Inelastic extra $U(1)$ charged scalar dark matter

Understand

The null results in dark matter direct detection experiments imply the present scalar dark matter (DM) annihilation cross section to bottom quark pairs through the Higgs boson exchange is smaller than about $10^{-31}$ cm$^3/$s for a wide DM mass range, which is much smaller than the required annihilation cross section for thermal relic DM.

• We propose models of a thermal relic DM with the present annihilation cross section being very suppressed.
• This property can be realized in an extra $U(1)$ gauge interacting complex scalar DM, where the thermal DM abundance is determined by coannihilation through the gauge interaction while the present annihilation is governed by Higgs bosons exchange processes.
• An interaction between DM and the extra $U(1)$ breaking Higgs field generates a small mass splitting between DM and its coannihilating partner so that coannihilation becomes possible and also the $Z'$-mediated scattering off with a nucleon in direct DM search becomes inelastic.