I present a class of hidden sector dark matter (DM) models with local dark gauge symmetries, where DM is stable due to unbroken local dark gauge symmetry, or due topology, or it is long-lived because of some accidental symme- tries, and the particle contents and their dynamics are completely fixed by local gauge symmetries. In these models, one have two types of natural force mediators, dark gauge bosons and dark Higgs boson, which would affect DM and Higgs phenomenology in important ways. I discuss various phenomenological issues including the GeV scale gamma-ray excess from the galactic center (GC), (in)direct detection signatures, dark radiation, Higgs phenomenology and Higgs inflation assisted by dark Higgs.
We argue that the hidden sector potential energy is generically of order the intermediate scale although the true cosmological constant does vanish. This would significantly change the predicted values of soft parameters for a variety of supergravity models including those derived from string theory. We stress that this point is particularly relevant for supergravity models in which the soft masses of observable fields vanish at tree level. Implications of a nonzero hidden sector potential energy for low energy phenomenology are also studied.
We calculate the production rate of gauge-boson pairs at the SSC in a model with a ``hidden'' electroweak symmetry breaking sector. We show that the signal of electroweak symmetry breaking is lower than the background and that we cannot necessarily rely on gauge boson pairs as a signal of the dynamics of symmetry breaking.
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 will investigate the scenario in which the Standard Model (SM) Higgs sector and its 2-doublet extension (called the Two Higgs Doublet Model or 2HDM) are the "portal" for the interactions between the Standard Model and a fermionic Dark Matter (DM) candidate. The latter is the lightest stable neutral particle of a family of vector-like leptons (VLLs). We will provide an extensive overview of this scenario combining the constraints purely coming from DM phenomenology with more general constraints like Electro-weak Precision Tests (EWPT) as well as with collider searches. In the case that the n…
This Thesis is devoted to the study of the phenomenology of the Higgs sector of the minimal $B-L$ extension of the Standard Model at present and future colliders. Firstly, the motivations that call for the minimal $B-L$ extension are summarised. In addition, the model is analysed in its salient parts. Moreover, a detailed review of the phenomenological allowed Higgs sector parameter space is given. Finally, a complete survey of the distinctive Higgs boson signatures of the model at both the Large Hadron Collider and the future linear colliders is presented.
A hidden valley sector may havea profound impact on the classic phenomenology of supersymmetry. This occurs if the LSP lies in the valley sector. In addition to reducing the standard missing energy signals and possibly providing displaced vertices (phenomena familiar from gauge-mediated and R-parity-violating models) it may lead to a variable multiplicity of new neutral particles, whose decays produce soft jets and/or leptons, and perhaps additional displaced vertices. Combined, these issues might obscure supersymmetric particle production from search strategies used on current Tevatron data a…
In the simplest examples of models with a discrete quark-lepton symmetry, an electroweak symmetry breaking sector with more than one Higgs doublet is necessary to obtain the correct mass relations between quarks and leptons. A two Higgs doublet model has flavour-nonconserving Yukawa couplings, which are proportional to the masses of the quark-lepton symmetric partners of the fermions. We describe how flavour changing leptonic decays can occur, with branching ratios not far beyond that currently measureable, enabling investigation of the phenomenology of such models.
We investigate the phenomenology of the Higgs sector of the minimal $B-L$ extension of the Standard Model. We present results for both the foreseen energy stages of the Large Hadron Collider ($\sqrt s=7$ and 14 TeV). We show that in such a scenario several novel production and decay channels involving the two physical Higgs states could be accessed at such a machine. Amongst these, several Higgs signatures have very distinctive features with respect to those of other models with enlarged Higgs sector, as they involve interactions of Higgs bosons between themselves, with $Z'$ bosons as well as …
We calculate the production rate of gauge-boson pairs at $e^+e^-$ colliders in a model with a ``hidden'' electroweak symmetry breaking sector - i.e. one in which there are a large number of particles in the symmetry breaking sector other than the $W^{\pm}$ \thinspace and the $Z^0$. In such a model, the elastic $W^{\pm}$ \thinspace and $Z^0$ scattering amplitudes are small and structureless, i.e. lacking any discernable resonances, at all energies. We show that two gauge boson fusion signal of electroweak symmetry breaking is swamped by the background. Therefore, we cannot rely on gauge boson p…
We study the phenomenology of, and search techniques for, a class of "Hidden Valleys." These models are characterized by low mass (well below a TeV) bound states resulting from a confining gauge interaction in a hidden sector; the states include a spin-one resonance that can decay to lepton pairs. Assuming that the hidden sector communicates to the Standard Model (SM) through TeV suppressed operators, taking into account the constraint from the $Z$ pole physics at LEP, searches at Tevatron may be difficult in the particular class of Hidden Valleys we consider, so that we concentrate on the sea…
Several topics related to phenomenology of the Higgs sector in the supersymmetric standard model are reviewed. The upper bound of the lightest Higgs mass in the minimal supersymmetric standard model as well as extended version of it is discussed and it is shown that an $e^+ e^-$ linear collider with $\sqrt{s}\sim300 - 500$ GeV can find at least one Higgs boson in these models. It is also pointed out that the heavy Higgs mass scale may be determined from measurements of the Higgs boson decay branching ratios even if we only discover the lightest Higgs boson at early stage of the linear collider…
We perform a phenomenological study of the scalar sector of two models that generate neutrino mass at the three-loop level and contain viable dark matter candidates. Both models contain a charged singlet scalar and a larger scalar multiplet (triplet or quintuplet). We investigate the effect of the extra scalars on the Higgs mass and analyze the modifications to the triple Higgs coupling. The new scalars can give observable changes to the Higgs decay channel $h\rightarrowγγ$ and, furthermore, we find that the electroweak phase transition becomes strongly first-order in large regions of paramete…
The virtual effects of the Zee charged scalar boson on the lepton-family-number (LFN) violating processes are studied. We obtain the constraints on the individual Yukawa coupling constants of the Zee boson to leptons. Using these constraints, we predict the upper bounds on the muonium-antimuonium conversion probability, the branching fractions of the LFN violating decays such as $τ\to eγ$, $τ\to μγ$, $τ^- \to μ^+e^-e^-$ and $τ\to e^+μ^-μ^-$. The contribution of the Zee boson to the muon anomalous magnetic moment is also considered
Many models of Beyond the Standard Model physics contain particles that are charged under both Standard Model and Hidden Valley gauge groups, yet very little effort has been put into establishing their experimental signatures. We provide a general overview of the collider phenomenology of spin 0 or 1/2 mediators with non-trivial gauge numbers under both the Standard Model and a single new confining group. Due to the possibility of many unconventional signatures, the focus is on direct production with semivisible jets. For the mediators to be able to decay, a global $U(1)$ symmetry must be brok…
We have investigated some phenomenological aspects of an $SU(2)\times U(1)$ scenario where scalars belonging to arbitrary representations of $SU(2)$ are involved in electroweak symmetry breaking. The resulting interaction terms are derived. Some constraints are obtained on the arbitrary scalar sector from the requirement of tree-level unitarity in longitudinal gauge boson scattering. We also show that, in cases where the scalars ensure $ρ=1$ at tree-level, useful restrictions on their parameter space follow from precision measurements of the $Zb\bar b$ vertex. Finally, some salient features ab…
The search for the weakly-coupled Higgs sector at future colliders consists of three phases: discovery of a Higgs candidate, verification of the Higgs interpretation of the signal, and precision measurements of Higgs sector properties. The discovery of one Higgs boson with Standard Model properties is not sufficient to expose the underlying structure of the electroweak symmetry breaking dynamics. It is critical to search for evidence for a non-minimal Higgs sector and/or new physics associated with electroweak symmetry breaking dynamics.
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 investigate the phenomenology of an extension of the Standard Model (SM) by a non-abelian gauge group $SU(2)_{HS}$ where all SM particles are singlets under this gauge group, and a new scalar representation $ϕ$ that is singlet under SM gauge group and doublet under $SU(2)_{HS}$. In this model, the dark matter (DM) candidates are the three mass degenerate dark photons $A_{i}$ $(i=1,2,3)$ of $SU(2)_{HS}$; and the hidden sector interacts with the (SM) particles through the Higgs portal interactions. Consequently, there will be a new CP-even scalar $η$ that could be either heavier or lighter th…
We discuss a model with a dark sector, in which smallness of mass for charged leptons and neutrinos can naturally be explained by one-loop effects mediated by particles in the dark sector. These new particles, including dark matter candidates, also contribute to the anomalous magnetic dipole moment, denoted by $(g-2)$, for charged leptons. We show that our model can explain the muon $(g-2)$ anomaly and observed neutrino oscillations under the constraints from lepton flavor violating decays of charged leptons. We illustrate that the scenario with scalar dark matter is highly constrained by dire…
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 propose an extension of the Standard Model (SM) with a $U_{A'}(1)$ gauge invariant dark dector connected to the SM via a new portal -- the Stueckelberg portal, arising in the framework of dark photon $A'$ mass generation via Stueckelberg mechanism. This portal opens through the effective dim=5 operators constructed from the covariant term of the auxiliary Stueckelberg scalar field $σ$ providing flavor non-diagonal renormalizable couplings of both $σ$ and $A'$ to the SM fermions $ψ$. The Stueckelberg scalar plays a role of Goldstone boson in the generation of mass of the Dark Photon. Contrar…
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…
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 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…
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.
The twin Higgs mechanism has recently been proposed to solve the little hierarchy problem. We study the implementation of the twin Higgs mechanism in left-right models. At TeV scale, heavy quark and gauge bosons appear, with rich collider phenomenology. In addition, there are extra Higgses, some of which couple to both the Standard Model fermion sector and the gauge sector, while others couple to the gauge bosons only. We present the particle spectrum, and study the general features of the collider phenomenology of this class of model at the Large Hadron Collider.
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 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.
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 consider the phenomenological implications of charged scalar extensions of the SM Higgs sector in addition to EFT couplings of this new state to SM matter. We perform a detailed investigation of modifications of loop-induced decays of the 125 GeV Higgs boson, which receives corrections from the propagating charged scalars alongside one-loop EFT operator insertions and demonstrate that the interplay of $H\to γγ$ and $H\to Zγ$ decays can be used to clarify the additional states phenomenology in case a discovery is made in the future. In parallel, EFT interactions of the charged Higgs can lead…
We propose a model to describe the low energy physics of partially composite Standard Model, in which the electroweak sector in the Standard Model is weakly coupled to some strong dynamics. The vector resonances in the strong sector are introduced as the effective degrees of freedom, W' and Z', which mixes with the W and Z bosons through the electroweak symmetry breaking. Through the coupling to the strong sector, the Standard Model Higgs boson becomes partially composite, and its properties are modified. We study the constraints from the electroweak precision data and direct searches of W' an…
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.
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.
The supersymmetric grand unified theory with the Hosotani mechanism predicts the existence of adjoint chiral supermultiplets at the SUSY breaking scale. In particular, the SU(2) triplet and the singlet chiral superfields affect the Higgs sector. We investigate the contributions from these adjoint chiral multiplets to the masses of the Higgs sector particles and their couplings to the standard model particles. We show that the predicted values of the Higgs sector parameters deviate from the standard model and the minimal supersymmetric standard model by O(1)% - O(10)%.
The presence of a hidden sector with very weak interactions with the standard model has significant implications on LHC signatures. In this work we discuss LHC phenomenology with the inclusion of a hidden sector by a $U(1)$ extension of MSSM/SUGRA. We consider both kinetic mixing and Stueckelberg mass mixing between the $U(1)$ gauge field of the hidden sector and $U(1)_Y$ of the visible sector. Such a model has an extended parameter space. We consider here two limited regions of this parameter space. In the first case we consider a $U(1)$ gauge field along with chiral fields needed for the Stu…
In supersymmetric theories with a strong conformal sector, soft supersymmetry breaking naturally gives rise to confinement and chiral symmetry breaking in the strong sector at the TeV scale. We construct and analyze models where such a sector dynamically breaks electroweak symmetry, and take the first steps in studying their phenomenology. We consider two scenarios, one where the strong dynamics induces vacuum expectation values for elementary Higgs fields, and another where the strong dynamics is solely responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking. In both cases there is no fine tuning requi…
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).
We consider models with a vectorlike confining gauge theory in the hidden sector, and demonstrate that the origin of the electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) is due to the dimensional transmutation in the hidden sector gauge theory, and the lightest mesons in the hidden sector could be a good cold dark matter (CDM) candidate. There would be more than one neutral Higgs-like scalar bosons, and they could decay mainly into the CDM pair, if that decay channel is kinemtically allowed.
We consider the doublet-triplet fermionic model in the scheme of the custodial limit when the dark matter (DM) candidate is pure doublet and lies at the electroweak scale. This scheme, despite being an appealing and promising DM model, is severely constrained by the interplay between the DM relic density constraint and the LHC measurement of the Higgs diphoton decay rate. In this work, the DM relic density is considered to arise from either a nonstandard cosmology scenario or as a part of a larger sector encompassing other DM particles, this in order to saturate the observed relic abundance. F…
QCD-like hidden sector models of supersymmetry breaking are considered which do not suffer from a cosmological problem due to the Polonyi field. Avoidance of a light gluino leads to introduction of quasi-symmetry -- symmetry broken explicitly only through gravitational effects.
In this paper, we revisit the dimension-7 neutrino mass generation mechanism based on the addition of an isospin $3/2$ scalar quadruplet and two vector-like iso-triplet leptons to the standard model. We discuss the LHC phenomenology of the charged scalars of this model, complemented by the electroweak precision and lepton flavor violation constraints. We pay particular attention to the triply charged and doubly charged components. We focus on the same-sign-tri-lepton signatures originating from the triply-charged scalars and find a discovery reach of 600 - 950 GeV at 3 ab$^{-1}$ of integrated …
The $μ$ parameter is calculated in supergravity models possessing the $U(1)_A\times U(1)_R$ symmetry. In one natural model without a free mass parameter below the Planck scale, the symmetry breaking scale is identified as the hidden sector squark condensation scale.
Stringent constraints from direct detection experiments and the Large Hadron Collider motivate us to consider models in which the dark matter does not directly couple to the Standard Model, but that instead annihilates into hidden sector particles which ultimately decay through small couplings to the Standard Model. We calculate the gamma-ray emission generated within the context of several such hidden sector models, including those in which the hidden sector couples to the Standard Model through the vector portal (kinetic mixing with Standard Model hypercharge), through the Higgs portal (mixi…
In the context of a warped extra-dimension with Standard Model fields in the bulk, we obtain the general flavor structure of the couplings to fermions of both the Higgs scalar and the radion graviscalar. In the Flavor Anarchy paradigm, these couplings are generically misaligned with respect to the fermion mass matrix and moreover the off-diagonal couplings can be estimated parametrically as a function of fermion masses and the observed mixing angles. One can then study the flavor constraints and predictions arising from these couplings.
A new weak-isospin triplet of scalar bosons is introduced to the Standard Model in order to ensure the electroweak symmetry for a conjectured new weak coupling between a hidden sector of the Universe, responsible for cold dark matter, and the Standard-Model sector (involving now the new triplet). The considered coupling may be called "electroweak portal" to the structure of hidden sector. After spontaneously breaking the electroweak symmetry by the Standard-Model Higgs mechanism, it includes the so called "photonic portal" introduced by us previously.
In this work we perform a non-linear extension of the $U(1)_{\rm Y}$ sector of the Standard Model leading to novel quartic effective interactions between the neutral gauge bosons. We study the induced effects through high-energy processes resulting in three photons, namely, Z-boson decay and electron-positron annihilation. Available experimental data on these processes do not yield viable lower bounds on the mass parameter $\sqrtβ$, but we estimate that the range $\sqrtβ \lesssim m_Z$ could be reliably excluded with better statistics in future $e^- e^+$ colliders. We also discuss neutral gauge…
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 a supersymmetry-breaking scale of approximately 1 TeV, a vacuum with properly broken electroweak symmetry, superpartner masses above current direct search limits, etc., results in significant restrictions on the possible configurations of the hidden sector.
A natural avenue to extend the Standard Model (SM) is to embed it into a more symmetric framework. Here, I focus in Left-Right (LR) Models, which treat left- and right-handed chiralities on equal footing. Important information about the structure of LR Models comes from meson-mixing observables. Due to the impact of the new contributions to these processes, I consider the calculation of the short-distance QCD effects correcting the LR Model contributions to meson-mixing observables at the Next-to-Leading Order. I then revisit the phenomenology of a simple realization of LR Models, containing d…
If dark matter (DM) interacts with the Standard Model (SM) via the kinetic mixing (KM) portal, it necessitates the existence of massive, likely $\gsim 1$ TeV, enabler portal matter (PM) particles that carry both dark and SM quantum numbers which will appear in vacuum polarization-like loop graphs. Such heavy states are only directly accessible at high energy colliders and apparently lie at mass scales beyond the direct kinematic reach of the ILC, CEPC and FCC-ee. A likely possibility is that these new particles are part of the 'next step' toward a UV-complete scenario describing both the SM an…
