Browsing by Subject "dark matter"

Dark matter direct detection experiments still have found no evidence of the dark matter WIMPs. The search has therefore been expanded for lighter dark matter candidates. Light dark matter is nearly invisible to current detectors through the elastic nuclear recoils. This thesis is meant to provide understanding on the inelastic atomic scatterings, which are one good way to detect dark matter particles with mχ ∼ GeV. In this thesis we consider spin-independent scatterings. Inelastic scatterings are based on the fact that in an atom, electrons do not follow the motion of the recoil nucleus immediately, but instead it takes time. This results in a small probability of observable ionization or excitation of the atom. This is known as the Migdal effect. We will first study the theoretical framework of dark matter-nucleus scatterings, showing how to get the event rate and how it is factorized into the astrophysical, the particle physics and the target response part. Then we will move to the inelastic processes, Migdal and Bremsstrahlung effects, deriving their event rates. In the first, we try to detect ionized electrons. The latter one, the Bremsstrahlung, is a similar process to the Migdal, but there we try to detect photons emitted from the de-excitations of atoms excited in the inelastic recoils. We will also look into the Migdal in semiconductors. Because of the smaller gap for electron excitations in crystals, we find that the rate for the Migdal effect is much higher in semiconductors than in atomic targets, thus allowing the search for even lighter dark matter particles. The rate can be expressed in terms of the energy loss function of the target material.

The Standard model of particle physics has been very successful in describing particles and their interactions. In 2012 the last missing piece, the Higgs boson, was discovered at the Large Hadron Collider. However even for all its success the Standard model fails to explain some phenomena of nature. Two of these unexplained phenomena are dark matter and the metastability of the electroweak vacuum. In this thesis we study one of the simplest extensions of the Standard model; the complex singlet scalar extension. In this framework the CP-even component of the singlet mixes with the Standard model like Higgs boson through the portal operator to form new mass eigenstates. The CP-odd component is a pseudo-Goldstone boson which could be a viable dark matter candidate. We analyse parameter space of the model with respect to constraints from particle physics experiments and cosmological observations. The time evolution of dark matter number density is derived to study the process of dark matter freeze-out. The relic density of the Dark Matter candidate is then calculated with the micrOmegas tool. These calculations are then compared to the measured values of dark matter relic density. Moreover, the electroweak vacuum can be stabilised due the contribution of the singlet scalar to the Standard Model Higgs potential. We derive the β-functions of the couplings in order to study the renormalisation group evolution of the parameters of the model. With the contribution of the portal coupling to the β-function of the Higgs coupling we are able to stabilise the electroweak vacuum up to the Planck scale. The two-loop β-functions are calculated using the SARAH tool.

Particle dark matter (DM) as a solution to the missing mass problem in astronomy has been examined widely and with different models. Among the most studied are weakly interacting massive particles, WIMPs, for short. As dark matter constitutes roughly a quarter of the energy budget of the universe, and due to its vital role in galaxy structures through gravitational interaction, the motivation to uncover the nature and properties of it is strong. In this master’s thesis, a specific particle dark matter model is examined. The model consists of a hidden dark sector added to the Standard Model of Particle Physics (SM). The dark sector introduces a new SU(2) gauge field that acts as a vector dark matter candidate, as well as a complex SU(2) scalar field and interactions between the two. Due to spontaneous symmetry breaking, the dark vector gains a non-zero mass. This relocation of degrees of freedom allows us to write the dark scalar field as having only one real degree of freedom. The dark scalar field also experiences mass mixing with the SM Higgs field, leaving the two propagating scalar mass eigenstates as superpositions of the dark scalar field and the Higgs field. One of these is then identified as the observed Higgs field with a mass of 125 GeV. The four free parameters of the model can be chosen as the masses of the dark matter candidate and the propagating dark scalar field, the angle of the rotation between mass and gauge eigenbasis in the scalar sector and the dark gauge coupling constant. To produce the observed relic density of dark matter, the DM particles need to pair-annihilate with a cross section of order 1.64 × 10^(−9) GeV^(−2). Further constraints are given by collider and direct detection experiments, leaving the parameter space of the model rather constrained. Depending on the values of the other free parameters, a viable mass range of around 100-200 GeV is found for the vector dark matter. The possibility of probing the properties of dark matter through experiments and observations exists. The existence and properties of the dark scalar field could be examined in the Large Hadron Collider. Possible phenomena in the scalar sector of the model, such as phase transitions, could be studied with upcoming gravitational wave detectors, namely the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. Direct detection experiments provide a way of seeking the dark matter particle itself. With all these possibilities, the future seems interesting.