Real Scalars Research Articles

Coscattering in the extended singlet-scalar Higgs portal

We study the coscattering mechanism in a simple Higgs portal which add two real singlet scalars to the Standard Model. In this scenario, the lighter scalar is stabilized by a single 𝒵2 symmetry and acts as the dark matter relic, whose freeze-out is driven by conversion processes. The heavier scalar becomes an unstable state which participate actively in the coscattering. We find viable parameter regions fulfilling the measured relic abundance, while evading direct detection and big-bang nucleosynthesis bounds. In addition, we discuss collider prospects for the heavier scalar as a long-lived particle at present and future detectors.

Dynamical origin of neutrino masses and dark matter from a new confining sector

A dynamical mechanism, based on a confining non-Abelian dark symmetry, which generates Majorana masses for hyperchargeless fermions, is proposed. We apply it to the inverse seesaw scenario, which allows us to generate light neutrino masses from the interplay of TeV-scale pseudo-Dirac mass terms and a small explicit breaking of lepton number. A single generation of vectorlike dark quarks, transforming under a SU(3)D gauge symmetry, is coupled to a real singlet scalar, which serves as a portal between the dark quark condensate and three generations of heavy sterile neutrinos. Such a dark sector and the Standard Model (SM) are kept in thermal equilibrium with each other via sizable Yukawa couplings to the heavy neutrinos. In this framework, the lightest dark baryon, which has spin 3/2 and is stabilized at the renormalizable level by an accidental dark baryon number symmetry, can account for the observed relic density via thermal freeze-out from annihilations into the lightest dark mesons. These mesons, in turn, decay to heavy neutrinos, which produce SM final states upon decay. This model may be probed by next generation neutrino telescopes via neutrino lines produced from dark matter annihilations. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Singlet Dirac dark matter streamlined

We propose a new and compact realization of singlet Dirac dark matter within the WIMP framework. Our model replaces the standard Z 2 stabilizing symmetry with a Z 6, and uses spontaneous symmetry breaking to generate the dark matter mass, resulting in a much simplified scenario for Dirac dark matter. Concretely, we extend the Standard Model (SM) with just two new particles, a Dirac fermion (the dark matter) and a real scalar, both charged under the Z 6 symmetry. After acquiring a vacuum expectation value, the scalar gives mass to the dark matter and mixes with the Higgs boson, providing the link between the dark sector and the SM particles. With only four free parameters, this new model is extremely simple and predictive. We study the dark matter density as a function of the model's free parameters and use a likelihood approach to determine its viable parameter space. Our results demonstrate that the dark matter mass can be as large as 6 TeV while remaining consistent with all known theoretical and experimental bounds. In addition, a large fraction of viable models turns out to lie within the sensitivity of future direct detection experiments, furnishing a promising way to test this appealing scenario.

Search for a leptoquark and vector-like lepton in a muon collider

The proposal for a high-energy muon collider offers many opportunities in the search for physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). The collider by construction is likely to be more sensitive to the muon-philic models, primarily motivated by the BSM explanation of muon (g−2) excess and quark flavor anomalies. In this work, we explore the potential of the proposed muon collider in the context of such models and focus on one such model that extends the Standard Model (SM) with a leptoquark, a vector-like lepton, and a real scalar. In this model, we propose searches for TeV scale leptoquarks in 2μ+2b+E̸T channel. Notably, the leptoquark can be produced singly at the muon collider with a large cross-section. We have shown that a significant signal in this channel can be detected at a 3 TeV muon collider even with an integrated luminosity as low as ∼10 fb−1.

Quaternion form of the electromagnetic reciprocity theorem

In this paper, the general forms of quaternion electromagnetic field mutual energy-momentum equations (QEMF-MEME) and quaternion electromagnetic field energy-momentum reciprocal equations (QEMF-EMRE) in frequency domain are derived based on the quaternion-electromagnetic-field equations. It has been discovered that QEMF- EMRE is a reflection of the electromagnetic interaction between lagging and leading waves. The real and imaginary parts of scalar, the real and imaginary parts of vector of QEMF-EMRE correspond to the Feld-Tai reciprocity theorem, Lorentz reciprocity theorem, and the two sets of momentum reciprocity theorems, respectively. While, QEMF-MEME reflects the electromagnetic interaction of two sets of lagging waves, and its real scalar, imaginary scalar, real-vector, and imaginary-vector parts are the Feld-Tai reciprocal energy theorem, the reciprocal energy theorem, the two sets of reciprocal momentum theorem.

Core and halo properties in multi-field wave dark matter

In this work, we compute multi-field core and halo properties in wave Dark Matter models. We focus on the case where Dark Matter consists of two light (real) scalars, interacting gravitationally. As in the single-field Ultra Light Dark Matter (ULDM) case, the scalar field behaves as a coherent BEC with a definite ground state (at fixed total mass), often referred to in the literature as a gravitational soliton. We establish an efficient algorithm to find the ground and excited states of such two-field systems. We then use simulations to investigate the gravitational collapse and virialization, starting from different initial conditions, into solitons and surrounding halo. As in the single-field case, a virialized halo forms with a gravitational soliton (ground state) at the center. We find some evidence for an empirical relation between the soliton mass and energy and those of the host halo. We use this to then find a numerical relation between the properties of the two. Finally, we use this to address the issue of alleviating some of the tensions that single-field ULDM has with observational data, in particular, the issue of how a galaxy's core and radius are related. We find that if galaxies of different masses have similar percentages of the two species, then the core-radius scaling tension is not addressed. However, more general possibilities occur if the relative abundance of species in each halo correlates with the total mass of the galaxy. If this is the case, the model predicts several other phenomenological signatures.

Structured singular value of a repeated complex full‐block uncertainty

AbstractThe structured singular value (SSV), or , is used to assess the robust stability and performance of an uncertain linear time‐invariant system. Existing algorithms compute upper and lower bounds on the SSV for structured uncertainties that contain repeated (real or complex) scalars and/or nonrepeated complex full‐blocks. This paper presents algorithms to compute bounds on the SSV for the case of repeated complex full‐blocks. This specific class of uncertainty is relevant for the input‐output analysis of many convective systems, such as fluid flows. Specifically, we present a power iteration to compute the SSV lower bound for the case of repeated complex full‐blocks. This generalizes existing power iterations for repeated complex scalars and nonrepeated complex full‐blocks. The upper bound can be formulated as a semi‐definite program (SDP), which we solve using a standard interior‐point method to compute optimal scaling matrices associated with the repeated full‐blocks. Our implementation of the method only requires gradient information, which improves the computational efficiency of the method. Finally, we test our proposed algorithms on an example model of incompressible fluid flow. The proposed methods provide less conservative bounds as compared to prior results, which ignore the repeated full‐block structure.

Dark sector effective field theory

We introduce the effective field theory of two different light dark particles interacting with the standard model (SM) light states in a single vertex, termed dark sector effective field theory (DSEFT). We focus on the new light particles with spin up to 1 and being real in essence, namely, new real scalars ϕ and S, Majorana fermions χ and ψ, and real vectors Xμ and Vμ. In the framework of low energy effective field theory with QED and QCD symmetry, the DSEFT can be classified into six categories, including the scalar-scalar-SM (ϕS-SM), fermion-fermion-SM (χψ-SM), vector-vector-SM (XV-SM), scalar-fermion-SM (ϕχ-SM), scalar-vector-SM (ϕX-SM), and fermion-vector-SM (χX-SM) cases. For each case, we construct the effective operator basis up to canonical dimension 7, which will cover most interesting phenomenology at low energy. As a phenomenological example, we investigate the longstanding neutron lifetime anomaly through the neutron dark decay modes n → χϕ or χX from the effective interactions in the fermion-scalar-SM or fermion-vector-SM case. When treating the light fermion as a dark matter candidate, we also explore the constraints from DM-neutron annihilation signal at Super-Kamiokande. We find the neutron dark decay in each scenario can accommodate the anomaly, at the same time, without contradicting with the Super-Kamiokande limit.

Unitarity bounds on extensions of Higgs sector

It is widely believed that extensions of the minimal Higgs sector is one of the promising directions for resolving many puzzles beyond the Standard Model (SM). In this work, we study the unitarity bounds on the models by extending the two-Higgs-doublet model with an additional real or complex Higgs triplet scalar. By noting that the SM gauge symmetries SU(2)L × U(1)Y are recovered at high energies, we can classify the two-body scattering states by decomposing the direct product of two scalar multiplets into their direct sum of irreducible representations of electroweak gauge groups. In such state bases, the s-wave amplitudes of two-body scalar scatterings can be written in the form of block-diagonalized scattering matrices. Then the application of the perturbative unitarity conditions on the eigenvalues of scattering matrices leads to the analytic constraints on the model parameters. Finally, we numerically investigate the complex triplet scalar extension of the two-Higgs-doublet model, finding that the perturbative unitarity places useful stringent bounds on the model parameter space.

Information metric on the boundary

The information metric on the space of boundary coupling constants in two-dimensional conformal field theories is studied. Such a metric is related to the Casimir energy difference of the theory defined on an interval. We concretely compute the information metric on the boundary conformal manifold of free boson CFT as well as SU(2)k WZW theory, obtaining the result expected from the symmetry of the systems. We also compute the information metric on the space of non-conformal boundary states produced by boundary mass perturbations in the theory of a real free scalar. The holographic dual of the boundary information metric in the context of AdS3/BCFT2 is also discussed. We argue that it corresponds to the area of the minimal cross section of the end-of-the-world brane connecting two boundaries of the asymptotic BCFTs.

Ghost condensation and subluminal propagation on low derivative backgrounds

We show a new class of interaction terms with higher derivatives that can be added to every low derivative real scalar, such that the first order perturbations induced by the higher derivative terms on the low derivative background are ghost-free. This follows without imposing additional constraints. Furthermore, we show a related class of theories with an additional stabilizer variable and a constraint which are ghost-free without restricting to a perturbative expansion. In this case the field equation followed by the stabilizer variable may have interesting physical applications: namely, in contrast to some models with first-order derivative interactions with applications for dark energy and inflation, these constrained second-order derivative self-interactions do not necessarily affect the luminal propagation, hence, avoiding the common superluminality issues of the former.

Dark Contributions to h → μ + μ – in the Presence of a μ-Flavored Vector-Like Lepton

A simple extension of the standard model (SM) with a μ-flavored vector-like lepton (VLL) doublet and a real singlet scalar can have an interesting implication to the h → μ + μ – decay while offering the simplest possible explanation for the dark matter (DM) phenomenology. Assuming the real singlet scalar to be a viable DM candidate, it has been shown that the muon Yukawa coupling can have a negative contribution at the one-loop order if the 2nd generation SM leptons are allowed to couple with the VLL doublet. The stringent direct detection bounds corresponding to a real singlet scalar DM can easily be relaxed if the SM quark sector was augmented with a dimension-6 operator at some new physics (NP) scale Λ NP. Thus, this model presents a significant phenomenological study where the muon Yukawa coupling can be corrected within a real singlet scalar DM framework. The considered parameter space can be tested/constrained through the high luminosity run of the LHC (HL-LHC) and future direct detection experiments.

Construction of the Unruh State for a Real Scalar Field on the Kerr-de Sitter Spacetime

The study of physical effects of quatum fields in black hole spacetimes, which is related to questions such as the validity of the strong cosmic censorship conjecture, requires a Hadamard state describing the physical situation. Here, we consider the theory of a free scalar field on a Kerr-de Sitter spacetime, focussing on spacetimes with sufficiently small angular momentum of the black hole and sufficiently small cosmological constant. We demonstrate that an extension of the Unruh state, which describes the expected late-time behaviour in spherically symmetric gravitational collapse, can be rigorously constructed for the free scalar field on such Kerr-de Sitter spacetimes. In addition, we show that this extension of the Unruh state is a Hadamard state in the black hole exterior and in the black hole interior up to the inner horizon. This provides a physically motivated Hadamard state for the study of free scalar fields in rotating black hole spacetimes.

Study of entropy production due to electroweak phase transition in Z2 symmetric extension of the Standard Model

In this work, we consider the simple ${Z}_{2}$ symmetric extension to the Standard Model (SM) and proceed to study the nature of electroweak phase transition (EWPT) in the early Universe. We show that the nature of the phase transition changes from a smooth crossover in the SM to a strong first order with this addition of the real scalar. Furthermore, we show that the entropy release in this scenario is higher than that of the SM. This can lead to a strong dilution of the energy density of gravitational waves, as we show in the latter part of the paper.

The stability analysis of the extended singlet scalar model with two high scale minima

We study the simplest viable dark matter (DM) model with a real singlet scalar, vector-like singlet, and doublet fermions. The Yukawa couplings associated with the fermion sector are important in obtaining the current DM relic density through Freeze-out and Freeze-in mechanisms. In addition to the standard model-like high scale minima along the Higgs field, we find other high scale minima along the singlet scalar field direction. The other minima appears due to the renormalization group evolutions of the couplings involving the gauge sector, Higgs portal, and the new Yukawa sector. A detailed study of the parameter space identifying the region of electroweak vacuum stability and metastability along different directions of the scalar field is carried out using different phase diagrams.

Hierarchy problem and the vacuum stability in two-scalar dark matter model

We consider an extension to the Standard Model (SM) with two extra real singlet scalars which interact with the SM Higgs particle. The lighter scalar is taken as the dark matter (DM) candidate. We show that the model successfully explains the relic abundance of the DM in the universe and evades the strong bounds from direct detection experiments while respecting the perturbativity and the vacuum stability conditions. In addition, we study the hierarchy problem within the Veltman approach by solving the renormalization group equations at one-loop. We demonstrate that the addition of the real singlet scalars contributes to the Veltman parameters which in turn results in satisfying the Veltman conditions much lower than the Planck scale $ \Lambda_\text{Pl}$ down to the electroweak scale. Therefore, the presence of the extra scalars solves the fine-tuning problem of the Higgs mass. For the case of the two-scalar DM model we find two representative points in the viable parameter space which satisfy also the Veltman conditions at $\Lambda = 300$ GeV and $\Lambda = 1$ TeV.

Primordial black holes from an electroweak phase transition

We propose a mechanism that forms primordial black holes (PBHs) via a first-order electroweak phase transition (FOEWPT). The FOEWPT is realized by extending the Standard Model with a real singlet scalar, while the PBH formation is achieved by the collapse of non-topological solitons called Fermi-balls. Such solitons form via trapping fermions in the false vacuum during the FOEWPT, and they eventually collapse into PBHs due to the internal Yukawa attractive force. We demonstrate that a scenario with PBH dark matter candidate can exist, and the typical experimental signals include FOEWPT gravitational waves and the multi-lepton/jet or displaced vertex final states at the LHC.

Scalar dark matter and radiative Dirac neutrino mass in an extended U(1)B−L model

We explore a gauged U(1)B−L extension of the standard model with inclusion of three right-handed neutrinos of exotic B−L charges to cancel the gauge anomaly. Non-trivial transformation of new particles under B−L symmetry forbids the generation of neutrino mass at tree level and hence a small Dirac mass can be generated radiatively at one loop with scalar, fermion doublets and singlet scalars. We also discuss the phenomenology of a scalar dark matter, which can be obtained from the mixing of neutral CP even component of a doublet scalar and a real singlet scalar. An adhoc Z2 symmetry is required in the current framework to stabilize the dark matter candidate. Presence of new particles with Z2 odd charges and small mass splitting, makes the phenomenology more interesting by governing the relic density with co-annihilation processes. We explore the spin-independent direct detection constraints on dark matter via the scalar mediation. Constraints from lepton flavor violating decay processes like μ→eγ are also discussed.

Cosmology of a supercooled universe

First-order phase transitions (FOPTs) are ubiquitous in physics beyond the Standard Model (SM). Recently, models with no dimensionful parameters in the tree-level action have been attracting much attention because they can predict a very strong FOPT with ultra-supercooling. In this paper, we study the cosmological signatures of such a supercooling model. As a concrete model, we consider the SM with two additional real scalars $\phi$ and $S$, which can realize the electroweak symmetry breaking via Coleman-Weinberg mechanism. One of the additional scalars $S$ can naturally become a Dark Matter (DM) candidate due to the $Z_2^{}$ symmetry of the action. We study the FOPT of this model and calculate the Gravitational Wave (GW) signals and the thermal relic abundance of $S$ taking the filtered effects into account. Within the envelope approximation, we find that the GW peak amplitude can reach $\sim 10^{-10}$ around the frequency $f\sim 10^{-3}~$Hz for model parameters $(v_\phi^{},\lambda_{\phi S}^{})\sim (200~{\rm TeV},1.6)$ where $v_\phi^{}$ is the vacuum expectation value of $\phi$ and $\lambda_{\phi S}^{}$ is the scalar mixing coupling. On the other hand, the filtered DM mechanism only works for $0.8\lesssim \lambda_{\phi S}^{}\lesssim 1$, where the GW peak amplitude is found to be quite small $\lesssim 10^{-17}$.

Beyond freeze-in: Dark matter via inverse phase transition and gravitational wave signal

We propose a novel scenario of Dark Matter production naturally connected with generation of gravitational waves. Dark Matter is modelled as a real scalar, which interacts with the hot primordial plasma through a portal coupling to another scalar field. For a particular sign of the coupling, this system exhibits an inverse second order phase transition. The latter leads to an abundant Dark Matter production, even if the portal interaction is so weak that the freeze-in mechanism is inefficient. The model predicts domain wall formation in the Universe, long time before the inverse phase transition. These domain walls have a tension decreasing with time, and completely disappear at the inverse phase transition, so that the problem of overclosing the Universe is avoided. The domain wall network emits gravitational waves with characteristics defined by those of Dark Matter. In particular, the peak frequency of gravitational waves is determined by the portal coupling constant, and falls in the observable range for currently planned gravitational wave detectors.