No Arabic abstract
The light higgsino-singlino scenario of the NMSSM allows to combine a naturally small $mu$ parameter with a good dark matter relic density. Given the new constraints on spin-dependent and spin-independent direct detection cross sections in 2016 we study first which regions in the plane of chargino- and LSP-masses below 300 GeV remain viable. Subsequently we investigate the impact of searches for charginos and neutralinos at the LHC, and find that the limits from run I do not rule out any additional region in this plane. Only the HL-LHC at 3000 fb$^{-1}$ will test parts of this plane corresponding to higgsino-like charginos heavier than 150 GeV and relatively light singlinos, but notably the most natural regions with lighter charginos seem to remain unexplored.
A light singlino is a promising candidate for dark matter, and a light higgsino is natural in the parameter space of the NMSSM. We study the combined constraints on this scenario resulting from the dark matter relic density, the most recent results from direct detection experiments, LEP and the LHC. In particular limits from a recent search for electroweak production of charginos and neutralinos at $sqrt{s}=13$ TeV after 35.9 fb$^{-1}$ by CMS and constraints on spin-independent dark matter-nucleon cross sections from XENON1T after one tonne$times$year exposure are considered. We find that scenarios with higgsino masses below $sim 250$ GeV as well as singlino masses below $sim 100$ GeV are strongly constrained depending, however, on assumptions on the bino mass parameter $M_1$. Benchmark points and branching fractions for future searches at the LHC are proposed.
Considerations from electroweak naturalness and stringy naturalness imply a little hierarchy in supersymmetric models where the superpotential higgsino mass parameter mu is of order the weak scale whilst the soft SUSY breaking terms may be in the (multi-) TeV range. In such a case, discovery of SUSY at LHC may be most likely in the higgsino pair production channel. Indeed, ATLAS and CMS are performing searches in the higgsino mass discovery plane of m(chi_2^0) vs. Delta m^0 = m(chi_2^0)-m(chi_1^0). We examine several theoretical aspects of this discovery plane in both the gravity-mediation NUHM2 model and the general mirage-mediation (GMM) models. These include: the associated chargino mass m(chi_1^+), the expected regions of the bottom-up notion of electroweak naturalness Delta_{EW}, and the expected regions of stringy naturalness. While compatibility with electroweak naturalness allows for mass gaps Delta m^0~ 4-20 GeV, stringy naturalness exhibits a clear preference for yet smaller mass gaps of 4-10 GeV. For still smaller mass gaps, the plane becomes sharply unnatural since very large gaugino masses are required. This study informs the most promising SUSY search channels and parameter space regions for the upcoming HL-LHC runs and possible HE-LHC option.
Singlino-dominated dark matter properties are investigated in the $Z_3$ Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, producing superweak interactions with nucleons involved in dark matter direct detection experiments. Approximate analytical formulas describing the dark matter abundance and cross section in the scattering with nucleons are used to illustrate a dependence on theoretical parameters in neutralino and Higgs sectors. It is shown that the measured abundance requires a sizable singlet--doublet Higgs coupling parameter $lambda$, while the experimental detection results prefer a small $lambda$. The parameter space is then surveyed using a nest sampling technique guided by a likelihood function containing various observables in dark matter, Higgs, and B physics, such as the abundance and the scattering cross section. It is demonstrated that dark matter can achieve the correct abundance through $tilde{chi}_1^0 tilde{chi}_1^0 to t bar{t}$ or co-annihilation with higgsinos. The former process provides significantly larger Bayesian evidence than the latter, but this will be examined by the near-future PandaX-4T experiment. If the experiment shows no signs of dark matter, it will become highly disfavored. Furthermore, four cases are summarized to suppress dark matter scattering with nucleons, namely, a small $lambda$ and three kinds of cancellation between different contributions.
The general Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) describes the singlino-dominated dark-matter (DM) property by four independent parameters: singlet-doublet Higgs coupling coefficient $lambda$, Higgsino mass $mu_{tot}$, DM mass $m_{tilde{chi}_1^0}$, and singlet Higgs self-coupling coefficient $kappa$. The first three parameters strongly influence the DM-nucleon scattering rate, while $kappa$ usually affects the scattering only slightly. This characteristic implies that singlet-dominated particles may form a secluded DM sector. Under such a theoretical structure, the DM achieves the correct abundance by annihilating into a pair of singlet-dominated Higgs bosons by adjusting $kappa$s value. Its scattering with nucleons is suppressed when $lambda v/mu_{tot}$ is small. This speculation is verified by sophisticated scanning of the theorys parameter space with various experiment constraints considered. In addition, the Bayesian evidence of the general NMSSM and that of $Z_3$-NMSSM is computed. It is found that, at the cost of introducing one additional parameter, the former is approximately $3.3 times 10^3$ times the latter. This result corresponds to Jeffreys scale of 8.05 and implies that the considered experiments strongly prefer the general NMSSM to the $Z_3$-NMSSM.
NEXT is an experiment dedicated to neutrinoless double beta decay searches in xenon. The detector is a TPC, holding 100 kg of high-pressure xenon enriched in the $^{136}$Xe isotope. It is under construction in the Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc in Spain, and it will begin operations in 2015. The NEXT detector concept provides an energy resolution better than 1% FWHM and a topological signal that can be used to reduce the background. Furthermore, the NEXT technology can be extrapolated to a 1-ton scale experiment.