Speaker
Description
We investigate minimal dark matter models based on a confining ($SU(N)$) dark sector, motivated by the central role of non-Abelian gauge forces in the Standard Model. After arguing that dark gluons alone cannot provide viable self-interacting dark matter capable of addressing small-scale structure tensions, we consider theories with dark quarks. Although light dark quarks can generate velocity-dependent self-interactions, they typically require additional structure. We focus instead on the heavy-quark regime, where dark matter forms automatically stable heavy baryons. Exploiting the separation between the compact baryon size and the confinement scale, we compute self-interacting cross sections and find behavior that differs from standard approximations. The parameter space favored by self-interactions points away from conventional freeze-out and towards GeV-scale dark matter, motivating an asymmetric origin and suggesting a possible link to the dark matter–baryon coincidence.