In this note we point out that primordial black holes could be much shorter lived than usually assumed if there is a large hidden sector of particles that only interacts gravitationally with the particles of the standard model. The observation of the explosion of one of these black holes would severely constrain the energy scale at which gravity becomes strong.
We argue that the eta-problem in supergravity inflation cannot be solved without knowledge of the ground state of hidden sectors that are gravitationally coupled to the inflaton. If the hidden sector breaks supersymmetry independently, its fields cannot be stabilized during cosmological evolution of the inflaton. We show that both the subsequent dynamical mixing between sectors as well as the lightest mass of the hidden sector are set by the scale of supersymmetry breaking in the hidden sector. The true cosmological eta-parameter arises from a linear combination of the lightest mode of the hid…
We investigate Hawking evaporation of a population of primordial black holes (PBHs) prior to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) as a mechanism to achieve asymmetric reheating of two sectors coupled solely by gravity. While the visible sector is reheated by the inflaton or a modulus, the dark sector is reheated by PBHs. Compared to inflationary or modular reheating of both sectors, there are two advantages: $(i)$ inflaton or moduli mediated operators that can subsequently thermalize the dark sector with the visible sector are not relevant to the asymmetric reheating process; $(ii)$ the mass and abu…
An analysis of a tower of hidden sectors coupled to each other, with one of these hidden sectors coupled to the visible sector, is given and the implications of such couplings on physics in the visible sector are investigated. Thus the analysis considers $n$ number of hidden sectors where the visible sector couples only to hidden sector 1, while the latter couples also to hidden sector 2, and the hidden sector 2 couples to hidden sector 3 and so on. A set of successively feeble couplings of the hidden sectors to the visible sector are generated in such a set up. In general each of these sector…
We discuss the idea that the model-independent (MI) axion of string theory is the source of quintessential dark energy. The scenario is completed with a composite QCD axion from hidden sector squark condensation that could serve as dark matter candidate. The mechanism relies on the fact that the hidden sector anomaly contribution to the composite axion is much smaller than the QCD anomaly term. This intuitively surprising scenario is based on the fact that below the hidden sector scale $Λ_h$ there are many light hidden sector quarks. Simply, by counting engineering dimensions the hidden sector…
We show that neutron star binaries can be ideal laboratories to probe hidden sectors with a long range force. In particular, it is possible for gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO and Virgo to resolve the correction of waveforms from ultralight dark gauge bosons coupled to neutron stars. We observe that the interaction of the hidden sector affects both the gravitational wave frequency and amplitude in a way that cannot be fitted by pure gravity.
We propose a framework in which visible matter interacts with matter from a hidden sector through mass mixings of Stückelberg U(1) gauge fields. In contrast to other Z' mediation scenarios, our setup has the added appealing features that (i) the choice of Z's can be significantly broadened without necessarily introducing unwanted exotic matter and (ii) there can be sizable tree-level interactions between the visible and hidden sectors. String theory embeddings of this scenario and their phenomenological features are briefly discussed.
QCD and electroweak phase transitions with hidden scale invariance: implications for primordial black holes, quark-lepton nuggets and gravitational waves
In order to accommodate increasingly tighter observational constraints on dark matter, several models have been proposed recently in which dark matter particles are charged under some hidden gauge group. Hidden gauge charges are invisible for the standard model particles, hence such scenarios are very difficult to constrain directly. However black holes are sensitive to all gauge charges, whether they belong to the standard model or not. Here, we examine the constraints on the possible values of the dark matter particle mass and hidden gauge charge from the evolution of primordial black holes.…
Ultraviolet physics typically induces a kinetic mixing between gauge singlets which is marginal and hence non-decoupling in the infrared. In singlet extensions of the minimal supersymmetric standard model, e.g. the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model, this furnishes a well motivated and distinctive portal connecting the visible sector to any hidden sector which contains a singlet chiral superfield. In the presence of singlet kinetic mixing, the hidden sector automatically acquires a light mass scale in the range 0.1 - 100 GeV induced by electroweak symmetry breaking. In theories with…
We study the spectrum of gravitational waves produced by a first order phase transition in a hidden sector that is colder than the visible sector. In this scenario, bubbles of the hidden sector vacuum can be nucleated through either thermal fluctuations or quantum tunnelling. If a cold hidden sector undergoes a thermally induced transition, the amplitude of the gravitational wave signal produced will be suppressed and its peak frequency shifted compared to if the hidden and visible sector temperatures were equal. This could lead to signals in a frequency range that would otherwise be ruled out…
A talk presents a new cosmological model with superstring-inspired $E_6$ unification, broken at the early stage of the Universe into $SO(10)\times U(1)_Z$ -- into the ordinary world, and $SU(6)'\times SU(2)'_θ$ -- into the hidden world.
We explore gravitational wave signals arising from first-order phase transitions occurring in a secluded hidden sector, allowing for the possibility that the hidden sector may have a different temperature than the Standard Model sector. We present the sensitivity to such scenarios for both current and future gravitational wave detectors in a model-independent fashion. Since secluded hidden sectors are of particular interest for dark matter models at the MeV scale or below, we pay special attention to the reach of pulsar timing arrays. Cosmological constraints on light degrees of freedom restri…
We investigate possible renormalization effects on the low-energy mass spectrum of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), using a calculable model of strongly coupled hidden sector. We model the hidden sector by N=2 supersymmetric quantum chromodynamics with gauge group SU(2) x U(1) and N_f=2 matter hypermultiplets, perturbed by a Fayet-Iliopoulos term which breaks the supersymmetry down to N=0 on a metastable vacuum. In the hidden sector the Kahler potential is renormalized. Upon identifying a hidden sector modulus with the renormalization scale, and extrapolating to the strongly c…
Gravity mediated supersymmetry breakdown originated from a study of gaugino condensation in a hidden sector. We review this mechanism of supergravity breakdown from the original formulation in the early eighties to its natural implementation in superstring theory and M-theory. In the latter case hidden and observable sector become separated geometrically and supersymmetry is broken dynamically on a hidden wall.
We propose a simple and natural model of dynamical supersymmetry breaking, which could be used as a mechanism for spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in a gravitationally coupled hidden sector. The gaugino masses in the visible sector are naturally of the same size as the squark, slepton, and gravitino masses.
We study vortex solutions in a theory with dynamics governed by two weakly coupled Abelian Higgs models, describing a hidden sector and a visible sector. We analyze the radial dependence of the axially symmetric solutions constructed numerically and discuss the stability of vortex configurations for different values of the model parameters, studying in detail vortex decay into lower energy configurations. We find that even in a weak coupling regime vortex solutions strongly depend on the parameters of both the visible and hidden sectors. We also discuss on qualitative grounds possible implicat…
We investigate the presence of vortices in generalized Maxwell-Higgs models with a hidden sector. The model engenders $U(1)\times U(1)$ symmetry, in a manner that the sectors are coupled via the visible magnetic permeability depending only on the hidden scalar field. We develop a first order framework in which the hidden sector decouples from the visible one. We illustrate the results with two specific examples, that give rise to the presence of vortices with internal structure.
In anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking (AMSB) models, superpartner masses are proportional to couplings squared. Their hidden sectors therefore naturally contain WIMPless dark matter, particles whose thermal relic abundance is guaranteed to be of the correct size, even though they are not weakly-interacting massive particles (WIMPs). We study viable dark matter candidates in WIMPless AMSB models with non-Abelian hidden sectors and highlight unusual possibilities that emerge in even the simplest models. In one example with a pure SU(N) hidden sector, stable hidden gluinos freeze out with th…
A hidden sector that kinetically mixes with the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model provides simple and well-motivated dark matter candidates that possess many of the properties of a traditional weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP). These supersymmetric constructions can also provide a natural explanation for why the dark matter is at the weak scale - even if it resides in a hidden sector. In the hidden sector, a natural pattern of symmetry breaking generally makes particles and their superpartners lie around the same mass scale, opening novel possibilities for a variety of cosmologica…
We investigate the possibility that a (light) hidden sector extra photon receives its mass via spontaneous symmetry breaking of a hidden sector Higgs boson, the so-called hidden-Higgs. The hidden-photon can mix with the ordinary photon via a gauge kinetic mixing term. The hidden-Higgs can couple to the Standard Model Higgs via a renormalizable quartic term - sometimes called the Higgs Portal. We discuss the implications of this light hidden-Higgs in the context of laser polarization and light-shining-through-the-wall experiments as well as cosmological, astrophysical, and non-Newtonian force m…
If scale invariance is a classical symmetry then both the Planck scale and the weak scale should emerge as quantum effects. We show that this can be realized in simple scale invariant theories with a hidden sector. The weak/Planck scale hierarchy emerges in the (technically natural) limit where the hidden sector decouples from the ordinary sector. The weak scale is protected from quadratic divergences because of classical scale invariance, so there is no hierarchy problem.
Dark Monopoles, Bounds on Hidden Sectors, and Cosmological Implications
Leinweber Institute for Theoretical Physics, Physics Department, University of Michigan(密歇根大学莱因韦伯理论物理研究所);Harish-Chandra Research Institute(哈里什-钱德拉研究所);Homi Bhabha National Institute(霍米·巴巴国立研究所)
The cosmological origin of both dark and baryonic matter can be explained through a unified mechanism called hylogenesis where baryon and antibaryon number are divided between the visible sector and a GeV-scale hidden sector, while the Universe remains net baryon symmetric. The "missing" antibaryons, in the form of exotic hidden states, are the dark matter. We study model-building, cosmological, and phenomenological aspects of this scenario within the framework of supersymmetry, which naturally stabilizes the light hidden sector and electroweak mass scales. Inelastic dark matter scattering on …
We investigate the detailed phenomenology of a light Abelian hidden sector in the Randall-Sundrum framework. Relative to other works with light hidden sectors, the main new feature is a tower of hidden Kaluza-Klein vectors that kinetically mix with the Standard Model photon and Z. We investigate the decay properties of the hidden sector fields in some detail, and develop an approach for calculating processes initiated on the ultraviolet brane of a warped space with large injection momentum relative to the infrared scale. Using these results, we determine the detailed bounds on the light warped…
The renormalization of operators responsible for soft supersymmetry breaking is usually calculated by starting at some high scale and including only visible sector interactions in the evolution equations, while ignoring hidden sector interactions. Here we explain why this is correct only for the most trivial structures in the hidden sector, and discuss possible implications. This investigation was prompted by the idea of conformal sequestering. In that framework hidden sector renormalizations by nearly conformal dynamics are critical. In the original models of conformal sequestering it was nec…
We consider a hidden sector with new vectorlike confining gauge theories like QCD. Then a scale $Λ_H$ would be generated in the hidden sector by dimensional transmutation, and chiral symmetry breaking occurs in the hidden sector. Then this scale $Λ_H$ can play a role of the SM Higgs mass parameter, triggering electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB). Thus all the mass scales of the SM sector can arise from the hidden sector. Furthermore the lightest hadrons in the hidden sector is stable by the flavor conservation of the hidden sector strong interaction, and could be the cold dark matter (CDM). We…
We consider a scenario where the inflaton decays to a hidden sector thermally decoupled from the visible Standard Model sector. A tiny portal coupling between the hidden and the visible sectors later heats the visible sector so that the Standard Model degrees of freedom come to dominate the energy density of the Universe before Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We find that this scenario is viable, although obtaining the correct dark matter abundance and retaining successful Big Bang Nucleosynthesis is not obvious. We also show that the isocurvature perturbations constituted by a primordial Higgs cond…
We consider theories where dark matter is composed of a thermal relic of weak scale mass, whose couplings to the Standard Model (SM) are however too small to give rise to the observed abundance. Instead, the abundance is set by annihilation to light hidden sector states that carry no charges under the SM gauge interactions. In such a scenario the constraints from direct and indirect detection, and from collider searches for dark matter, can easily be satisfied. The masses of such light hidden states can be protected by symmetry if they are Nambu-Goldstone bosons, fermions, or gauge bosons. The…
We study the hidden sector effects to the mass renormalization of a simplest gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking scenario. We point out that possible hidden sector contributions render the soft scalar masses smaller, resulting in drastically different sparticle mass spectrum at low energy. In particular, in the ${\bf 5}+\bar{\bf 5}$ minimal gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking with high messenger scale (that is favored by the gravitino cold dark matter scenario), we show that stau can be the next lightest superparticle for moderate values of hidden sector self coupling. This provides a very…
In models of supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking and mediation, strongly coupled SUSY-breaking sectors can play a significant role in determining the low-energy spectrum of the model. For example, strong dynamics may provide a natural solution to both the SUSY flavor problem and the mu / B mu problem. Recently, it has been suggested that a large class of these models lead to identical boundary conditions at the SUSY breaking scale. These boundary conditions would severely constrain the models' viability. We demonstrate that the boundary conditions are instead sensitive to the details of the hidden s…
SOFTSUSY is a software designed to solve the RG equations of the MSSM and compute its low energy spectrum. HidSecSOFTSUSY is an extension of the SOFTSUSY package which modifies the beta functions to include contributions from light dynamic fields in the hidden sector.
We explore the possibility of detecting gravitational waves generated by first order phase transitions in multiple dark sectors. Nnaturalness is taken as a sample model that features multiple additional sectors, many of which undergo phase transitions that produce gravitational waves. We examine the cosmological history of this framework and determine the gravitational wave profiles generated. These profiles are checked against projections of next-generation gravitational wave experiments, demonstrating that multiple hidden sectors can indeed produce unique gravitational wave signatures that w…
The recent analysis from the SH0ES Collaboration has confirmed the existence of a Hubble tension between measurements at high redshift ($z> 1000$) and at low redshift ($z<1$) at the $5σ$ level with the low redshift measurement giving a higher value. In this work we propose a particle physics model that can help alleviate the Hubble tension via an out-of-equilibrium hidden sector coupled to the visible sector. The particles that populate the dark sector consist of a dark fermion, which acts as dark matter, a dark photon, a massive scalar and a massless pseudo-scalar. Assuming no initial populat…
We show that in the model of hidden sector of the Universe, interacting with the Standard-Model sector through the photonic portal, the Standard-Model Coulomb potential gets a tiny hidden-sector additive correction that might turn out to be either exciting or fatal for the verification of this model.
We introduce a novel mechanism for baryogenesis, in which mixed anomalies between the hidden sector and $U(1)_{baryon}$ drive the baryon asymmetry. We demonstrate that this mechanism occurs quite naturally in intersecting-brane constructions of the Standard Model, and show that it solves some of the theoretical difficulties faced in matching baryogenesis to experimental bounds. We illustrate with a specific example model. We also discuss the possible signals at the LHC.
We propose a scenario of gravity mediated supersymmetry breaking (gravity mediation) in a supersymmetric Randall-Sundrum model. In our setup, both of the visible sector and the hidden sector co-exist on the infrared (IR) brane. We introduce the Polonyi model as a simple hidden sector. Due to the warped metric, the effective cutoff scale on the IR brane is ``warped down'', so that the gravity mediation occurs at a low scale. As a result, the gravitino is naturally the lightest superpartner (LSP) and contact interactions between the hidden and the visible sector fields become stronger. We addres…
We study well-motivated dark matter candidates arising from weakly-coupled hidden sectors in compactified string/$M$-theory. Imposing generic top-down constraints greatly restricts allowed candidates. By considering the possible mechanisms for achieving the correct dark matter relic density, we compile categories of viable dark matter candidates and annihilation mediators. We consider the case where supersymmetry breaking occurs via moduli stabilisation and is gravitationally mediated to the visible and other hidden sectors, without assuming sequestering of the sector in which supersymmetry is…
We discuss mechanisms for naturally generating GeV-scale hidden sectors in the context of weak-scale supersymmetry. Such low mass scales can arise when hidden sectors are more weakly coupled to supersymmetry breaking than the visible sector, as happens when supersymmetry breaking is communicated to the visible sector by gauge interactions under which the hidden sector is uncharged, or if the hidden sector is sequestered from gravity-mediated supersymmetry breaking. We study these mechanisms in detail in the context of gauge and gaugino mediation, and present specific models of Abelian GeV-scal…
Models of secluded dark matter offer a variant on the standard WIMP picture and can modify our expectations for hidden sector phenomenology and detection. In this work we extend a minimal model of secluded dark matter, comprised of a U(1)'-charged dark matter candidate, to include a confining hidden-sector CFT. This provides a technically natural explanation for the hierarchically small mediator-scale, with hidden-sector confinement generating m_{gamma'}>0. Furthermore, the thermal history of the universe can differ markedly from the WIMP picture due to (i) new annihilation channels, (ii) a (p…
We derive sum rules among scalar masses for various boundary conditions of the hidden-visible couplings in the presence of hidden sector dynamics and show that they still can be useful probes of the MSSM and beyond.
We present a scale invariant extension of the standard model with new QCD-like strong interaction in the hidden sector. A scale $Λ_H$ is dynamically generated in the hidden sector by dimensional transmutation, and chiral symmetry breaking occurs in the hidden sector. This scale is transmitted to the SM sector by a real singlet scalar messenger S, and can trigger electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB). Thus all the mass scales in this model arises from the hidden sector scale $Λ_H$ which has quantum mechanical origin. Furthermore the lightest hadrons in the hidden sector is stable by the flavor c…
We consider the phenomenological consequences of a hidden Higgs sector extending the Standard Model (SM), in which the matter content are uncharged under the SM gauge groups. We consider a simple case where the hidden sector is gauged under a U(1) with one Higgs singlet. The only couplings between SM and the hidden sector are through mixings between the neutral gauge bosons of the two respective sectors, and between the Higgs bosons. We find signals testable at the LHC that can reveal the existence and shed light on the nature of such a hidden sector.
We examine data from the DAMA, CoGeNT, CRESST-II and CDMS/Si direct detection experiments in the context of multi-component hidden sector dark matter. The models considered feature a hidden sector with two or more stable particles charged under an unbroken $U(1)'$ gauge interaction. The new gauge field can interact with the standard $U(1)_Y$ via renormalizable kinetic mixing, leading to Rutherford-type elastic scattering of the dark matter particles off ordinary nuclei. We consider the simplest generic model of this type, with a hidden sector composed of two stable particles, $F_1$ and $F_2$. …
We study the impact of a hidden sector beyond the Standard Model, e.g. a Hidden Valley model, on factorial moments and cumulants of multiplicity distributions in multiparticle production with a special emphasis on the prospects for LHC results.
In light of recent analyses that have shown that nontrivial hidden-sector dynamics in models of supersymmetry breaking can lead to a significant impact on the predicted low-energy supersymmetric spectrum, we extend these studies to consider hidden-sector effects in extensions of the MSSM to include a seesaw model for neutrino masses. A dynamical hidden sector in an interval of mass scales below the seesaw scale would yield renormalization-group running involving both the anomalous dimension from the hidden sector and the seesaw-extended MSSM renormalization group equations (RGEs). These effect…
We consider a hidden sector with a vectorlike confining gauge theory like QCD with $N_{h,c}$ colors and $N_{h,f}$ light quarks ${\cal Q}_h$ in the hidden sector. Then a scale $Λ_H$ would be generated by dimensional transmutation, and chiral symmetry breaking occurs in the hidden sector. This scale $Λ_H$ can play a role of the SM Higgs mass parameter, triggering electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB). Furthermore the lightest mesons in the hidden sector is stable by flavor conservation of the hidden sector strong interaction, and could be a good cold dark matter (CDM). We study collider phenomeno…
Introducing a vacuum angle $θ_h$ in a strongly interacting hidden sector like QCD, we study how $θ_h$ affects physical quantities in a scale invariant extension of the standard model with that hidden sector. In this model the dynamical chiral symmetry breaking occurs in the hidden sector and generates a scale $ \vert \langle {\bar q} q \rangle \vert $ which triggers electroweak symmetry breaking. We find that the expression for a vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field depends on $θ_h$, while the condition which determines the Higgs particle mass does not. This model contains the hidden-se…
We give a formalism for constructing hidden sector bundles as extensions of sums of line bundles in heterotic $M$-theory. Although this construction is generic, we present it within the context of the specific Schoen threefold that leads to the physically realistic $B-L$ MSSM model. We discuss the embedding of the line bundles, the existence of the extension bundle, and a number of necessary conditions for the resulting bundle to be slope-stable and thus $N=1$ supersymmetric. An explicit example is presented, where two line bundles are embedded into the $SU(3)$ factor of the $E_{6} \times SU(3…
We discuss the implications of a gauged Abelian hidden-sector communicating with the Standard Model (SM) fields via kinetic mixing with the SM hypercharge gauge field, or via the Higgs quartic interaction. We discuss signatures of the hidden-sector gauge boson at the LHC in the four-lepton channel. We show that a hidden-sector fermion can be a natural dark-matter candidate with the correct relic-density, discuss direct-detection prospects, and show how Higgs signatures may be altered at the LHC.
We study the effects of renormalization due to hidden-sector dynamics on observable soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM), under various hypotheses about their universality at a high input scale. We show that hidden-sector renormalization effects may induce the spurious appearance of unification of the scalar masses at some lower scale, as in mirage unification scenarios. We demonstrate in simple two-parameter models of the hidden-sector dynamics that the parameters may in principle be extracted from experimental measurement…
A weak photon interaction with the hidden sector of the Universe, introduced recently to realize a "photonic portal", (to such a hypothetic sector responsible for cold dark matter), is conjectured to be embedded in a more extended weak interaction displaying electroweak symmetry spontaneously broken by the Standard-Model Higgs mechanism. This is a hypothetic new weak interaction between hidden and Standard-Model sectors of the Universe, appearing in our model in addition to the conventional electroweak interaction acting in the Standard-Model sector.
In supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model, superpartner masses consistent with collider bounds typically introduce significant tuning of the electroweak scale. We show that hidden sector renormalisation can greatly reduce such a tuning if the supersymmetry breaking, or mediating, sector runs through a region of strong coupling not far from the weak scale. In the simplest models, only the tuning due to the gaugino masses is improved, and a weak scale gluino mass in the region of 5 TeV may be obtained with an associated tuning of only one part in ten. In models with more complex couplin…
We study the phenomenology of a class of models describing modular invariant gaugino condensation in the hidden sector of a low-energy effective theory derived from the heterotic string. Placing simple demands on the resulting observable sector - such as proper electroweak symmetry-breaking, superpartner spectra consistent with current limits and neutralino relic densities of an acceptable magnitude - results in significant restrictions on the possible configurations of the hidden sector.
We study vortex solutions in Abelian Chern-Simons-Higgs theories with visible and hidden sectors. We first consider the case in which the two sectors are connected through a BF-like gauge mixing term with no explicit interaction between the the two scalars. Since first order Bogomolny equations do not exist in this case, we derive the second order field equations. We then proceed to an ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetric extension including a Higgs portal mixing among the visible and hidden charged scalars. As expected, Bogomolnyi equations do exist in this case and we study their string-like solution…
Hidden sector photons are a weakly interacting slim particle arising from an additional U(1) gauge symmetry predicted by many standard model extensions. We present and demonstrate a new experimental method using a single microwave cavity to search for hidden sector photons. Only photons with a great enough energy are able to oscillate into hidden sector photons of a particular mass. If our cavity is driven on resonance and tuned over the corresponding threshold frequency, there is an observable drop in the circulating power signifying the creation of hidden sector photons. This approach avoids…
A hypothetic Hidden Sector of the Universe, consisting of sterile fermions ("sterinos") and sterile mediating bosons ("sterons") of mass dimension 1 (not 2!) - the last described by an antisymmetric tensor field - requires to exist also a scalar isovector and scalar isoscalar in order to be able to construct electroweak invariant coupling (before spontaneously breaking its symmetry).