Massive Kalb-Ramond fields as dark matter candidates

The existence of dark matter is one of the main reasons to believe that the Standard Model of particle physics needs to be 
extended. While phenomenologically it is not complicated to devise scenarios which are compatible with the present bounds 
from indirect and direct searches, most of the models contain substantial ad hoc ingredients. 
In particular, the stability of the dark matter candidate is not predicted but enforced, typically through additional 
Z2-symmetries. In this talk I will show that this is not the case if dark matter is vectorial and described by antisymmetric 
rank-2 tensors. For these dark matter candidates stability follows naturally without the need to invoke symmetries other 
than the ones of the Standard Model, i.e., stability becomes a prediction. This is a rather unique feature of Kalb-Ramond fields. 
In addition, the resulting scenarios are phenomenologically viable and can easily accommodate the existing experimental 
constraints with a minimal set of free parameters. I will also discuss possible mechanisms to incorporate Kalb-Ramond fields 
into full-fledged UV-complete theories of dark matter.