Particle Theory Seminar | Jessica Howard (KITP & UCSB) “Dark Matter Freeze-out during SU(2)_L Confinement”

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In this talk, we will explore the possibility that dark matter is a pair of SU(2)_L doublets and consider a novel mechanism of dark matter production that proceeds through the confinement of the weak sector of the Standard Model. This phase of confinement causes the Standard Model doublets and dark matter to confine into pion-like objects. Before the weak sector deconfines, the dark pions freezeout and generate a relic abundance of dark matter. The Boltzmann equations for this scenario are solved to determine the scale of confinement and constituent dark matter mass required to produce the observed relic density. Additionally, the regions of this parameter space which evade direct detection and collider bounds are determined.