GeV Scale Inelastic Dark Matter with Dark Photon Mediator via Direct Detection and Cosmological/Laboratory Constraints

Abstract: We propose a new candidate of GeV scale inelastic dark matter (DM). Our construction has an anomaly-free $U(1)_X^{}$ gauge group with dark photon mediator, and can realize either scalar or fermionic inelastic DM. It is highly predictive and testable. We study the scattering rate of light inelastic DM with electrons in the XENON1T experiment and with nuclei in the XENON1T, CRESST-III, CDEX-1B and DarkSide-50 experiments. We resolve the recent XENON1T anomaly via electron recoil detection. Combining the XENON1T constraints from both electron recoils and nuclear recoils (including Migdal effect), we predict the inelastic DM mass $\lesssim 1.5$GeV. We further analyze the bounds by the DM relic abundance, the lifetime of the heavier DM component, and laboratory constraints, from which we identify the viable parameter space for the future probe. This provides an important benchmark for the theories and experimental tests of GeV scale inelastic DM.