2024/04/18 by Aghaie, Mohammad, Armando, Giovanni, Conaci, Angela +5 · 2 citations
#FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2404.12199
We propose simple scenarios where the observed dark matter abundance arises from decays and scatterings of heavy quarks through freeze-in of an axion-like particle with mass in the 10 \rm keV - 1 \rm MeV range. These models can be tested by future X-ray telescopes, and in some cases will be almost entirely probed by searches for two-body decays K → π+ \rm invis. at NA62. As a byproduct, we discuss the cancellation of IR divergencies in flavor-violating scattering processes relevant for thermal axion production, and derive the general contribution to axion-photon couplings from all three light quarks.