PREPRINT

# Meso-tuned WIMPs and Avoided Deconfinement

Michael Nee

Submitted on 14 November 2022

## Abstract

We discuss the production of dark matter with mass of order $10-100$ TeV and $\mathcal{O}\left(1\right)$ couplings to the standard model, a scenario we refer to as the `meso-tuned WIMP'. Given the lack of new physics observed at the LHC, indicating we live in a world with some degree of fine-tuning, this scale is a natural scale to expect new particles to appear. However, dark matter with mass in this range and large couplings is difficult to produce with the observed relic abundance via the usual mechanisms. Here we discuss the non-thermal production of dark matter and show that this mechanism can produce the observed dark matter in this mass range, but requires a specific relationship between the dark matter mass and the reheat temperature. It is shown that the avoided deconfinement model removes the dependence on the reheat temperature and predicts a dark matter candidate which can be tested at the Cherenkov Telescope Array and direct detection experiments, offering a natural setting for meso-tuned WIMP dark matter.

## Preprint

Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures

Subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology