A model of pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone dark matter with two complex scalars (2401.02397v2)

Abstract: Pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone (pNG) dark matter (DM) is a promising DM candidate and able to explain the measured DM abundance by the thermal freeze-out mechanism evading the stringent bound from DM direct detection experiments. We propose a new model providing a pNG DM by introducing two Standard-Model-singlet complex scalars with the same charges of a dark $U(1)$ gauge symmetry. They are also charged under a $U(1)$ global symmetry corresponding to their relative phase rotations, which is explicitly broken by a soft-breaking term in the scalar potential. The both $U(1)$ symmetries are spontaneously broken by their vacuum expectation values, giving rise to one real pNG boson. We also introduce a discrete $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry exchanging the two scalars to stabilize the pNG boson as DM. It is shown that this model reproduces the DM abundance consistently with the current bound from the direct detection experiments. The model has a gauge kinetic mixing between the dark and $U(1)_Y$ gauge fields, which allows the dark gauge boson to decay even with a relatively light mass and prevents it from being an additional DM component. The Landau pole is avoided thanks to the small gauge coupling constant. In addition, a DM pair dominantly annihilates into a pair of the dark gauge bosons if the gauge boson mass is lighter than the DM mass, and thus its cross section has significantly different parameter dependence from other pNG DM models. We also calculate the DM-nucleon scattering cross section at the loop level. It turns out that it is necessary to probe region covered by the neutrino fog in order to test this model.