No Arabic abstract
The Higgs portal to scalar Dark Matter is considered in the context of non-linearly realised electroweak symmetry breaking. We determine the dominant interactions of gauge bosons and the physical Higgs particle $h$ to a scalar singlet dark matter candidate. Phenomenological consequences are also studied in detail, including the possibility of distinguishing this scenario from the standard Higgs portal in which the electroweak symmetry breaking is linearly realised. Two features of significant impact are: i) the connection between the electroweak scale $v$ and the Higgs particle departs from the $(v+h)$ functional dependence, as the Higgs field is not necessarily an exact electroweak doublet; ii) the presence of specific couplings that arise at different order in the non-linear and in the linear expansions. These facts deeply affect the dark matter relic abundance, as well as the expected signals in direct and indirect searches and collider phenomenology, where Dark Matter production rates are enhanced with respect to the standard portal.
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 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.
We consider a Higgs portal model in which the 125-GeV Higgs boson mixes with a light singlet mediator $h_2$ coupling to particles of a Dark Sector and study potential $bto s h_2$ decays in the Belle II experiment. Multiplying the gauge-dependent off-shell Standard-Model $b$-$s$-Higgs vertex with the sine of the Higgs mixing angle does not give the correct $b$-$s$-$h_2$ vertex. We clarify this issue by calculating the $b$-$s$-$h_2$ vertex in an arbitrary $R_xi$ gauge and demonstrate how the $xi$ dependence cancels from physical decay rates involving an on-shell or off-shell $h_2$. Then we revisit the $bto s h_2$ phenomenology and point out that a simultaneous study of $Bto K^* h_2$ and $Bto K h_2$ helps to discriminate between the Higgs portal and alternative models of the Dark Sector. We further advocate for the use of the $h_2$ lifetime information contained in displaced-vertex data with $h_2$ decaying back to Standard-Model particles to better constrain the $h_2$ mass or to reveal additional $h_2$ decay modes into long-lived particles.
Fermion dark matter (DM) interacting with the standard model through a Higgs portal requires non-renormalizable operators, signaling the presence of new mediator states at the electroweak scale. Collider signatures that involve the mediators are a powerful tool to experimentally probe the Higgs portal interactions, providing complementary information to strong constraints set by direct DM detection searches. Indirect detection experiments are less sensitive to this scenario. We investigate the collider reach for the mediators using three minimal renormalizable models as examples, and requiring the fermion DM to be a thermal relic. The Large Hadron Collider in its high-energy, high-luminosity phase can probe most scenarios if DM is lighter than about 200 GeV. Beyond this scale, future high-energy experiments such as an electron-positron collider or a 100-TeV proton-proton collider, combined with future direct detection experiments, are indispensable to conclusively test these models.
Supersymmetric (SUSY) extension of the Standard Model (SM) is a primary candidate for new physics beyond the SM. If SUSY breaking scale is very low, for example, the multi-TeV range, and the SUSY breaking sector, except for the goldstino (gravitino), is decoupled from the low energy spectrum, the hidden sector effect in the minimal SUSY SM (MSSM) is well described by employing the goldstino chiral superfield ($X$) with the nilpotent condition of $X^2=0$. Although this so-called nonlinear MSSM (NL-MSSM) provides a variety of interesting phenomenologies, there is a cosmological problem that the lightest superpartner gravitino is too light to be the major component of the dark matter (DM) in our universe. To solve this problem, we propose a minimal extension of the NL-MSSM by introducing a parity-odd SM singlet chiral superfield ($Phi$). We show that the interaction of the scalar component in $Phi$ with the MSSM Higgs doublets is induced after eliminating F-component of the goldstino superfield and the lightest real scalar in $Phi$ plays the role of the Higgs-portal DM. With a suitable choice of the model parameters, a successful Higgs-portal DM scenario can be realized while achieving the SM-like Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV from the tree-level Higgs potential through the multi-TeV SUSY breaking effect.