Nearly Supersymmetric Dark Atoms
9/17/2010
42 citations (42 excluding self-citations).
The Key Idea
If dark matter forms bound states — “dark atoms” — then the spectrum of those bound states carries information about the underlying dynamics. This paper considers the case where the dark sector is nearly supersymmetric: SUSY is exact in the dark sector at leading order, and Standard Model interactions communicate SUSY breaking as a small perturbation. This setup allows the bound-state spectrum to be computed systematically without knowing the details of the confining dynamics, using SUSY as an organizing principle. The approach connects to the general formalism developed in Simplicity of Perfect Atoms.
The key result is that SUSY relations among bound-state masses and couplings persist at leading order, with corrections that are calculable and small. Several benchmark models are presented, showing how the composite dark matter states interact with the Standard Model and how the spectrum shifts under SUSY-breaking perturbations.