https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-025-14580-5
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
The third-generation-philic WIMP: an EFT analysis
1
Institut für Theoretische Physik, ETH Zürich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland
2
Physik-Institut, Universität Zur̈ich, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland
a
gioacchino.piazza@physik.uzh.ch
Received:
2
June
2025
Accepted:
21
July
2025
Published online:
12
August
2025
We consider fermionic and scalar dark matter (DM) candidates that couple predominantly to third-generation Standard Model fermions, describing their interactions within an effective field theory framework. We show that current direct-detection constraints on these interactions are more than an order of magnitude weaker than those for flavor-universal couplings: effective scales in the few-TeV range remain allowed by existing data, leaving open the possibility of a connection between this type of new physics and a solution to the electroweak hierarchy problem. Imposing the observed relic abundance from thermal freeze-out within the same effective theory, a well-defined region for a fermionic DM candidate with mass in the 1–2 TeV range emerges. Notably, this region will be fully probed by upcoming direct-detection experiments. Finally, we show that additional parameter space for both fermion and scalar cases can be recovered by going beyond the effective theory, through the introduction of a suitable vector mediator enabling resonant DM annihilation.
© The Author(s) 2025
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