Goldstone Fermion Dark Matter

With B. Bellazzini, C. Csáki, J. Hubisz, and J. Shao. The MSSM `WIMP miracle' is in trouble. 


Direct detection bounds push the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section to 10^-8 pb, nearly 100 million times larger than the typical 
`weak scale' cross section that is necessary to generate the correct 
relic abundance. 


MSSM neutralino dark matter typically requires severe tuning
 (through co-annihilations, resonances, or `well-tempering') to simultaneously generate the correct relic abundance and avoid direct detection bounds. 


We explore a class of models in which the dark matter particle is the fermionic superpartner of a Goldstone boson associated with a global symmetry broken at the TeV scale.


 This `Goldstone fermion' is a weakly interacting particle with weak-scale mass that, by virtue of suppressed Standard Model couplings, is naturally able to furnish the correct abundance and evade direct detection constraints. 


Further, these models open up the possibility of novel collider signatures, including `partially buried' Higgs decay channels. [arXiv:1106.2162] 
and work in progress