Light dark matter in NMSSM and implication on Higgs phenomenology

Understand

For the experimental search of neutralino dark matter, it is important to know its allowed mass and scattering cross section with the nucleon.

• In order to figure out how light a neutralino dark matter can be predicted in low energy supersymmetry, we scan over the parameter space of the NMSSM (next-to-minimal supersymmetric model), assuming all the relevant soft mass parameters to be below TeV scale.
• We find that in the parameter space allowed by current experiments the neutralino dark matter can be as light as a few GeV and its scattering rate off the nucleon can reach the sensitivity of XENON100 and CoGeNT.
• As a result, a sizable parameter space is excluded by the current XENON100 and CoGeNT data (the plausible CoGeNT dark matter signal can also be explained).