Electroweak renormalization of neutralino-Higgs interactions at one loop and its impacts on spin-independent direct detection of Wino-like dark matter

Abstract

A Wino-like neutralino dark matter (DM) in the form of the lightest supersymmetric particle has been considered one of the popular paradigms that can naturally accommodate at a relatively higher scale, typically beyond the reach of the LHC. The constraint on the DM relic density typically implies a lightest neutralino mass ≃2TeV. Its observational signature through nuclear recoil experiments, specifically involving DM-nucleon spin-independent scattering, is not impressive, following its high masses and tiny Higgsino fractions. The theoretical calculations can be improved when we compute all the one-loop electroweak (EW) corrections to the three-point vertices for the neutralino (Wino)-Higgs interactions, which in turn boosts the DM-nucleon scattering cross sections through the standard model-like Higgs exchange. Importantly, we include the counterterm contributions. In addition, we incorporate the other next-to-leading order EW DM-quark and DM-gluon interactions present in the literature to calculate the DM-nucleon scattering cross sections. With the improved and precise theoretical estimates, DM-nucleon scattering cross sections may increase or decrease significantly by more than 100% compared to leading order cross sections in different parts of the parameter space. Published by the American Physical Society 2025