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Minimal freeze-in dark matter: Reviving electroweak doublet dark matter with Boltzmann suppressed freeze-in

Nicolás Bernal1, Sagnik Mukherjee2, and James Unwin2

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 115065 – Published 30 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1sts-sydk

Abstract

Dark matter communicating with the Standard Model solely via electroweak interactions provides a compelling picture. However, thermal freeze-out of electroweak doublet dark matter is generically strongly excluded by direct detection. We show that SU(2)L doublet fermion dark matter evades direct detection if its mass exceeds 1010  GeV. If the neutral Dirac fermion is split into a pseudo-Dirac pair (via high dimension operator), this limit can be relaxed to 300 GeV. Provided the dark matter mass is above the reheat temperature of the Universe, the production rate never exceeds the Hubble rate in cases of interest; thus, the dark matter never thermalizes. We apply constraints from direct detection (e.g., LZ) and consider the discovery potential of Darwin. This scenario presents the most minimal model of freeze-in dark matter and is both elegant and highly predictive.

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Next-to-minimal freeze-in dark matter

Nicolás Bernal, Sagnik Mukherjee, and James Unwin
Phys. Rev. D 113, 116042 (2026)

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 115065– Published 30 June, 2026
  • Received 18 February 2026
  • Accepted 18 May 2026
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