A Thermal Relic Encyclopedia: Dark Matter Candidates Coupled to Quarks
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
2025-12-04 v1 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract
Thermal freeze-out is a compelling framework for naturally generating the dark matter abundance. We systematically study a broad range of dark matter and mediator particle combinations that can viably realize thermal freeze-out, focusing on models in which the mediator couples to Standard Model quarks. In each case, we calculate the relic density and consider existing constraints from accelerators, cosmology, direct detection, and indirect detection over the full range of dark matter and mediator masses. We present an encyclopedic catalog of matrix elements, cross sections, and decay rates which can be used as a reference for future studies of dark matter phenomenology.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2512.03133,
title = {A Thermal Relic Encyclopedia: Dark Matter Candidates Coupled to Quarks},
author = {Dan Hooper and Gordan Krnjaic and Tanner Trickle and Isaac R. Wang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.03133},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
55 pages, 24 figures