We consider a neutrino Two Higgs Doublet Model ($ u$THDM) in which neutrinos obtain {it naturally} small Dirac masses from the soft symmetry breaking of a global $U(1)_X$ symmetry. We extended the model so the soft term is generated by the spontaneous breaking of $U(1)_X$ by a new scalar field. The symmetry breaking pattern can also stabilize a scalar dark matter candidate. After constructing the model, we study the phenomenology of the dark matter: relic density, direct and indirect detection.
We show that gravitational wave detectors based on a type of atom interferometry are sensitive to ultralight scalar dark matter. Such dark matter can cause temporal oscillations in fundamental constants with a frequency set by the dark matter mass, and amplitude determined by the local dark matter density. The result is a modulation of atomic transition energies. This signal is ideally suited to a type of gravitational wave detector that compares two spatially separated atom interferometers referenced by a common laser. Such a detector can improve on current searches for electron-mass or electric-charge modulus dark matter by up to 10 orders of magnitude in coupling, in a frequency band complementary to that of other proposals. It demonstrates that this class of atomic sensors is qualitatively different from other gravitational wave detectors, including those based on laser interferometry. By using atomic-clock-like interferometers, laser noise is mitigated with only a single baseline. These atomic sensors can thus detect scalar signals in addition to tensor signals.
We report new limits on ultralight scalar dark matter (DM) with dilaton-like couplings to photons that can induce oscillations in the fine-structure constant alpha. Atomic dysprosium exhibits an electronic structure with two nearly degenerate levels whose energy splitting is sensitive to changes in alpha. Spectroscopy data for two isotopes of dysprosium over a two-year span is analyzed for coherent oscillations with angular frequencies below 1 rad/s. No signal consistent with a DM coupling is identified, leading to new constraints on dilaton-like photon couplings over a wide mass range. Under the assumption that the scalar field comprises all of the DM, our limits on the coupling exceed those from equivalence-principle tests by up to 4 orders of magnitude for masses below 3 * 10^-18 eV. Excess oscillatory power, inconsistent with fine-structure variation, is detected in a control channel, and is likely due to a systematic effect. Our atomic spectroscopy limits on DM are the first of their kind, and leave substantial room for improvement with state-of-the-art atomic clocks.
The null results in dark matter direct detection experiments imply the present scalar dark matter (DM) annihilation cross section to bottom quark pairs through the Higgs boson exchange is smaller than about $10^{-31}$ cm$^3/$s for a wide DM mass range, which is much smaller than the required annihilation cross section for thermal relic DM. We propose models of a thermal relic DM with the present annihilation cross section being very suppressed. This property can be realized in an extra $U(1)$ gauge interacting complex scalar DM, where the thermal DM abundance is determined by coannihilation through the gauge interaction while the present annihilation is governed by Higgs bosons exchange processes. An interaction between DM and the extra $U(1)$ breaking Higgs field generates a small mass splitting between DM and its coannihilating partner so that coannihilation becomes possible and also the $Z$-mediated scattering off with a nucleon in direct DM search becomes inelastic. We consider scalar dark matter in $U(1)_{B-L}, U(1)_{(B-L)_3}$ and $U(1)_{L_mu-L_tau}$ extended models and identify viable parameter regions. We also discuss various implications to future DM detection experiments, the DM interpretation of the gamma-ray excess in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, the muon anomalous magnetic moment, the Hubble tension and others.
Considering the recent experimental results on exclusive semileptonic $B$ meson decays showing sizable departure from their Standard Model prediction of lepton flavor universality and keeping ongoing and proposed non-standard Higgs searches in mind, we explore the charged current flavor observables ($mathcal{R}_{D^{(*)}}$, $mathcal{R}_{J/psi}$), among other $bto cell u$ transitions, in the presence of a relevant scalar current effective new physics operator. We use $B_c$ lifetime and predicted bounds on the branching fraction of $B_c to tau u$ decay as constraints. We show the allowed parameter space in terms of the real and imaginary parts of the corresponding Wilson coefficients for such interactions. Under the light of obtained results, we study the prospect of two benchmark models, rendering the Wilson coefficients real (Georgi-Machacek (GM)) and complex (Leptoquark (LQ)) respectively. We show that constraints from $bto cell u$ on GM parameters are consistent with other flavor constraints on the model, if we drop the Babar~results. Including those disfavors the model by more than $3sigma$. On the other hand, one benchmark LQ scenario, which gives rise to a single scalar current effective interaction, is still allowed within $68%$ confidence level, albeit with a shrunk parameter space.
In this paper, we combine the $ u$-Two-Higgs-Doublet-Model ($ u$THDM) with the inverse seesaw mechanisms. In this model, the Yukawa couplings involving the sterile neutrinos and the exotic Higgs bosons can be of order one in the case of a large $tan beta$. We calculated the corrections to the Z-resonance parameters $R_{l_i}$, $A_{l_i}$, $N_{ u}$, together with the $l_1 rightarrow l_2 gamma$ branching ratios, and the muon anomalous $g-2$. Compared with the current bounds and plans for the future colliders, we find that the corrections to the electroweak parameters can be contrained or discovered in much of the parameter space.