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Relaxed constraints for dark matter with axial coupling to a dark photon

X. G. Wang* and A. W. Thomas†

  • ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics and CSSM, Department of Physics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia

  • *Contact author: xuan-gong.wang@adelaide.edu.au
  • †Contact author: anthony.thomas@adelaide.edu.au
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 115014 – Published 8 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/zzx3-mf2x

Abstract

We present a model of the dark sector involving Dirac fermion dark matter, with axial coupling to a dark photon which provides a portal to Standard Model particles. In the nonrelativistic limit, this implies that the dominant effective operator relevant to direct detection is O8. The resulting event rate for direct detection is suppressed by either the dark matter velocity or the momentum transfer. In this scenario there are much wider regions of the dark parameter space that are consistent with all of the existing constraints associated with thermal relic density, direct detection, and collider searches.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 115014– Published 8 June, 2026
  • Received 29 October 2025
  • Accepted 18 May 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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