Resonant Sub-GeV Dirac Dark Matter

Abstract

We study the phenomenology and detection prospects of a sub-GeV Dirac dark matter candidate with resonantly enhanced annihilations via a dark photon mediator. The model evades cosmological constraints on light thermal particles in the early universe while simultaneously being in reach of current and upcoming terrestrial experiments. We conduct a global analysis of the parameter space , considering bounds from accelerator and direct detection experiments, as well as those arising from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, the Cosmic Microwave Background and dark matter self-interactions. We also extend our discussion to the case of a dark matter subcomponent. We find that large regions of parameter space remain viable even for the case of a moderate resonant enhancement, and demonstrate the complementarity of different experimental strategies for further exploring this scenario.