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arXiv · 2505.04708

The third-generation-philic WIMP: an EFT analysis

Abstract

We consider fermionic and scalar dark matter (DM) candidates that couple predominantly to third-generation Standard Model fermions, describing their interactions within an effective field theory framework. We show that current direct-detection constraints on these interactions are more than an order of magnitude weaker than those for flavor-universal couplings: effective scales in the few-TeV range remain allowed by existing data, leaving open the possibility of a connection between this type of new physics and a solution to the electroweak hierarchy problem. Imposing the observed relic abundance from thermal freeze-out within the same effective theory, a well-defined region for a fermionic DM candidate with mass in the 1-2 TeV range emerges. Notably, this region will be fully probed by upcoming direct-detection experiments. Finally, we show that additional parameter space for both fermion and scalar cases can be recovered by going beyond the effective theory, through the introduction of a suitable vector mediator enabling resonant DM annihilation.

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Georgios Demetriou, Gino Isidori, Gioacchino Piazza, Emanuelle Pinsard. 2025-05-07. The third-generation-philic WIMP: an EFT analysis. https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.04708

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