Dark matter pair-production in b -> s transitions

Abstract

The flavour-changing neutral current transition b \to s can serve as a sensitive probe of WIMP dark matter models, if the WIMP mass is under 2 GeV. In this work we extend our earlier analysis to a generic class of models where the interaction between the dark matter sector and the Standard Model matter sector is mediated by the Higgs boson(s). We show that experimental limits on the decays of B-mesons to K(K^*) and missing energy provide stringent constraints on the parameter space of such models, but do not rule out sub-GeV WIMPs in a model-independent way. We find that in the context of the NMSSM with light pseudoscalar Higgs, the WIMP masses under a few hundred MeV are generically excluded with the exception of few highly tuned points in the parameter space.