Direct detection of pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone dark matter with light mediator

Abstract: It has been found that a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson dark matter suppresses the amplitude for elastic scattering with nuclei in non-relativistic limit, and thus can naturally evade the strong constraint of dark matter direct detection experiments. In this paper, we show that non-zero elastic scattering cross section can be induced if the mediator mass is as small as momentum transfer. The predicted recoil energy spectrum can differ from that for usual thermal dark matter. Together with the relevant constraints such as thermal relic abundance, indirect detection and Higgs decays, we investigate the detectability through the current and future dark matter direct detection experiments.