Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Dark Matter Elastic Scattering Through Higgs Loops But Were Afraid to Ask

Understand

We consider a complete list of simplified models in which Majorana dark matter particles annihilate at tree level to $hh$ or $hZ$ final states, and calculate the loop-induced elastic scattering cross section with nuclei in each case.

• Expressions for these annihilation and elastic scattering cross sections are provided, and can be easily applied to a variety of UV complete models.
• We identify several phenomenologically viable scenarios, including dark matter that annihilates through the $s$-channel exchange of a spin-zero mediator or through the $t$-channel exchange of a fermion.
• Although the elastic scattering cross sections predicted in this class of models are generally quite small, XENON1T and LZ should be sensitive to significant regions of this parameter space.