No Arabic abstract
Dark matter candidates arise naturally in many models that address the hierarchy problem. In the fraternal twin Higgs model which could explain the absence of the new physics signals at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), there are several viable dark matter candidates. In this paper we study the twin neutrino in the mass range $sim$ 0.1--10 GeV as the dark matter. The thermal relic density is determined by the interplay of several annihilation and scattering processes between the twin neutrino, twin tau, and twin photon, depending on the order of the freeze-out temperatures of these processes. Besides the common coannihilation scenario where the relic density is controlled by the twin tau annihilation, it can realize the recently discovered coscattering phase if the scattering of the twin neutrino into the twin tau freezes out earlier than the twin tau annihilation. We also provide a method to calculate the thermal relic density in the intermediate regime where both coannihilation and coscattering processes contribute to the determination of the dark matter density. We show that the right amount of dark matter can be obtained in various scenarios in different regions of the parameter space. The current experimental constraints and future probes into the parameter space from direct detections, cosmological and astrophysical bounds, dark photon searches, and displaced decays at colliders, are discussed.
In this paper, we introduce a novel program of fixed-target searches for thermal-origin Dark Matter (DM), which couples inelastically to the Standard Model. Since the DM only interacts by transitioning to a heavier state, freeze-out proceeds via coannihilation and the unstable heavier state is depleted at later times. For sufficiently large mass splittings, direct detection is kinematically forbidden and indirect detection is impossible, so this scenario can only be tested with accelerators. Here we propose new searches at proton and electron beam fixed-target experiments to probe sub-GeV coannihilation, exploiting the distinctive signals of up- and down-scattering as well as decay of the excited state inside the detector volume. We focus on a representative model in which DM is a pseudo-Dirac fermion coupled to a hidden gauge field (dark photon), which kinetically mixes with the visible photon. We define theoretical targets in this framework and determine the existing bounds by reanalyzing results from previous experiments. We find that LSND, E137, and BaBar data already place strong constraints on the parameter space consistent with a thermal freeze-out origin, and that future searches at Belle II and MiniBooNE, as well as recently-proposed fixed-target experiments such as LDMX and BDX, can cover nearly all remaining gaps. We also briefly comment on the discovery potential for proposed beam dump and neutrino experiments which operate at much higher beam energies.
We study a two scalar inert doublet model (IDMS$_3$) which is stabilized by a $S_3$ symmetry. We consider two scenarios: i) two of the scalars in each charged sector are mass degenerated due to a residual $Z_2$ symmetry, ii) there is no mass degeneracy because of the introduction of soft terms that break the $Z_2$ symmetry. We show that both scenarios provide good dark matter candidates for some range of parameters.
We discuss the correlation between dark matter and Higgs decays in gauge theories where the dark matter is predicted from anomaly cancellation. In these theories, the Higgs responsible for the breaking of the gauge symmetry generates the mass for the dark matter candidate. We investigate the Higgs decays in the minimal gauge theory for Baryon number. After imposing the dark matter density and direct detection constraints, we find that the new Higgs can have a large branching ratio into two photons or into dark matter. Furthermore, we discuss the production channels and the unique signatures at the Large Hadron Collider.
Twin Higgs models are economical extensions of the Standard Model that stabilize the electroweak scale. In these theories the Higgs field is a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson that is protected against radiative corrections up to scales of order 5 TeV by a discrete parity symmetry. We construct, for the first time, a class of composite twin Higgs models based on confining QCD-like dynamics. These theories naturally incoporate a custodial isospin symmetry and predict a rich spectrum of particles with masses of order a TeV that will be accessible at the LHC.
We review scenarios in which the particles that account for the Dark Matter (DM) in the Universe interact only through their couplings with the Higgs sector of the theory, the so-called Higgs-portal models. In a first step, we use a general and model-independent approach in which the DM particles are singlets with spin $0,frac12$ or $1$, and assume a minimal Higgs sector with the presence of only the Standard Model (SM) Higgs particle observed at the LHC. In a second step, we discuss non-minimal scenarios in which the spin-$frac12$ DM particle is accompanied by additional lepton partners and consider several possibilities like sequential, singlet-doublet and vector-like leptons. In a third step, we examine the case in which it is the Higgs sector of the theory which is enlarged either by a singlet scalar or pseudoscalar field, an additional two Higgs doublet field or by both; in this case, the matter content is also extended in several ways. Finally, we investigate the case of supersymmetric extensions of the SM with neutralino DM, focusing on the possibility that the latter couples mainly to the neutral Higgs particles of the model which then serve as the main portals for DM phenomenology. In all these scenarios, we summarize and update the present constraints and future prospects from the collider physics perspective, namely from the determination of the SM Higgs properties at the LHC and the search for its invisible decays into DM, and the search for heavier Higgs bosons and the DM companion particles at high-energy colliders. We then compare these results with the constraints and prospects obtained from the cosmological relic abundance as well as from direct and indirect DM searches in astroparticle physics experiments. The complementarity of collider and astroparticle DM searches is investigated in all the considered models.