Abstract
Recent results from the CoGeNT Collaboration (as well as the annual modulation reported by DAMA/LIBRA) point toward dark matter with a light (5–10 GeV) mass and a relatively large elastic scattering cross section with nucleons (σ∼10−40 cm2). In order to possess this cross section, the dark matter must communicate with the Standard Model through mediating particles with small masses and/or large couplings. In this Letter, we explore with a model-independent approach the particle physics scenarios that could potentially accommodate these signals. We also discuss how such models could produce the gamma rays from the Galactic Center observed in the data of the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. We find multiple particle physics scenarios in which each of these signals can be accounted for, and in which the dark matter can be produced thermally in the early Universe with an abundance equal to the measured cosmological density.