We perform a comprehensive study of models of dark matter (DM) in a Universe with a non-thermal cosmological history, i.e with a phase of pressure-less matter domination before the onset of big-bang nucleosynethesis (BBN). Such cosmological histories
are generically predicted by UV completions that contain gravitationally coupled scalar fields (moduli). We classify the different production mechanisms for DM in this framework, generalizing previous works by considering a wide range of DM masses/couplings and allowing for DM to be in equilibrium with a dark sector. We identify four distinct parametric regimes for the production of relic DM, and derive accurate semi-analytic approximations for the DM relic abundance. Our results are particularly relevant for supersymmetric theories, in which the standard non-thermally produced DM candidates are disfavored by indirect detection constraints. We also comment on experimental signals in this framework, focusing on novel effects involving the power spectrum of DM density perturbations. In particular, we identify a class of models where the spectrum of DM density perturbations is sensitive to the pressure-less matter dominated era before BBN, giving rise to interesting astrophysical signatures to be looked for in the future. A worthwhile future direction would be to study well-motivated theoretical models within this framework and carry out detailed studies of the pattern of expected experimental signals.
We continue the study of a class of string-motivated effective supergravity theories in light of current data from the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In this installment we consider Type IIB string theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau orientifold i
n the presence of fluxes, in the manner originally formulated by Kachru, et al. We allow for a variety of potential uplift mechanisms and embeddings of the Standard Model field content into D3 and D7 brane configurations. We find that an uplift sector independent of the Kahler moduli, as is the case with anti-D3 branes, is inconsistent with data unless the matter and Higgs sectors are localized on D7 branes exclusively, or are confined to twisted sectors between D3 and D7 branes. We identify regions of parameter space for all possible D-brane configurations that remain consistent with PLANCK observations on the dark matter relic density and measurements of the CP-even Higgs mass at the LHC. Constraints arising from LHC searches at 8 TeV center-of-mass energies, and the LUX dark matter detection experiment, are discussed. The discovery prospects for the remaining parameter space at dark matter direct detection experiments are described, and signatures for detection of superpartners at the LHC, with center-of-mass energy of 14 TeV, are analyzed.
With the aim of uncovering viable regions of parameter space in deflected mirage mediation (DMM) models of supersymmetry breaking, we study the landscape of particle mass hierarchies for the lightest four non-Standard Model states for DMM models and
compare the results to that of minimal supergravity/constrained MSSM (mSUGRA/CMSSM) models, building on previous studies of Feldman, Liu, and Nath. Deflected mirage mediation is a string-motivated scenario in which the soft terms include comparable contributions from gravity mediation, gauge mediation, and anomaly mediation. DMM allows a wide variety of phenomenologically preferred models with light charginos and neutralinos, including novel patterns in which the heavy Higgs particles are lighter than the lightest superpartner. We use this analysis to motivate two DMM benchmark points to be used for more detailed collider studies. One model point has a higgsino-dominated lightest superpartner and a compressed yet heavy spectrum, while the other has a stau NLSP and similar features to mSUGRA/CMSSM models, but with a slightly less stretched spectrum.
