Higgs Portal Coupling Research Articles

Black holes in magnetic monopoles with a dark halo

We study a spontaneously broken Einstein–Yang–Mills–Higgs model coupled via a Higgs portal to an uncharged scalar [Formula: see text]. We present a phase diagram of self-gravitating solutions showing that depending on the choice of parameters of the [Formula: see text] scalar potential and the Higgs portal coupling constant [Formula: see text], one can identify different regions: If [Formula: see text] is sufficiently small, a [Formula: see text] halo is created around the monopole core which in turn surrounds a black hole. For larger values of [Formula: see text], no halo exists and the solution is just a black hole monopole one. When the horizon radius grows and becomes larger than the monopole radius, solely a black hole solution exists. Because of the presence of the [Formula: see text] scalar, a bound for the Higgs potential coupling constant exists and when it is not satisfied, the vacuum is unstable and no nontrivial solution exists. We briefly comment on possible connections of our results with those found in recent dark matter axion models.

Type-II seesaw scalar triplet model at a 100 TeV pp collider: discovery and higgs portal coupling determination

We investigate the collider phenomenology of the scalar triplet particles in the Type-II seesaw model at a 100 TeV pp collider. Depending on triplet vacuum expectation value vΔ, the dominant discovery channels could be H++H−− and H±±H∓. We find the H±±H∓ → W±W±hW∓/ℓ±ℓ±hW∓ channels are promising for both model discovery at relatively large vΔ and determination of the Higgs portal couplings λ4 and λ5. We also find that these two channels are complementary to indirect determination of λ4 from future precise measurements on h → γγ decay rate. Together with pair production of the doubly-charged Higgs subsequently decaying into same-sign di-leptons, the H±±H∓ channels have the potential to cover a significant portion of the parameter space of the Type-II seesaw complex scalar triplet model.

Dark matter shifts away from direct detection

Dark matter could emerge along with the Higgs as a composite pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson χ with decay constant f∼ TeV. This type of WIMP is especially compelling because its leading interaction with the Standard Model, the derivative Higgs portal, has the correct annihilation strength for thermal freeze-out if mχ ∼ O(100) GeV, but is negligible in direct detection experiments due to the very small momentum transfer. The explicit breaking of the shift symmetry which radiatively generates mχ, however, introduces non-derivative DM interactions. In existing realizations a marginal Higgs portal coupling λ is generated with size comparable to the Higgs quartic, and thus well within reach of XENON1T . Here, we present and analyze the interesting case where the pattern of explicit symmetry breaking naturally suppresses λ beyond the reach of current and future direct detection experiments. If the DM acquires mass from bottom quark loops, the bottom quark also mediates suppressed DM-nucleus scattering with cross sections that will be eventually probed by LZ . Alternatively, the DM can obtain mass from gauging its stabilizing U(1) symmetry. No direct detection signal is expected even at future facilities, but the introduction of a dark photon γD has a number of phenomenological implications which we study in detail, treating mγD as a free parameter. Complementary probes of the dark sector include indirect DM detection, DM self-interactions, and extra radiation, as well as collider experiments. We frame our discussion in an effective field theory, motivating our parameter choices with a detailed analysis of an SO(7)/SO(6) composite Higgs model, which can yield either scenario at low energies.

Dark matter as a remnant of SQCD inflation

We propose a strongly coupled supersymmetric gauge theory that can accommodate both the inflation (in the form of generalized hybrid inflation) and dark matter (DM). In this set-up, we identify the DM as the Goldstones associated with the breaking of a global symmetry (SU(4) × SU(4) → SU(4)) after inflation ends. Due to the non-abelian nature of this symmetry, the scenario provides with multiple DMs. We then construct a low energy theory which generates a Higgs portal like coupling of the DMs with Standard Model (SM), thus allowing them to thermally freeze out. While the scales involved in the inflation either have a dynamical origin or related to UV interpretation in terms of a heavy quark field in the supersymmetric QCD (SQCD) sector, the DM masses however are generated from explicit breaking of the chiral symmetry of the SQCD sector. We discuss DM phenomenology for both degenerate and non-degenerate cases, poised with DM-DM interactions and find allowed region of parameter space in terms of relic density and direct search constraints.

Impact of vacuum stability, perturbativity and XENON1T on global fits of mathbb {Z}_2 and mathbb {Z}_3 scalar singlet dark matter

Scalar singlet dark matter is one of the simplest and most predictive realisations of the WIMP (weakly-interacting massive particle) idea. Although the model is constrained from all directions by the latest experimental data, it still has viable regions of parameter space. Another compelling aspect of scalar singlets is their ability to stabilise the electroweak vacuum. Indeed, models of scalar dark matter are not low-energy effective theories, but can be valid all the way to the Planck scale. Using the GAMBIT framework, we present the first global fit to include both the low-energy experimental constraints and the theoretical constraints from UV physics, considering models with a scalar singlet charged under either a mathbb {Z}_2 or a mathbb {Z}_3 symmetry. We show that if the model is to satisfy all experimental constraints, completely stabilise the electroweak vacuum up to high scales, and also remain perturbative to those scales, one is driven to a relatively small region of parameter space. This region has a Higgs-portal coupling slightly less than 1, a dark matter mass of 1–2 TeV and a spin-independent nuclear scattering cross-section around 10^{-45},hbox {cm}^2.

Clockwork Higgs portal model for freeze-in dark matter

The clockwork mechanism can explain interactions which are dimensionally very weak without the need for very large mass scales. We present a model in which the clockwork mechanism generates the very small Higgs portal coupling and dark matter particle mass necessary to explain cold dark matter via the freeze-in mechanism. We introduce a TeV-scale scalar clockwork sector which couples to the Standard Model via the Higgs portal. The dark matter particle is the lightest scalar of the clockwork sector. We show that the freeze-in mechanism is dominated by decay of the heavy clockwork scalars to light dark matter scalars and Higgs bosons. In the model considered, we find that freeze-in dark matter is consistent with the clockwork mechanism for global charge $q$ in the range $2 \lesssim q \lesssim 4$ when the number of massive scalars is in the range $10 \leq N \leq 20$. The dark matter scalar mass and portal coupling are independent of $q$ and $N$. For a typical TeV-scale clockwork sector, the dark matter scalar mass is predicted to be of the order of a MeV.

Common origin of dirac neutrino mass and freeze-in massive particle dark matter

Motivated by the fact that the origin of tiny Dirac neutrino masses via the standard model Higgs field and non-thermal dark matter populating the Universe via freeze-in mechanism require tiny dimensionless couplings of similar order of magnitudes (∼ 10−12), we propose a framework that can dynamically generate such couplings in a unified manner. Adopting a flavour symmetric approach based on A4 group, we construct a model where Dirac neutrino coupling to the standard model Higgs and dark matter coupling to its mother particle occur at dimension six level involving the same flavon fields, thereby generating the effective Yukawa coupling of same order of magnitudes. The mother particle for dark matter, a complex scalar singlet, gets thermally produced in the early Universe through Higgs portal couplings followed by its thermal freeze-out and then decay into the dark matter candidates giving rise to the freeze-in dark matter scenario. Some parts of the Higgs portal couplings of the mother particle can also be excluded by collider constraints on invisible decay rate of the standard model like Higgs boson. We show that the correct neutrino oscillation data can be successfully produced in the model which predicts normal hierarchical neutrino mass. The model also predicts the atmospheric angle to be in the lower octant if the Dirac CP phase lies close to the presently preferred maximal value.

Dark energy, scalar singlet dark matter and the Higgs portal

One of the simplest extensions of the Standard Model (SM) comprises the inclusion of a massive real scalar field, neutral under the SM gauge groups, to be a dark matter candidate. The addition of a dimension-six term into the potential of the scalar dark matter enables the appearance of a false vacuum that describes the cosmic acceleration. We show that the running of the singlet self-interaction and the Higgs portal coupling differs from the standard scalar singlet dark matter model. If we maintain a positive quartic coupling, it is also possible to describe the accelerated expansion of the Universe through a false vacuum with the addition of a dimension-eight interaction term. In this case, where the potential remains bounded from below at low energies, the false vacuum decay is highly suppressed.

Indirect detection of neutrino portal dark matter

We investigate the feasibility of the indirect detection of dark matter in a simple model using the neutrino portal. The model is very economical, with right-handed neutrinos generating neutrino masses through the Type-I seesaw mechanism and simultaneously mediating interactions with dark matter. Given the small neutrino Yukawa couplings expected in a Type-I seesaw, direct detection and accelerator probes of dark matter in this scenario are challenging. However, dark matter can efficiently annihilate to right-handed neutrinos, which then decay via active-sterile mixing through the weak interactions, leading to a variety of indirect astronomical signatures. We derive the existing constraints on this scenario from Planck cosmic microwave background measurements, Fermi dwarf spheroidal galaxies and Galactic Center gamma-rays observations, and Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer - 02 antiprotons observations, and also discuss the future prospects of Fermi and the Cherenkov Telescope Array. Thermal annihilation rates are already being probed for dark matter lighter than about 50 GeV, and this can be extended to dark matter masses of 100 GeV and beyond in the future. This scenario can also provide a dark matter interpretation of the Fermi Galactic Center gamma ray excess, and we confront this interpretation with other indirect constraints. Finally we discuss some of the exciting implications of extensions of the minimal model with large neutrino Yukawa couplings and Higgs portal couplings.

Little composite dark matter

We examine the dark matter phenomenology of a composite electroweak singlet state. This singlet belongs to the Goldstone sector of a well-motivated extension of the Littlest Higgs with T-parity. A viable parameter space, consistent with the observed dark matter relic abundance as well as with the various collider, electroweak precision and dark matter direct detection experimental constraints is found for this scenario. T-parity implies a rich LHC phenomenology, which forms an interesting interplay between conventional natural SUSY type of signals involving third generation quarks and missing energy, from stop-like particle production and decay, and composite Higgs type of signals involving third generation quarks associated with Higgs and electroweak gauge boson, from vector-like top-partners production and decay. The composite features of the dark matter phenomenology allows the composite singlet to produce the correct relic abundance while interacting weakly with the Higgs via the usual Higgs portal coupling lambda _{text {DM}}sim O(1%), thus evading direct detection.

Two Higgs doublet dark matter portal

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.

Strongly self-interacting vector dark matter via freeze-in

We study a vector dark matter (VDM) model in which the dark sector couples to the Standard Model sector via a Higgs portal. If the portal coupling is small enough the VDM can be produced via the freeze-in mechanism. It turns out that the electroweak phase transition have a substantial impact on the prediction of the VDM relic density. We further assume that the dark Higgs boson which gives the VDM mass is so light that it can induce strong VDM self-interactions and solve the small-scale structure problems of the Universe. As illustrated by the latest LUX data, the extreme smallness of the Higgs portal coupling required by the freeze-in mechanism implies that the dark matter direct detection bounds are easily satisfied. However, the model is well constrained by the indirect detections of VDM from BBN, CMB, AMS-02, and diffuse γ/X-rays. Consequently, only when the dark Higgs boson mass is at most of mathcal{O} (keV) does there exist a parameter region which leads to a right amount of VDM relic abundance and an appropriate VDM self-scattering while satisfying all other constraints simultaneously.

D-brane SM-like and scalar dark matter in type IIA superstring theory

In light of the present LHC Run II at $\sqrt{s}=13$ $TeV$, string y standard-like model is studied. Concretely, a singlet $S $ scalar-extended SM given in terms four stacks of intersecting D6-branes in a type IIA superstring compactification producing a large gauge symmetry is examined. The involved scales are dealt with. According to the dark matter relic density, the mass of the scalar dark matter beyond the SM $m_{S}\lesssim 10^{3}GeV$ and the corresponding Higgs portal couplings $\lambda _{SH}\lesssim 10^{-8}$ are approached.

Supernovae and Weinberg\u2019s Higgs portal dark radiation and dark matter

The observed burst duration and energies of the neutrinos from Supernova 1987A strongly limit the possibility of any weakly-interacting light particle species being produced in the proto-neutron star (PNS) core and leading to efficient energy loss. We reexamine this constraint on Weinberg’s Higgs portal model, in which the dark radiation particles (the Goldstone bosons) and the dark matter candidate (a Majorana fermion) interact with Standard Model (SM) fields solely through the mixing of the SM Higgs boson and a light Higgs boson. In order for the Goldstone bosons to freely stream out of the PNS core region, the Higgs portal coupling has to be about a factor of 4-9 smaller than the current collider bound inferred from the SM Higgs invisible decay width. We find that in the energy loss rate calculations, results obtained by using the one-pion exchange (OPE) approximation and the SP07 global fits for the nucleon-nucleon total elastic cross section differ only by a factor ≲ 3. The SN 1987A constraints surpass those set by laboratory experiments or by the energy loss arguments in other astrophysical objects such as the gamma-ray bursts, even with other nuclear uncertainties taken into account. Furthermore, the SN 1987A constraints are comparable to bounds from the latest dark matter direct search for low-mass WIMPs (≲10 GeV.)

Lepton portal limit of inert Higgs doublet dark matter with radiative neutrino mass

We study an extension of the Inert Higgs Doublet Model (IHDM) by three copies of right handed neutrinos and heavy charged leptons such that both the inert Higgs doublet and the heavy fermions are odd under the Z2 symmetry of the model. The neutrino masses are generated at one loop in the scotogenic fashion. Assuming the neutral scalar of the inert Higgs to be the dark matter candidate, we particularly look into the region of parameter space where dark matter relic abundance is primarily governed by the inert Higgs coupling with the leptons. This corresponds to tiny Higgs portal coupling of dark matter as well as large mass splitting within different components of the inert Higgs doublet suppressing the coannihilations. Such lepton portal couplings can still produce the correct relic abundance even if the Higgs portal couplings are arbitrarily small. Such tiny Higgs portal couplings may be responsible for suppressed dark matter nucleon cross section as well as tiny invisible branching ratio of the standard model Higgs, to be probed at ongoing and future experiments. We also briefly discuss the collider implications of such a scenario.

Multipartite interacting scalar dark matter in the light of updated LUX data

We explore constraints on multipartite dark matter (DM) framework composed of singlet scalar DM interacting with the Standard Model (SM) through Higgs portal coupling. We compute relic density and direct search constraints including the updated LUX bound for two component scenario with non-zero interactions between two DM components in \U0001d4b52 × \U0001d4b52′ framework in comparison with the one having \U0001d4aa(2) symmetry. We point out availability of a significantly large region of parameter space of such a multipartite model with DM-DM interactions.

Sterile neutrino portal to Dark Matter I: the U(1)B\u2212L case

In this paper we explore the possibility that the sterile neutrino and Dark Matter sectors in the Universe have a common origin. We study the consequences of this assumption in the simple case of coupling the dark sector to the Standard Model via a global U(1)B−L, broken down spontaneously by a dark scalar. This dark scalar provides masses to the dark fermions and communicates with the Higgs via a Higgs portal coupling. We find an interesting interplay between Dark Matter annihilation to dark scalars — the CP-even that mixes with the Higgs and the CP-odd which becomes a Goldstone boson, the Majoron — and heavy neutrinos, as well as collider probes via the coupling to the Higgs. Moreover, Dark Matter annihilation into sterile neutrinos and its subsequent decay to gauge bosons and quarks, charged leptons or neutrinos lead to indirect detection signatures which are close to current bounds on the gamma ray flux from the galactic center and dwarf galaxies.

Low scale inflation at high energy colliders and meson factories

Inflation occurring at energy densities less than (10$^{14}$ GeV)$^4$ produces tensor perturbations too small to be measured by cosmological surveys. However, we show that it is possible to probe low scale inflation by measuring the mass of the inflaton at low energy experiments. Detection prospects and cosmological constraints are determined for low scale quartic hilltop models of inflation paired with a curvaton field, which imprints the spectrum of scalar perturbations observed in large scale structure and on the cosmic microwave background. With cosmological constraints applied, low scale quartic inflation at energies GeV--PeV, can be mapped to an MeV--TeV mass inflaton resonance, discoverable through a Higgs portal coupling at upcoming collider and meson decay experiments. It is demonstrated that low scale inflatons can have detectably large couplings to Standard Model particles through a Higgs portal, permitting prompt reheating after inflation, without spoiling, through radiative corrections to the inflaton's self-coupling, the necessary flatness of a low scale inflationary potential. A characteristic particle spectrum for a quartic inflaton-curvaton pair is identified: to within an order of magnitude, the mass of the curvaton can be predicted from the mass of the inflaton, and vice-versa. Low scale inflation Higgs portal sensitivity targets are found for experiments like the LHC, SHiP, BEPC, and KEKB.

Scale genesis and gravitational wave in a classically scale invariant extension of the standard model

We assume that the origin of the electroweak (EW) scale is a gauge-invariant scalar-bilinear condensation in a strongly interacting non-abelian gauge sector, which is connected to the standard model via a Higgs portal coupling. The dynamical scale genesis appears as a phase transition at finite temperature, and it can produce a gravitational wave (GW) background in the early Universe. We find that the critical temperature of the scale phase transition lies above that of the EW phase transition and below few O(100) GeV and it is strongly first-order. We calculate the spectrum of the GW background and find the scale phase transition is strong enough that the GW background can be observed by DECIGO.

Toward (finally!) ruling out Z and Higgs mediated dark matter models

In recent years, direct detection, indirect detection, and collider experiments have placed increasingly stringent constraints on particle dark matter, exploring much of the parameter space associated with the WIMP paradigm. In this paper, we focus on the subset of WIMP models in which the dark matter annihilates in the early universe through couplings to either the Standard Model Z or the Standard Model Higgs boson. Considering fermionic, scalar, and vector dark matter candidates within a model-independent context, we find that the overwhelming majority of these dark matter candidates are already ruled out by existing experiments. In the case of Z mediated dark matter, the only scenarios that are not currently excluded are those in which the dark matter is a fermion with an axial coupling and with a mass either within a few GeV of the Z resonance (mDM ≃ mZ/2) or greater than 200 GeV, or with a vector coupling and with mDM > 6 TeV . Several Higgs mediated scenarios are currently viable if the mass of the dark matter is near the Higgs pole (mDM ≃ mH/2). Otherwise, the only scenarios that are not excluded are those in which the dark matter is a scalar (vector) heavier than 400 GeV (1160 GeV) with a Higgs portal coupling, or a fermion with a pseudoscalar (CP violating) coupling to the Standard Model Higgs boson. With the exception of dark matter with a purely pseudoscalar coupling to the Higgs, it is anticipated that planned direct detection experiments will probe nearly the entire range of models considered in this study.