Higgs portal, fermionic dark matter, and a Standard Model like Higgs at 125 GeV

TL;DR

This paper explores fermionic dark matter interacting through the Higgs portal, demonstrating viability with a 125 GeV Higgs and identifying conditions for compatibility with detection constraints.

Contribution

It introduces effective field theory analysis showing parity violation is necessary for certain mass ranges and presents two viable Higgs portal scenarios with a simple model.

Findings

Parity violating interactions are required for DM masses 60 GeV to 2 TeV.

Resonant and indirect Higgs portal options remain viable.

Effective field theory constrains Higgs portal interactions.

Abstract

We show that fermionic dark matter (DM) which communicates with the Standard Model (SM) via the Higgs portal is a viable scenario, even if a SM-like Higgs is found at around 125 GeV. Using effective field theory we show that for DM with a mass in the range from about 60 GeV to 2 TeV the Higgs portal needs to be parity violating in order to be in agreement with direct detection searches. For parity conserving interactions we identify two distinct options that remain viable: a resonant Higgs portal, and an indirect Higgs portal. We illustrate both possibilities using a simple renormalizable toy model.