On the stability of particle dark matter

Abstract

From the particle physics point of view, the most peculiar property of the dark matter particle is its stability on cosmological time scales. We briefly review the possible origins of this stability for candidates whose relic density results from the thermal freeze-out of its annihilation. We emphasize that each stabilization mechanism implies an all specific phenomenology. The models reviewed include supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric models where the stability is a consequence of grand-unification, models where stability is due to an unbroken gauge group and models where the DM stability is accidental. The latter possibility includes minimal dark matter, hidden vector dark matter and composite DM models. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Licence.