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Timothy Cohen

Publications and source records attributed to Timothy Cohen.

93 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

Leptophilic Dark Matter from the Lepton Asymmetry

We present a model of weak scale Dark Matter (DM) where the thermal DM density is set by the lepton asymmetry due to the presence of higher dimension lepton violating operators. In these models there is generically a separation between the annihilation cross-section responsible for the relic abundance (through lepton violating operators) and the annihilation cross-section that is relevant for the indirect detection of DM (through lepton preserving operators). Due to this separation, there is a perceived boost in the annihilation cross-section in the galaxy today relative to that derived for canonical thermal freeze-out. This results in a natural explanation for the observed cosmic ray electron and positron excesses, without resorting to a Sommerfeld enhancement. Generating the indirect signals also sets the magnitude of the direct detection cross-section which implies a signal for the next generation of experiments. More generically these models motivate continued searches for DM with apparently non-thermal annihilation cross-sections. The DM may also play a role in radiatively generating Majorana neutrino masses.

hep-ph↗

Changes in Dark Matter Properties After Freeze-Out

The properties of the dark matter that determine its thermal relic abundance can be very different from the dark matter properties today. We investigate this possibility by coupling a dark matter sector to a scalar that undergoes a phase transition after the dark matter freezes out. If the value of Omega_DM h^2 calculated from parameters measured at colliders and by direct and indirect detection experiments does not match the astrophysically observed value, a novel cosmology of this type could provide the explanation. This mechanism also has the potential to account for the "boost factor" required to explain the PAMELA data.

hep-ph↗

Testing a U(1) Solution to the Mu Problem

We discuss the collider phenomenology of TeV Z' gauge bosons related to the absence of a bare mu-term in the superpotential. Decays of the type Z' --> Higgsinos can directly test whether a gauge symmetry is responsible for forbidding the Higgsino mass. Decays to multi-lepton final states may allow these signatures to be observed at the Large Hadron Collider. We comment on whether it will be possible to state definitively that the mu-term is forbidden via a gauge symmetry.

hep-ph↗