Wednesday 24 September 2025
Physicists have been searching for a dark matter candidate that can evade stringent detection limits, and a new study proposes an intriguing solution: introducing scalar leptoquarks into the mix. These exotic particles could modify the properties of vector-like leptons, making them more difficult to detect.
Dark matter is thought to make up around 27% of the universe’s mass-energy budget, yet its nature remains unknown. The most popular candidate is a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP), which interacts with normal matter via the weak nuclear force and gravity. However, WIMPs have proven elusive in direct detection experiments, and their presence has not been confirmed.
One approach to escaping these constraints is to consider vector-like particles, which interact with normal matter via the electromagnetic force rather than the weak nuclear force. Vector-like leptons are particularly appealing because they can arise from extensions of the Standard Model, making them a natural fit for many theories.
The problem is that vector-like leptons tend to be too massive and interact too strongly with normal matter, leading to conflicts with direct detection limits. To address this issue, scientists have turned to scalar leptoquarks, which are particles that combine properties of quarks and leptons. These particles can induce corrections to the mass of the vector-like lepton, effectively splitting it into two non-Deirac states.
This mass splitting could be just what’s needed to evade detection limits naturally. The researchers used a combination of theoretical tools, including the SARAH and SPheno packages, to simulate the behavior of these particles and explore their phenomenological implications.
The results suggest that scalar leptoquarks can indeed provide a viable dark matter candidate, with properties that are consistent with current observational constraints. Moreover, the extended model offers additional parameters that can be tuned to accommodate the correct relic density, which is the amount of dark matter predicted by Big Bang nucleosynthesis.
The implications of this study go beyond simply providing an alternative dark matter candidate. It highlights the importance of considering exotic particles in our search for dark matter and shows how theoretical models can be used to make precise predictions about their behavior.
While there’s still much work to be done, this research offers a promising avenue for understanding the nature of dark matter. As scientists continue to probe the mysteries of the universe, it’s likely that we’ll uncover new and unexpected insights into the properties of these enigmatic particles.
Cite this article: “Scalar Leptoquarks: A Promising Dark Matter Candidate?”, The Science Archive, 2025.
Dark Matter, Scalar Leptoquarks, Vector-Like Leptons, Standard Model, Weak Nuclear Force, Electromagnetic Force, Quarks, Leptons, Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, Relic Density
