The decay t -> c V (V=γ, Z, g) process in the mirror twin Higgs models with the colorless top partners are studied in this paper. We found that the branching ratios of these decays can in some parameter spaces alter the standard model expectations greatly and may be detectable according to the currently precision electroweak measurements. Thus, the constraints on the model parameters may be obtained from the branching fraction of the decay processes, which may serve as a robust detection to this new physics model.
We consider the collider signals arising from kinetic mixing between the hypercharge gauge boson of the Standard Model and its twin counterpart in the Mirror Twin Higgs model, in the framework in which the twin photon is massive. Through the mixing, the Standard Model fermions acquire charges under the mirror photon and the mirror Z boson. We determine the current experimental bounds on this scenario, and show that the mixing can be large enough to discover both the twin photon and the twin Z at the LHC, or at a future 100 TeV hadron collider, with dilepton resonances being a particularly cons…
In addition to being a solution to the little hierarchy problem, the Mirror Twin Higgs provides a natural setting for Asymmetric Dark Matter. In its incarnation with only one Higgs doublet and its mirror copy, dark matter would however almost certainly consist mostly of mirror atoms, which is severely ruled out by constraints on dark matter self-interactions. By adding a second Higgs doublet and its mirror, the vevs of the different Higgses can be arranged such that dark matter consists mostly of mirror neutrons, which is cosmologically viable. In this paper, it is shown that current constrain…
We investigate simple extensions of the Mirror Twin Higgs model in which the twin color gauge symmetry and the discrete $Z_2$ mirror symmetry are spontaneously broken. This is accomplished in a minimal way by introducing a single new colored triplet, sextet, or octet scalar field and its twin along with a suitable scalar potential. This spontaneous $Z_2$ breaking allows for a phenomenologically viable alignment of the electroweak vacuum, and leads to dramatic differences between the visible and mirror sectors with regard to the residual gauge symmetries at low energies, color confinement scale…
We explore the cosmological signatures associated with the twin baryons, electrons, photons and neutrinos in the Mirror Twin Higgs framework. We consider a scenario in which the twin baryons constitute a subcomponent of dark matter, and the contribution of the twin photon and neutrinos to dark radiation is suppressed due to late asymmetric reheating, but remains large enough to be detected in future cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. We show that this framework can lead to distinctive signals in large scale structure and in the cosmic microwave background. Baryon acoustic oscillati…
We explore a simple solution to the cosmological challenges of the original Mirror Twin Higgs (MTH) model that leads to interesting implications for experiment. We consider theories in which both the standard model and mirror neutrinos acquire masses through the familiar seesaw mechanism, but with a low right-handed neutrino mass scale of order a few GeV. In these $ν$MTH models, the right-handed neutrinos leave the thermal bath while still relativistic. As the universe expands, these particles eventually become nonrelativistic, and come to dominate the energy density of the universe before dec…
We consider two copies of the Standard Model, interchanged by an exact parity symmetry, P. The observed fermion mass hierarchy is described by suppression factors $ε^{n_i}$ for charged fermion $i$, as can arise in Froggatt-Nielsen and extra-dimensional theories of flavor. The corresponding flavor factors in the mirror sector are $ε'^{n_i}$, so that spontaneous breaking of the parity P arises from a single parameter $ε'/ε$, yielding a tightly constrained version of Minimal Mirror Twin Higgs, introduced in our previous paper. Models are studied for simple values of $n_i$, including in particular…
The Twin Higgs scenario stabilizes the Higgs mass through an approximate global symmetry and has remained natural in the face of increasingly stringent LHC bounds on colored top partners. Two basic structural questions in this framework concern the nature of the twin hypercharge gauge symmetry and the origin of the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry breaking needed to achieve the correct vacuum alignment. Both questions are addressed in a simple extension of the Mirror Twin Higgs model with an exact $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry and a scalar field that spontaneously breaks both twin hypercharge and $\mathbb{Z}…
We investigate the cosmology of the minimal model of neutral naturalness, the mirror Twin Higgs. The softly-broken mirror symmetry relating the Standard Model to its twin counterpart leads to significant dark radiation in tension with BBN and CMB observations. We quantify this tension and illustrate how it can be mitigated in several simple scenarios that alter the relative energy densities of the two sectors while respecting the softly-broken mirror symmetry. In particular, we consider both the out-of-equilibrium decay of a new scalar as well as reheating in a toy model of twinned inflation, …
The cosmology of the Twin Higgs requires the breaking of the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry, but it is still an open question whether this breaking needs to be explicit. In this paper, we study how the Mirror Twin Higgs could be modified to be compatible with current cosmological constraints without explicit $\mathbb{Z}_2$ breaking. We first present a simple toy model that can realize baryogenesis without explicit $\mathbb{Z}_2$ breaking or reaching temperatures that would lead to domain walls. The model can also either solve the $N_{\text{eff}}$ problem and bring the abundance of mirror atoms to an …
The twin Higgs mechanism is a solution to the little hierarchy problem in which the top partner is neutral under the Standard Model (SM) gauge group. The simplest mirror twin Higgs (MTH) model -- where a $\mathbf{Z}_2$ symmetry copies each SM particle -- has too many relativistic degrees of freedom to be consistent with cosmological observations. We demonstrate that MTH models can have an observationally viable cosmology if the twin mass spectrum leads to twin neutrino decoupling before the SM and twin QCD phase transitions. Our solution requires the twin photon to have a mass of $\sim 20$ MeV…
The mirror twin Higgs framework allows for a natural Higgs mass while being consistent with collider bounds on colored symmetry partners to standard model quarks. This mechanism relies crucially on a discrete symmetry which relates each standard model field to a mirror partner. These partners are charged under gauge groups identical to, but distinct from, those in the standard model. The minimal twin Higgs scenario provides only one low-energy connection between the visible and twin sectors, the light Higgs boson. We present a new class of portals connecting the two sectors, using fields that …
In a Mirror Twin World with a maximally symmetric Higgs sector the little hierarchy of the Standard Model can be significantly mitigated, perhaps displacing the cutoff scale above the LHC reach. We show that consistency with observations requires that the Z2 parity exchanging the Standard Model with its mirror be broken in the Yukawa couplings. A minimal such effective field theory, with this sole Z2 breaking, can generate the Z2 breaking in the Higgs sector necessary for the Twin Higgs mechanism. The theory has constrained and correlated signals in Higgs decays, direct Dark Matter Detection a…
We present a UV completion of the twin Higgs idea in the framework of holographic composite Higgs. The SM contribution to the Higgs potential is effectively cut off by the SM-singlet mirror partners at the sigma-model scale f, naturally allowing for m_{KK} beyond the LHC reach. The bulk symmetry is SU(7) X SO(8), broken on the IR brane into SU(7) X SO(7) and on the UV brane into (SU(3) X SU(2) X U(1))^{SM} X (SU(3) X SU(2) X U(1))^{mirror} X Z2. The field content on the UV brane is the SM, extended by a sector transforming under the mirror gauge group, with the Z2 exchanging the two sectors. A…
The mirror twin Higgs model (MTH) is a solution to the Higgs hierarchy problem that provides well-predicted cosmological signatures with only three extra parameters: the temperature of the twin sector, the abundance of twin baryons, and the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of twin electroweak symmetry breaking. These parameters specify the behavior of twin radiation and the acoustic oscillations of twin baryons, which lead to testable effects on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large-scale structure (LSS). While collider searches can only probe the twin VEV, through a fit to cosmologica…
We explore the possibility of discovering the mirror baryons and electrons of the Mirror Twin Higgs model in direct detection experiments, in a scenario in which these particles constitute a subcomponent of the observed DM. We consider a framework in which the mirror fermions are sub-nano-charged, as a consequence of kinetic mixing between the photon and its mirror counterpart. We consider both nuclear recoil and electron recoil experiments. The event rates depend on the fraction of mirror DM that is ionized, and also on its distribution in the galaxy. Since mirror DM is dissipative, at the lo…
We investigate the general structure of mirror symmetry breaking in the Twin Higgs scenario. We show, using the IR effective theory, that a significant gain in fine tuning can be achieved if the symmetry is broken hardly. We emphasize that weakly coupled UV completions can naturally accommodate this scenario. We analyze SUSY UV completions and present a simple Twin SUSY model with a tuning of around 10% and colored superpartners as heavy as 2 TeV. The collider signatures of general Twin SUSY models are discussed with a focus on the extended Higgs sectors.
In twin Higgs models, a discrete Z2 symmetry between the standard model Higgs and the twin Higgs is introduced to address the hierarchy problem. In this work, we propose another discrete symmetry in twin Higgs: the T parity, which maps the twin Higgs quadruplet into its mirror copy. The T parity brings us a whole group of T-odd particles, and leads to a promising dark matter candidate. We present one realization of the T parity twin Higgs scenario by implementing the $SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R \times U(1)_1 \times U(1)_2$ gauge symmetry in twin Higgs model. In this specific setup, the T-odd U(1) …
A two Higgs doublet model with flavorful Yukawa structure, in which the two doublets give mass to the third and the first two generations respectively, is combined with the twin Higgs mechanism to stabilize the Higgs mass against radiative corrections. We consider both a mirror twin and fraternal twin setup. We identify Higgs signal strength measurements and the decay $B_s \to μμ$ as the most important indirect constraints on the parameter space of the model. We explore the collider phenomenology of the model and find that the heavy Higgs in the visible sector can give a sizable number of disp…
Twin Higgs models are the prime illustration of neutral naturalness, where the new particles of the twin sector, gauge singlets of the Standard Model (SM), ameliorate the little hierarchy problem. In this work, we analyse phenomenological implications of the heavy Higgs of the Mirror Twin Higgs and Fraternal Twin Higgs models, when electroweak symmetry breaking is linearly realized. The most general structure of twin Higgs symmetry breaking, including explicit soft and hard breaking terms in the scalar potential, is employed. The direct and indirect searches at the LHC are used to probe the pa…
Supersymmetric Twin Higgs models have a discrete symmetry for which each Standard Model particle and its supersymmetric partner have a corresponding state that transforms under a mirror Standard Model gauge group. This framework is able to accommodate the non-discovery of new particles at the LHC with the naturalness of the electroweak scale. We point out that supersymmetric Twin Higgs models also provide a natural dark matter candidate. We investigate the possibility that a twin bino-like state is the Lightest Supersymmetric Particle and find that its freeze-out abundance can explain the obse…
Given the lack of empirical evidence of weakly interacting dark matter, it is reasonable to look to other candidates such as a confining dark sector with a similar number of particles as the standard model. Twin Higgs mirror matter is one such model that is a twin of the standard model with particles masses 3--6 times heavier than the standard model that solves the hierarchy problem. This generically predicts mirror neutron stars, degenerate objects made entirely of mirror nuclear matter. We find their structure using a realistic equation of state from crust (nuclei) to core (relativistic mean…
We present an exceptional twin-Higgs model with the minimal symmetry structure for an exact implementation of twin parity along with custodial symmetry. Twin particles are mirrors of the Standard Model yet they carry hypercharge, while the photon is identified with its twin. We thoroughly explore the phenomenological signatures of hypercharged naturalness: long-lived charged particles, a colorless twin top with electric charge $2/3$ that once pair-produced, bounds via twin-color interactions and can annihilate to dileptons or a Higgs plus a photon or a $Z$, and glueballs produced from Higgs de…
B and L violating interactions of ordinary particles with their twin particles from hypothetical mirror world can co-generate baryon asymmetries in both worlds in comparable amounts, $Ω'_B/Ω_B \sim 5$ or so. On the other hand, the same interactions induce the oscillation phenomena between the neutral particles of two sectors which convert e.g. mirror neutrons into our antineutrons. These oscillations are environment dependent and can have fascinating physical consequences.
We consider Mirror Twin Higgs models in which the breaking of the global symmetry is realized linearly. In this scenario, the radial mode in the Higgs potential is present in the spectrum, and constitutes a second portal between the twin and SM sectors. We show that a study of the properties of this particle at colliders, when combined with precision measurements of the light Higgs, can be used to overdetermine the form of the scalar potential, thereby confirming that it possesses an enhanced global symmetry as dictated by the Twin Higgs mechanism. We find that, although the reach of the LHC f…
We perform the one-loop induced charged lepton flavor violating decays of the neutral Higgses in an extended mirror fermion model with non-sterile electroweak-scale right-handed neutrinos and a horizontal $A_4$ symmetry in the lepton sector. We demonstrate that for the 125 GeV scalar $h$ there is tension between the recent LHC result ${\cal B}(h \to τμ) \sim $ 1% and the stringent limits on the rare processes $μ\to e γ$ and $τ\to (μ$ or $e) γ$ from low energy experiments.
Flavor changing neutral current (FCNC) interactions for a top quark $t$ decays into $Xq$ with $X$ represents a neutral gauge or Higgs boson, and $q$ a up- or charm-quark are highly suppressed in the Standard Model (SM) due to the Glashow-Iliopoulos-Miami mechanism. Whilst current limits on the branching ratios of these processes have been established at the order of $10^{-4}$ from the Large Hadron Collider experiments, SM predictions are at least nine orders of magnitude below. In this work, we study some of these FCNC processes in the context of an extended mirror fermion model, originally pr…
The Twin Higgs model is the preeminent example of a theory of neutral naturalness, where the new particles that alleviate the little hierarchy problem are Standard Model (SM) singlets. The most promising collider search strategy, based on rare Higgs decays, is nevertheless not effective in significant regions of the parameter space of the low energy theory. This underlines the importance of phenomenological studies on ultraviolet completions of the Twin Higgs model, which must lie at a scale lower than 5-10 TeV. We pursue this course in the context of non-supersymmetric completions, focusing o…
