Collider and Astrophysical Signatures of Composite Inelastic Dark Matter

Speaker: Philip Schuster, SLAC

When: February 2, 2009 (Mon), 12:30PM to 01:30PM (add to my calendar)

This event is part of the HET Seminar Series.

Abstract:
I propose a class of inelastic dark matter theories where the dark
matter is a “heavy flavor meson” of a hidden sector that confines at
~GeV. If the dark matter has a mass of ~TeV, hyperfine structure
generates ~100 keV splittings of the dark matter states. Dark matter
gauge interactions that mix with Standard Model hypercharge mediate
both elastic and inelastic scattering; this scattering can explain the
annual modulation signal reported by DAMA, and with modified search
strategies, can be tested in upcoming dark matter searches. These
theories make striking predictions for new leptonic final states with
observable production rates at B factories. I will also comment on
possible astrophysical signatures of these theories.