Cancellation in dark matter-nucleon interactions: The role of non-standard-model-like Yukawa couplings

Extensive searches to probe the particle nature of dark matter (DM) have been going on for some decades now but, so far, no conclusive evidence has been found. Among various options, the Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMP) remains one of the prime possibilities as candidates for DM near the TeV scale. Taking a phenomenological view, such null results may be explained for a generic WIMP in a Higgs-portal scenario if we allow the light-quark Yukawa couplings to assume non-Standard Model (non-SM)-like values. This follows from a cancellation among different terms in the DM-nucleon scattering which can, in turn, lead to a vanishingly small direct-detection cross section. It might also lead to isospin violation in the DM-nucleon scattering. Such non-SM values of light-quark Yukawa couplings may be probed in the high luminosity run of the LHC. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

Extensive searches for the particle nature of dark matter have not yielded any conclusive evidence yet. Recent studies suggest that allowing non-Standard Model values for light-quark Yukawa couplings could explain null results in direct detection of dark matter.