Effectively Stable Dark Matter

We study dark matter (DM) which is cosmologically long-lived because of standard model (SM) symmetries. In these models an approximate stabilizing symmetry emerges accidentally, in analogy with baryon and lepton number in the renormalizable SM. Adopting an effective theory approach, we classify DM models according to representations of $SU(3)_C\times SU(2)_L\times U(1)_Y \times U(1)_B\times U(1)_L$, allowing for all operators permitted by symmetry, with weak scale DM and a cutoff at or below the Planck scale. We identify representations containing a neutral long-lived state, thus excluding dimension four and five operators that mediate dangerously prompt DM decay into SM particles. The DM relic abundance is obtained via thermal freeze-out or, since effectively stable DM often carries baryon or lepton number, asymmetry sharing through the very operators that induce eventual DM decay. We also incorporate baryon and lepton number violation with a spurion that parameterizes hard breaking by arbitrary units. However, since proton stability precludes certain spurions, a residual symmetry persists, maintaining the cosmological stability of certain DM representations. Finally, we survey the phenomenology of effectively stable DM as manifested in probes of direct detection, indirect detection, and proton decay.