Dark Matter Overview: Collider, Direct and Indirect Detection Searches

The complementarity of direct, indirect and collider searches for dark matter has improved our understanding concerning the properties of the dark matter particle. I will review the basic concepts that these methods rely upon and highlight what are the most important information they provide when it comes down to interpret the results in terms of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). Later, I go over some of the latest results emphasizing the implications to dark matter theory in a broad sense and point out recent developments and prospects in the field.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. Based on the invited talk "Dark Matter Overview" given at Moriond 2016. Many thanks to the organizers for putting together great physicists in a lovely environment

Non-thermal WIMPs as Dark Radiation

It has been thought that only light species could behave as radiation and account for the dark radiation observed recently by Planck, WMAP9, South Pole and ATACAMA telescopes. In this work we will show that GeV scale WIMPs can plausibly account for the dark radiation as well. Heavy WIMPs might mimic the effect of a half neutrino species if some of their fraction were produced non-thermally after the thermal freeze-out. In addition, we will show how BBN, CMB and Structure Formation bounds might be circumvented.Comment: 8 Pages, 2 Figures. Published in the PPC proceedings 201

Constraining the Z' Mass in 331 Models using Direct Dark Matter Detection

We investigate a so-called 331 extension of the Standard Model gauge sector which accommodates neutrino masses and where the lightest of the new neutral fermions in the theory is a viable particle dark matter candidate. In this model, processes mediated by the additional $Z^{\prime}$ gauge boson set both the dark matter relic abundance and the scattering cross section off of nuclei. We calculate with unprecedented accuracy the dark matter relic density, including the important effect of coannihilation across the heavy fermion sector, and show that indeed the candidate particle has the potential of having the observed dark matter density. We find that the recent LUX results put very stringent bounds on the mass of the extra gauge boson, $M_{Z^{\prime}} \gtrsim 2$~TeV, independently of the dark matter mass. We also comment on regime where our bounds on the $Z^{\prime}$ mass may apply to generic 331-like models, and on implications for LHC phenomenology.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publicatio

The Semi-Hooperon: Gamma-ray and anti-proton excesses in the Galactic Center

A puzzling excess in gamma-rays at GeV energies has been observed in the center of our galaxy using Fermi-LAT data. Its origin is still unknown, but it is well fitted by Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) annihilations into quarks with a cross section around $10^{-26}{\rm cm^3 s^{-1}}$ with masses of $20-50$~GeV, scenario which is promptly revisited. An excess favoring similar WIMP properties has also been seen in anti-protons with AMS-02 data potentially coming from the Galactic Center as well. In this work, we explore the possibility of fitting these excesses in terms of semi-annihilating dark matter, dubbed as semi-Hooperon, with the process ${\rm WIMP\, WIMP \rightarrow WIMP\, X}$ being responsible for the gamma-ray excess, where X=h,Z. An interesting feature of semi-annihilations is the change in the relic density prediction compared to the standard case, and the possibility to alleviate stringent limits stemming from direct detection searches. Moreover, we discuss which models might give rise to a successful semi-Hooperon setup in the context of $\mathcal{Z}_3$,$\mathcal{Z}_4$ and extra "dark" gauge symmetries.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, version published in Phys. Lett.