Spin 3/2 particle as a dark matter candidate: an effective field theory approach

A bstract There is no indication so far on the spin of dark matter particles. We consider the possibility in this work that a spin-3/2 particle acts as dark matter. Employing the approach of effective field theory, we list all possible 4-fermion effective interactions between a pair of such fields a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of high energy physics 2012-04, Vol.2012 (4), Article 54
Main Authors: Ding, Ran, Liao, Yi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antiparticles
Antiprotons
Classical and Quantum Gravitation
Cosmic rays
Couplings
Dark matter
Density
Elastic scattering
Elementary Particles
Fermions
Field theory
Flux
High energy physics
Particle mass
Particle spin
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Protons
Quantum Field Theories
Quantum Field Theory
Quantum Physics
Relativity Theory
String Theory
Upper bounds
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Summary:A bstract There is no indication so far on the spin of dark matter particles. We consider the possibility in this work that a spin-3/2 particle acts as dark matter. Employing the approach of effective field theory, we list all possible 4-fermion effective interactions between a pair of such fields and a pair of ordinary fermion fields. We investigate the implications of the proposal on the relic density, the antiproton to proton flux ratio in cosmic rays, and the elastic scattering off nuclei in direct detection. While the relic density and flux ratio are sensitive to all interactions albeit at different levels, the direct detection is only sensitive to a few of them. Using the observed data and experimental bounds, we set constraints on the relation of couplings and dark particle mass. In particular, we find that some mass ranges can already be excluded by jointly applying the observed relic density on the one side and the measured antiproton to proton flux ratio or the upper bounds from direct detection on the other.
ISSN:1029-8479
1029-8479
DOI:10.1007/JHEP04(2012)054