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  • Open Access

Dark matter in the scale-invariant 3-3-1-1 model

Alex G. Dias and Vinicius Padovani*

Kristjan Kannike† and Niko Koivunen‡

Julio Leite§

B. L. Sánchez-Vega∥

  • AHEP Group, Institut de Física Corpuscular—C.S.I.C./Universitat de València, Parc Científic de Paterna. C/ Catedrático José Beltrán, 2 E-46980 Paterna (Valencia), Spain

  • Departamento de Física, UFMG, Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil

  • *Contact author: vinicius.padovani.physics@gmail.com
  • †Contact author: Kristjan.Kannike@cern.ch
  • ‡Contact author: niko.koivunen@kbfi.ee
  • §Contact author: julio.leite@ific.uv.es
  • ∥Contact author: bruce@fisica.ufmg.br
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 115017 – Published 4 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/b7wy-r6kg

Abstract

We propose a novel scale-invariant model with the 3-3-1-1 gauge symmetry featuring a universal seesaw mechanism for all fermion masses, which, through the inclusion of additional vectorlike quarks, provides a partial explanation for the observed fermion mass hierarchies. A discrete remnant of the gauge group, the matter parity (PM), stabilizes a fermionic dark matter candidate, and the scalar sector includes two triplets (minimal for 3−3−1 breaking) and two scalar singlets. We identify the lightest PM-odd fermion, fd, as a viable dark matter candidate. Our analysis shows that fd satisfies the observed relic density constraint within the mass range 220  GeV≲mfd≲555  GeV, primarily due to resonant annihilation via the new scalar H2. While this mass range depends on the symmetry-breaking scale vχ, which has a lower bound of vχ≳3.6  TeV from LEP constraints on the ρ0 parameter, we adopt a more conservative lower bound of vχ>10  TeV. This choice is made to ensure that the Z′ boson mass remains above approximately 4 TeV, and is motivated by recent LHC results and future projections for Z′ boson searches, which provide more stringent constraints than previous bounds or those from the ρ0 parameter. Spin-independent (SI) interactions dominate the direct detection phenomenology of fd. We calculate the SI elastic scattering cross section and find that parameter points satisfying the relic density constraint are consistent with current experimental limits from LZ and PandaX-4T for certain parameter choices, particularly depending on the α12 angle. Some regions of the viable parameter space lie below the neutrino floor. Prospects for detection by future experiments like XLZD and PandaX-xT are also presented and discussed.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 115017– Published 4 December, 2025
  • Received 15 August 2025
  • Accepted 14 November 2025
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