We study a two-parameter extension of the cosmological standard model $Lambda$CDM in which cold dark matter interacts with a new form of dark radiation. The two parameters correspond to the energy density in the dark radiation fluid $Delta N_mathrm{f
luid}$ and the interaction strength between dark matter and dark radiation. The interactions give rise to a very weak dark matter drag which damps the growth of matter density perturbations throughout radiation domination, allowing to reconcile the tension between predictions of large scale structure from the CMB and direct measurements of $sigma_8$. We perform a precision fit to Planck CMB data, BAO, large scale structure, and direct measurements of the expansion rate of the universe today. Our model lowers the $chi$-squared relative to $Lambda$CDM by about 12, corresponding to a preference for non-zero dark matter drag by more than $3 sigma$. Particle physics models which naturally produce a dark matter drag of the required form include the recently proposed non-Abelian dark matter model in which the dark radiation corresponds to massless dark gluons.
We propose a new class of dark matter models with unusual phenomenology. What is ordinary about our models is that dark matter particles are WIMPs, they are weakly coupled to the Standard Model and have weak scale masses. What is unusual is that they
come in multiplets of a new dark non-Abelian gauge group with milli-weak coupling. The massless dark gluons of this dark gauge group contribute to the energy density of the universe as a form of weakly self-interacting dark radiation. In this paper we explore the consequences of having i.) dark matter in multiplets ii.) self-interacting dark radiation and iii.) dark matter which is weakly coupled to dark radiation. We find that i.) dark matter cross sections are modified by multiplicity factors which have significant consequences for collider searches and indirect detection, ii.) dark gluons have thermal abundances which affect the CMB as dark radiation. Unlike additional massless neutrino species the dark gluons are interacting and have vanishing viscosity and iii.) the coupling of dark radiation to dark matter represents a new mechanism for damping the large scale structure power spectrum. A combination of additional radiation and slightly damped structure is interesting because it can remove tensions between global $Lambda$CDM fits from the CMB and direct measurements of the Hubble expansion rate ($H_0$) and large scale structure ($sigma_8$).
In the standard model (SM), the coupling of the Higgs boson to electrons is real and very small, proportional to the electron mass. New physics could significantly modify both real and imaginary parts of this coupling. We discuss experiments which ar
e sensitive to the Higgs-electron coupling and derive the current bounds on new physics contributing to this coupling. The strongest constraint follows from the ACME bound on the electron electric dipole moment (EDM). We calculate the full analytic two-loop result for the electron EDM and show that it bounds the imaginary part of the Higgs-electron coupling to be less than 1.7 x 10^-2 times the SM electron Yukawa coupling. Deviations of the real part are much less constrained. We discuss bounds from Higgs decays, resonant Higgs production at electron colliders, Higgs mediated B -> e^+ e^- decays, and the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron. Currently, the strongest constraint comes from h -> e^+ e^- at the LHC, bounding the coupling to be less than ~600 times the SM Yukawa coupling. Important improvements can be expected from future EDM measurements as well as from resonant Higgs production at a next-generation high-luminosity e^+ e^- collider.
Ratios of branching fractions of semileptonic B decays, $(B to H mu mu)$ over $(B to H ee)$ with $H=K, K^*,X_s, K_0(1430), phi, ldots$ are sensitive probes of lepton universality. In the Standard Model, the underlying flavor changing neutral current
process $brightarrow s ell ell$ is lepton flavor universal. However models with new flavor violating physics above the weak scale can give substantial non-universal contributions. The leading contributions from such new physics can be parametrized by effective dimension six operators involving left- or right-handed quarks. We show that in the double ratios $R_{X_s}/R_K$, $R_{K^*}/R_K$ and $R_phi/R_K$ the dependence on new physics coupling to left-handed quarks cancels out. Thus a measurement of any of these double ratios is a clean probe of flavor nonuniversal physics coupling to right-handed quarks. We also point out that the observables $R_{X_s}$, $R_{K^*}$, $R_{K_0(1430)}$ and $R_phi$ depend on the same combination of Wilson coefficients and therefore satisfy simple consistency relations.
Any extension of the standard model that aims to describe TeV-scale physics without fine-tuning must have a radiatively-stable Higgs potential. In little Higgs theories, radiative stability is achieved through so-called collective symmetry breaking.
In this letter, we focus on the necessary conditions for a little Higgs to have a collective Higgs quartic coupling. In one-Higgs doublet models, a collective quartic requires an electroweak triplet scalar. In two-Higgs doublet models, a collective quartic requires a triplet or singlet scalar. As a corollary of this study, we show that some little Higgs theories have dangerous singlets, a pathology where collective symmetry breaking does not suppress quadratically-divergent corrections to the Higgs mass.
Low-scale gaugino mediation predicts that gauginos are significantly heavier than scalar superpartners. In order of increasing mass the lightest superpartners are the gravitino, right-handed sleptons and left-handed sleptons (no light neutralino!). T
his implies that squark decay chains pass through one or more sleptons and typical final states from squark and gluino production at the LHC include multiple leptons. In addition, left-handed staus have large branching fractions into right-handed staus and the Higgs. As an example, we compute the spectrum of low-scale deconstructed gaugino mediation. In this model gauginos acquire masses at tree level at 5 TeV while scalar masses are generated radiatively from the gaugino masses.
We propose a solution to the mu/B_mu problem in gauge mediation. The novel feature of our solution is that it uses dynamics of the hidden sector, which is often present in models with dynamical supersymmetry breaking. We give an explicit example mode
l of gauge mediation where a very simple messenger sector generates both mu and B_mu at one loop. The usual problem, that B_mu is then too large, is solved by strong renormalization effects from the hidden sector which suppress B_mu relative to mu. Our mechanism relies on an assumption about the signs of certain incalculable anomalous dimensions in the hidden sector. Making these assumptions not only allows us to solve the mu/B_mu problem but also leads to a characteristic superpartner spectrum which would be a smoking gun signal for our mechanism.
