Fermionic dark matter-photon quantum interaction: A mechanism for darkness

• Published in: Nuclear physics. B 2023-07, Vol.992, p.116227, Article 116227
• Main Authors: de Gracia, G.B., Nogueira, A.A., da Rocha, R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0550-3213; 1873-1562
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2023.116227

Mass dimension one fermionic fields are prime candidates to describe dark matter, due to their intrinsic neutral nature, as they are constructed as eigenstates of the charge conjugation operator with dual helicity. To formulate the meaning of the darkness, the fermion-photon coupling is scrutinized with a Pauli-like interaction, and the path integral is then formulated from the phase space constraint structure. Ward–Takahashi-like identities and Schwinger–Dyson equations, together with renormalizability, are employed to investigate a phenomenological mechanism to avoid external light signals. Accordingly, the non-polarized pair annihilation and Compton-like processes are shown to vanish at the limit of small scattering angles even if considering 1-loop radiative corrections, reinforcing the dark matter interpretation. However, dark matter interactions with nucleons are still possible. Motivated by recent nucleon-recoil experiments to detect dark matter, we furnish a consistent theoretical setup to describe interaction with the photon compatible with the prevalence of darkness.