Oncala Mesa, promovendus aan het Nikhef, verdedigt zijn proefschrift woensdag 9 juni 2021 online aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam.
“De rol van scalaire mediatoren”
Dark matter searches are currently at the onset of the exploration of the multi-TeV regime with a variety of existing and upcoming telescopes observing high-energy cosmic rays, such as H.E.S.S., IceCube, CTA and KM3Net. The experimental exploration of the multi-TeV scale urges the comprehensive theoretical understanding of the dynamics and possibilities.
In this mass regime, within the thermal-relic scenario, the dark matter interactions are expected to manifest as long-range, in the sense that dark matter is signi cantly heavier than the force mediators to which it couples. The long-range nature of the interactions gives rise to non-perturbative e ects, in particular the Sommerfeld e ect and the existence of bound states. These e ects may operate in the early universe during the dark matter thermal decoupling, as well as inside dark matter haloes today, and signi cantly alter the dark matter phenomenology.
This thesis focuses on light scalar mediators, and explores their role in the existence and formation of bound states. This is then employed to investigate the e ect of metastable bound states on the dark matter relic abundance. A particularly compelling possibility are models where dark matter couples to the Higgs doublet. We nd that in a class of these models, the bound state e ects associated with the Higgs doublet can dramatically alter the dark matter thermal decoupling in the early universe, and consequently the predictions for the dark matter mass and couplings. This, in turn, is expected to a ect all experimental signatures, and suggests that this type of dark matter may be much heavier than previously anticipated, thereby solidifying the physics case for the experimental exploration of the multi-TeV regime.
“Dark matter bound states in the early universe |The role of scalar mediators” (pdf)
De promotie zal online te volgen zijn op het youtubekanaal van de Universiteit van Amsterdam:
Meer informatie op de website van de UvA.
Promotor: prof. dr. E.L.M.P. Laenen
Co-promotor: prof. dr. K. Petraki
contact: Ruben Oncala Mesa