A gauge singlet fermion as dark matter
Satyanarayan Mukhopadhyay (IPMU)

Dark matter relics could have been generated through thermal freeze-out (WIMP), or through the generation of an early universe particle-antiparticle asymmetry (ADM). If we have a light WIMP, with light “mediators” helping maintain thermal equilibrium with the SM sector, they should show up in various ongoing searches. Is there a convincing hint so far? If only the DM field is present in the relevant energy scales, how high can the scale of effective WIMP-SM contact interactions be, and how far can the next generation experiments probe? If we have an ADM instead, is there a generic prediction that can distinguish an ADM from a WIMP? I shall discuss these three questions in the context of a fermionic dark matter candidate singlet under the standard model gauge group, taking examples from SUSY, effective interactions and composite models.