We describe a simple dark sector structure which, if present, has implications for the direct detection of dark matter (DM); the dark sink. A dark sink transports energy density from the DM into light dark-sector states that do not appreciably contribute to the DM density. As an example, we consider a light, neutral fermion $\psi$ which interacts solely with DM $\chi$ via the exchange of a heavy scalar $\mathrm{\Phi }$. We illustrate the impact of a dark sink by adding one to a DM freeze-in model in which $\chi$ couples to a light dark photon ${\gamma }^{\prime }$ which kinetically mixes with the Standard Model (SM) photon. This freeze-in model (absent the sink) is itself a benchmark for ongoing experiments. In some cases, the literature for this benchmark has contained errors; we correct the predictions and provide them as a public code. We then analyze how the dark sink modifies this benchmark, solving coupled Boltzmann equations for the dark-sector energy density and DM yield. We check the contribution of the dark sink $\psi$’s to dark radiation; consistency with existing data limits the maximum attainable cross section. For DM with a mass between $\mathrm{MeV}-\mathcal{O}(10\mathrm{GeV})$, adding the dark sink can increase predictions for the direct detection cross section all the way up to the current limits.

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• Dark matter
• Particle dark matter
• Hypothetical fermions
• Hypothetical gauge bosons
• Dark matter detectors