No Arabic abstract
We study a model of dark matter in which the hidden sector interacts with standard model particles via a hidden photonic portal. We investigate the effects of this new interaction on the hydrogen atom, including the Stark, Zeeman and hyperfine effects. Using the accuracy of the measurement of energy, we obtain an upper bound for the coupling constant of the model. We also calculate the contribution from the hidden photonic portal to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, which provides an important probe of physics beyond the standard model.
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.
We examine the possibility that dark matter (DM) consists of a gapped continuum, rather than ordinary particles. A Weakly-Interacting Continuum (WIC) model, coupled to the Standard Model via a Z-portal, provides an explicit realization of this idea. The thermal DM relic density in this model is naturally consistent with observations, providing a continuum counterpart of the WIMP miracle. Direct detection cross sections are strongly suppressed compared to ordinary Z-portal WIMP, thanks to a unique effect of the continuum kinematics. Continuum DM states decay throughout the history of the universe, and observations of cosmic microwave background place constraints on potential late decays. Production of WICs at colliders can provide a striking cascade-decay signature. We show that a simple Z-portal WIC model with the gap scale between 40 and 110 GeV provides a fully viable DM candidate consistent with all current experimental constraints.
We propose a new portal coupling to dark matter by taking advantage of the nonminimally coupled portal sector to the Ricci scalar. Such a portal sector conformally induces couplings to the trace of the energy-momentum tensor of matters including highly secluded dark matter particles. The portal coupling is so feeble that dark matter is produced by freeze-in processes of scatterings and/or the decay of the mediator. We consider two concrete realizations of the portal: conformally induced Higgs portal and conformally induced mediator portal. The former case is compatible with the Higgs inflation, while the latter case can be tested by dark matter direct detection experiments.
We present a new model of Stealth Dark Matter: a composite baryonic scalar of an $SU(N_D)$ strongly-coupled theory with even $N_D geq 4$. All mass scales are technically natural, and dark matter stability is automatic without imposing an additional discrete or global symmetry. Constituent fermions transform in vector-like representations of the electroweak group that permit both electroweak-breaking and electroweak-preserving mass terms. This gives a tunable coupling of stealth dark matter to the Higgs boson independent of the dark matter mass itself. We specialize to $SU(4)$, and investigate the constraints on the model from dark meson decay, electroweak precision measurements, basic collider limits, and spin-independent direct detection scattering through Higgs exchange. We exploit our earlier lattice simulations that determined the composite spectrum as well as the effective Higgs coupling of stealth dark matter in order to place bounds from direct detection, excluding constituent fermions with dominantly electroweak-breaking masses. A lower bound on the dark baryon mass $m_B gtrsim 300$ GeV is obtained from the indirect requirement that the lightest dark meson not be observable at LEP II. We briefly survey some intriguing properties of stealth dark matter that are worthy of future study, including: collider studies of dark meson production and decay; indirect detection signals from annihilation; relic abundance estimates for both symmetric and asymmetric mechanisms; and direct detection through electromagnetic polarizability, a detailed study of which will appear in a companion paper.
We study a fermionic dark matter model in which the interaction of the dark and visible sectors is mediated by Higgs portal type couplings. Specifically, we consider the mixing of a dark sector scalar with the scalars of a Two Higgs Doublet Model extension of the Standard Model. Given that scalar exchange will result in a spin-independent dark matter-nucleon scattering cross section, such a model is potentially subject to stringent direct detection constraints. Moreover, the addition of new charged scalars introduce non-trivial flavour constraints. Nonetheless, this model allows more freedom than a standard Higgs portal scenario involving a single Higgs doublet, and much of the interesting parameter space is not well approximated by a Simplified Model with a single scalar mediator. We perform a detailed parameter scan to determine the mass and coupling parameters which satisfy direct detection, flavour, precision electroweak, stability, and perturbativity constraints, while still producing the correct relic density through thermal freezeout.