Higgs Portal Model Research Articles

Probing dark matter annihilation in the Galaxy with antiprotons and gamma rays

A possible hint of dark matter annihilation has been found in Cuoco, Korsmeier and Krämer (2017) from an analysis of recent cosmic-ray antiproton data from AMS-02 and taking into account cosmic-ray propagation uncertainties by fitting at the same time dark matter and propagation parameters. Here, we extend this analysis to a wider class of annihilation channels. We find consistent hints of a dark matter signal with an annihilation cross-section close to the thermal value and with masses in range between 40 and 130 GeV depending on the annihilation channel. Furthermore, we investigate in how far the possible signal is compatible with the Galactic center gamma-ray excess and recent observation of dwarf satellite galaxies by performing a joint global fit including uncertainties in the dark matter density profile. As an example, we interpret our results in the framework of the Higgs portal model.

Characterizing Higgs portal dark matter models at the ILC

We study the dark matter (DM) discovery prospect and its spin discrimination in the theoretical framework of gauge invariant and renormalizable Higgs portal DM models at the ILC with sqrt{s} = 500 GeV. In such models, the DM pair is produced in association with a Z boson. In the case of the singlet scalar DM, the mediator is just the SM Higgs boson, whereas for the fermion or vector DM there is an additional singlet scalar mediator that mixes with the SM Higgs boson, which produces significant observable differences. After careful investigation of the signal and backgrounds both at parton level and at detector level, we find the signal with hadronically decaying Z boson provides a better search sensitivity than the signal with leptonically decaying Z boson. Taking the fermion DM model as a benchmark scenario, when the DM-mediator coupling g_chi is relatively small, the DM signals are discoverable only for benchmark points with relatively light scalar mediator H_2. The spin discriminating from scalar DM is always promising, while it is difficult to discriminate from vector DM. As for g_chi approaching the perturbative limit, benchmark points with the mediator H_2 in the full mass region of interest are discoverable. The spin discriminating aspects from both the scalar and the fermion DM are quite promising.

Phenomenology of relaxion-Higgs mixing

We show that the relaxion generically stops its rolling at a point that breaks CP leading to relaxion-Higgs mixing. This opens the door to a variety of observational probes since the possible relaxion mass spans a broad range from sub-eV to the GeV scale. We derive constraints from current experiments (fifth force, astrophysical and cosmological probes, beam dump, flavour, LEP and LHC) and present projections from future experiments such as NA62, SHiP and PIXIE. We find that a large region of the parameter space is already under the experimental scrutiny. All the experimental constraints we derive are equally applicable for general Higgs portal models. In addition, we show that simple multiaxion (clockwork) UV completions suffer from a mild fine tuning problem, which increases with the number of sites. These results favour a cut-off scale lower than the existing theoretical bounds.

Two-Higgs-doublet-portal dark-matter models in light of direct search and LHC data

We explore simple Higgs-portal models of dark matter (DM) with spin 1/2, 3/2, and 1, respectively, applying to them constraints from the LUX and PandaX-II direct detection experiments and from LHC measurements on the 125-GeV Higgs boson. With only one Higgs doublet, we find that the spin-1/2 DM having a purely scalar effective coupling to the doublet is viable only in a narrow range of mass near the Higgs pole, whereas the vector DM is still allowed if its mass is also close to the Higgs pole or exceeds 1.4 TeV, both in line with earlier analyses. Moreover, the spin-3/2 DM is in a roughly similar situation to the spin-1/2 DM, but has surviving parameter space which is even more restricted. We also consider the two-Higgs-doublet extension of each of the preceding models, assuming that the expanded Yukawa sector is that of the two-Higgs-doublet model of type II. We show that in these two-Higgs-doublet-portal models significant portions of the DM mass regions excluded in the simplest scenarios by direct search bounds can be reclaimed due to suppression of the effective DM interactions with nucleons at some ratios of the CP -even Higgs bosons’ couplings to the up and down quarks. The regained parameter space contains areas which can yield a DM-nucleon scattering cross-section that is far less than its current experimental limit or even goes below the neutrino-background floor.

Evading direct dark matter detection in Higgs portal models

Many models of Higgs portal Dark Matter (DM) find themselves under pressure from increasingly tight direct detection constraints. In the framework of gauge field DM, we study how such bounds can be relaxed while retaining the thermal WIMP paradigm. When the hidden sector gauge symmetry is broken via the Higgs mechanism, the hidden sector generally contains unstable states which are lighter than dark matter. These states provide DM with an efficient annihilation channel. As a result, the DM relic abundance and the direct detection limits are controlled by different parameters, and the two can easily be reconciled. This simple setup realizes the idea of “secluded” dark matter naturally.

Hidden Sector DM Models with Local Dark Gauge Symmetries: Higgs Portal DM Models and Beyond

In this article, I review a class of electroweak (EW)-scale dark-matter (DM) models where DM stability or longevity is the result of underlying dark gauge symmetries: (i) DM is stable because of unbroken local dark gauge symmetry or topology, or (ii) it is long-lived due to the accidental global symmetry of underlying dark gauge theories. Compared with the usual phenomenological dark matter models (including DM effective field theory (EFT) or simplified DM models), there are new particles in addition to DM, namely, dark gauge boson(s), dark Higgs bosons and sometimes excited dark matter, and their interactions are completely fixed by the local gauge principle. The idea of singlet portals, including the Higgs portal, can thermalize DM very efficiently so that this DM could easily be thermal DM. I also discuss the limitation of the usual DM effective field theory or simplified DM models with only unbroken $SU(3)_{\rm color} \times U(1)_{\rm em}$ gauge symmetry in the context of Higgs portal DM models and emphasize the importance of the full SM gauge symmetry and renormalizability, especially for DM searches at high-energy colliders.

Search for Higgs portal DM at the ILC

Higgs portal dark matter (DM) models are simple interesting and viable DM models. There are three types of the models depending on the DM spin: scalar, fermion and vector DM models. In this paper, we consider renormalizable, unitary and gauge invariant Higgs portal DM models, and study how large parameter regions can be surveyed at the International Linear Collider (ILC) experiment at $\sqrt{s}=500$ GeV. For the Higgs portal singlet fermion and vector DM cases, the force mediator involves two scalar propagators, the SM-like Higgs boson and the dark Higgs boson. We show that their interference generates interesting and important patterns in the mono-$Z$ plus missing $E_T$ signatures at the ILC, and the results are completely different from those obtained from the Higgs portal DM models within the effective field theories. In addition, we show that it would be possible to distinguish the spin of DM in the Higgs portal scenarios, if the shape of the recoil-mass distribution is observed. We emphasize that the interplay between these collider observations and those in the direct detection experiments has to be performed in the model with renomalizability and unitarity to combine the model analyses in different scales.

Combined analysis of effective Higgs portal dark matter models

We combine and extend the analyses of effective scalar, vector, Majorana and Dirac fermion Higgs portal models of dark matter (DM), in which DM couples to the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson via an operator of the form $\mathcal{O}_{\textrm{DM}}\, H^\dagger H$. For the fermion models, we take an admixture of scalar $\overline{\psi} \psi$ and pseudoscalar $\overline{\psi} i\gamma_5 \psi$ interaction terms. For each model, we apply constraints on the parameter space based on the Planck measured DM relic density and the LHC limits on the Higgs invisible branching ratio. For the first time, we perform a consistent study of the indirect detection prospects for these models based on the WMAP7/Planck observations of the cosmic microwave background, a combined analysis of 15 dwarf spheroidal galaxies by Fermi-LAT and the upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). We also perform a correct treatment of the momentum-dependent direct search cross section that arises from the pseudoscalar interaction term in the fermionic DM theories. We find, in line with previous studies, that current and future direct search experiments such as LUX and XENON1T can exclude much of the parameter space, and we demonstrate that a joint observation in both indirect and direct searches is possible for high mass weakly interacting massive particles. In the case of a pure pseudoscalar interaction of a fermionic DM candidate, future gamma-ray searches are the only class of experiment capable of probing the high mass range of the theory.

A global fit of the γ-ray galactic center excess within the scalar singlet Higgs portal model

We analyse the excess in the γ-ray emission from the center of our galaxy observed by Fermi-LAT in terms of dark matter annihilation within the scalar Higgs portal model. In particular, we include the astrophysical uncertainties from the dark matter distribution and allow for unspecified additional dark matter components. We demonstrate through a detailed numerical fit that the strength and shape of the γ-ray spectrum can indeed be described by the model in various regions of dark matter masses and couplings. Constraints from invisible Higgs decays, direct dark matter searches, indirect searches in dwarf galaxies and for γ-ray lines, and constraints from the dark matter relic density reduce the parameter space to dark matter masses near the Higgs resonance. We find two viable regions: one where the Higgs-dark matter coupling is of \U0001d4aa(10−2), and an additional dark matter component beyond the scalar WIMP of our model is preferred, and one region where the Higgs-dark matter coupling may be significantly smaller, but where the scalar WIMP constitutes a significant fraction or even all of dark matter. Both viable regions are hard to probe in future direct detection and collider experiments.

Searches for invisible decay modes of the Higgs boson with the CMS detector

A search for Higgs boson invisible decay modes has been carried out in events where the Higgs boson is produced in association with a Z boson as well as through vector boson fusion. In the associated production search, electron, muon and b-quark pair decay modes of the Z boson are considered. The analyses are based on pp collision data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC collider at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 5 fb−1 and 20 fb−1, respectively. No evidence of a signal has been found and upper limits on the invisible branching fraction are obtained and interpreted in a Higgs portal model of dark matter interactions.

Effects of Goldstone bosons on gamma-ray bursts

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic explosion events in the universe. An amount of gravitational energy of the order of the rest-mass energy of the Sun is released from a small region within a short time. This should lead to the formation of a fireball of temperature in the MeV range, consisting of electrons/positrons, photons, and a small fraction of baryons. We exploit the potential of GRB fireballs for being a laboratory for testing particle physics beyond the Standard Model, where we find that Weinberg's Higgs portal model serves as a good candidate for this purpose. Due to the resonance effects, the Goldstone bosons can be rapidly produced by electron-positron annihilation process in the initial fireballs of the gamma-ray bursts. On the other hand, the mean free path of the Goldstone bosons is larger than the size of the GRB initial fireballs, so they are not coupled to the GRB's relativistic flow and can lead to significant energy loss. Using generic values for the GRB initial fireball energy, temperature, radius, expansion rate, and baryon number density, we find that the GRB bounds on the parameters of Weinberg's Higgs portal model are indeed competitive to current laboratory constraints.

A search for prompt lepton-jets in pp collisions at s = 8 $$ \sqrt{\mathrm{s}}=8 $$ TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search is presented for a new, light boson with a mass of about 1 GeV and decaying promptly to jets of collimated electrons and/or muons (lepton-jets). The analysis is performed with 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. Events are required to contain at least two lepton-jets. This study finds no statistically significant deviation from predictions of the Standard Model and places 95\% confidence-level upper limits on the contribution of new phenomena beyond the SM, incuding SUSY-portal and Higgs-portal models, on the number of events with lepton-jets.

Constraints on new phenomena via Higgs boson couplings and invisible decays with the ATLAS detector

The ATLAS experiment at the LHC has measured the Higgs boson couplings and mass, and searched for invisible Higgs boson decays, using multiple production and decay channels with up to 4.7 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV. In the current study, the measured production and decay rates of the observed Higgs boson in the $\gamma\gamma$, $ZZ$, $WW$, $Z\gamma$, $bb$, $\tau\tau$, and $\mu\mu$ decay channels, along with results from the associated production of a Higgs boson with a top-quark pair, are used to probe the scaling of the couplings with mass. Limits are set on parameters in extensions of the Standard Model including a composite Higgs boson, an additional electroweak singlet, and two-Higgs-doublet models. Together with the measured mass of the scalar Higgs boson in the $\gamma\gamma$ and $ZZ$ decay modes, a lower limit is set on the pseudoscalar Higgs boson mass of $m_{A}>370$ GeV in the "hMSSM" simplified Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Results from direct searches for heavy Higgs bosons are also interpreted in the hMSSM. Direct searches for invisible Higgs boson decays in the vector-boson fusion and associated production of a Higgs boson with $W/Z$ ($Z\to ll$, $W/Z \to jj$) modes are statistically combined to set an upper limit on the Higgs boson invisible branching ratio of 0.25. The use of the measured visible decay rates in a more general coupling fit improves the upper limit to 0.23, constraining a Higgs portal model of dark matter.

Bounds on Higgs-portal models from the LHC Higgs data

In a number of Higgs-portal models, an SU(2) isospin-singlet scalar boson generically appears at the electroweak scale and can mix with the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson with a mixing angle α. This singlet scalar boson can have renormalizable couplings to a pair of dark matter particles, vector-like leptons or quarks, or new gauge bosons, thereby modifying the Higgs signal strengths in a nontrivial way. In this work, we perform global fits to such models using the most updated LHC Higgs-boson data and discuss the corresponding implications on Higgs-portal-type models. In particular we find that the current LHC Higgs-boson data slightly favors the SM over the Higgs-portal singlet-scalar models, which has to be further examined using the upcoming LHC Higgs-boson data. Finally, without non-SM particles contributing to the Hγγ and Hgg vertices, the Higgs-portal models are constrained as follows: cos α ≳ 0.86 and ΔΓtot ≲ 1.24 MeV at 95% confidence level (CL).

Majorana dark matter through the Higgs portal under the vacuum stability lamppost

We study the vacuum stability of a minimal Higgs portal model in which the standard model (SM) particle spectrum is extended to include one complex scalar field and one Dirac fermion. These new fields are singlets under the SM gauge group and are charged under a global U(1) symmetry. Breaking of this U(1) symmetry results in a massless Goldstone boson, a massive CP-even scalar, and splits the Dirac fermion into two new mass-eigenstates, corresponding to Majorana fermions. The lightest Majorana fermion (w) is absolutely stable, providing a plausible dark matter (DM) candidate. We show that interactions between the Higgs sector and the lightest Majorana fermion which are strong enough to yield a thermal relic abundance consistent with observation can easily destabilize the electroweak vacuum or drive the theory into a non-perturbative regime at an energy scale well below the Planck mass. However, we also demonstrate that there is a region of the parameter space which develops a stable vacuum (up to the Planck scale), satisfies the relic abundance, and is in agreement with direct DM searches. Such an interesting region of the parameter space corresponds to DM masses 350 GeV \alt m_w \alt 1 TeV. The region of interest is within reach of second generation DM direct detection experiments.

CONFRONTING GALACTIC AND EXTRAGALACTIC γ -RAYS OBSERVED BY FERMI -LAT WITH ANNIHILATING DARK MATTER IN AN INERT HIGGS DOUBLET MODEL

In this thorough study we focus on the indirect detection of Dark Matter (DM) through the confrontation of unexplained galactic and extragalactic $\gamma$-ray signatures for a low mass DM model. For this, we consider a simple Higgs-portal DM model, namely, the inert Higgs doublet model (IHDM) where the Standard Model is extended with an additional complex SU(2)$_L$ doublet scalar. The stability of the DM candidate in this model, i.e., the lightest neutral scalar component of the extra doublet, is ensured by imposing discrete $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. The reduced-$\chi^2$ analysis with the theoretical, experimental and observational constraints suggests the best-fit value of DM mass in this model to be $\sim$ 63.5 GeV. We analyse the anomalous GeV $\gamma$-ray excess from Galactic Centre in light of the best-fit IHDM parameters. We further check the consistency of the best-fit IHDM parameters with the Fermi-LAT obtained limits on photon flux for 18 Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies (dSphs) known to be mostly dominated by DM. Also since the $\gamma$-ray signal from DM annihilation is assumed to be embedded within the extragalactic $\gamma$-ray background (EGB), the theoretical calculations of photon flux for the best-fit parameter point in the IHDM framework are compared with the Fermi-LAT results for diffuse and isotropic EGB for different extragalactic and astrophysical background parametrisations. We show that the low mass DM in IHDM framework can satisfactorily confront all the observed continuum $\gamma$-ray fluxes originated from galactic as well as extragalactic sources. The extensive analysis performed in this work is valid for any Higgs-portal model with DM mass in the ballpark of that considered in this work.

Higgs portals to pulsar collapse

Pulsars apparently missing from the galactic center could have been destroyed by asymmetric fermionic dark matter ($m_X = 1-100$ GeV) coupled to a light scalar ($m_{\phi}= 5-20$ MeV), which mixes with the Higgs boson. We point out that this pulsar-collapsing dark sector can resolve the core-cusp problem and will either be excluded or discovered by upcoming direct detection experiments. Another implication is a maximum pulsar age curve that increases with distance from the galactic center, with a normalization that depends on the couplings and masses of dark sector particles. In addition, we use old pulsars outside the galactic center to place bounds on asymmetric Higgs portal models.

The finite shelf life of minimal Higgs portal dark matter

We point out that even a very conservative estimate for the uncertainty of the effective Higgs-nucleon coupling yields nuclear recoil cross sections for perturbative Higgs portal dark matter models which will be probed by DEAP-3600 and XENON1T within two years of observations.

WIMPs at the galactic center

Simple models of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) predict dark matter annihilations into pairs of electroweak gauge bosons, Higgses or tops, which through their subsequent cascade decays produce a spectrum of gamma rays. Intriguingly, an excess in gamma rays coming from near the Galactic center has been consistently observed in Fermi data. A recent analysis by the Fermi collaboration confirms these earlier results. Taking into account the systematic uncertainties in the modelling of the gamma ray backgrounds, we show for the first time that this excess can be well fit by these final states. In particular, for annihilations to (WW, ZZ, hh, tt̄), dark matter with mass between threshold and approximately (165, 190, 280, 310) GeV gives an acceptable fit. The fit range for bb̄ is also enlarged to 35 GeV ≲ mχ ≲ 165 GeV. These are to be compared to previous fits that concluded only much lighter dark matter annihilating into b, τ, and light quark final states could describe the excess. We demonstrate that simple, well-motivated models of WIMP dark matter including a thermal-relic neutralino of the MSSM, Higgs portal models, as well as other simplified models can explain the excess.

Supersymmetric Higgs-portal and X-ray lines

We consider a Dirac singlet fermion as thermal dark matter for explaining the X-ray line in the context of a supersymmetric Higgs-portal model or a generalized Dirac NMSSM. The Dirac singlet fermion gets a mass splitting due to their Yukawa couplings to two Higgs doublets and their superpartners, Higgsinos, after electroweak symmetry breaking. We show that a correct relic density can be obtained from thermal freeze-out, due to the co-annihilation with Higgsinos for the same Yukawa couplings. We discuss the phenomenology of the Higgsinos in this model such as displaced vertices at the LHC.