Dark Matter and Charged Scalar Mediators: Theme and Variations

Prof. Pearl Sandick (Hosted by Dev), University of Utah

Stable particles with couplings and mass characterized by the weak scale are well-motivated dark matter candidates arising in a variety of theories of physics beyond the Standard Model. I'll discuss an interesting class of models in which the relevant new particles are a Majorana fermion dark matter candidate and one or more charged scalar mediators.  If these new particles are nearly degenerate in mass, several intriguing phenomenological features emerge.  I'll discuss the cosmological abundance of dark matter of this type and the prospects for discovering and identifying it via direct and indirect detection experiments. I'll also discuss strategies for probing these notoriously difficult scenarios at the LHC.