Speaker
Description
In hidden sector models, the dark matter does not directly couple to the particle content of the Standard Model, strongly suppressing rates at direct detection experiments, while still allowing for detectable signals from dark matter annihilation. I will describe a variety of portal interactions that can allow the hidden sector annihilation products to decay into Standard Model particles and apply these results to the observed Galactic Center gamma-ray excess. In contrast with what has sometimes been claimed in the literature, annihilation cross sections of order σv ∼ 10^-26 cm^3/s are a generic feature of hidden-sector dark matter models, even if the dark matter was decoupled from the Standard Model bath at the time of its thermal freeze-out. As a consequence, the coupling between the Standard Model and the hidden sector can be extremely small, potentially placing direct detection and collider signals far below foreseeable sensitivities.
