Twin Higgs WIMP Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper explores twin Higgs models as a natural framework for WIMP dark matter, identifying viable twin lepton candidates and analyzing their detection prospects and twin sector dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces twin Higgs WIMP dark matter candidates within the minimal Fraternal Twin Higgs model, detailing their properties, stability, and detection signatures.

Findings

Twin lepton $ au'$ is a promising dark matter candidate.

Direct detection signals are near current experimental bounds.

Twin sector glueballs and phase transitions impact cosmological observations.

Abstract

Dark matter (DM) without a matter asymmetry is studied in the context of Twin Higgs (TH) theories in which the LHC naturalness problem is addressed. These possess a twin sector related to the Standard Model (SM) by a (broken) $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry, and interacting with the SM via a specific Higgs portal. We focus on the minimal realisation of the TH mechanism, the Fraternal Twin Higgs, with only a single generation of twin quarks and leptons, and $SU(3)'\times SU(2)'$ gauge group. We show that a variety of natural twin-WIMP DM candidates are present (directly linked to the weak scale by naturalness), the simplest and most attractive being the $\tau^\prime$ lepton with a mass $m_{\tau^\prime} > m_{\rm Higgs}/2$, although spin-1 $W^{\prime\pm}$ DM and multicomponent DM are also possible (twin baryons are strongly disfavoured by tuning). We consider in detail the dynamics of the possibly (meta)stable glueballs in the twin sector, the nature of the twin QCD phase transition, and possible new contributions to the number of relativistic degrees of freedom $\Delta N_{\rm eff}$. Direct detection signals are below current bounds but accessible in near future experiments. Indirect detection phenomenology is rich and requires detailed studies of twin hadronization and fragmentation to twin glueballs and quarkonia and their subsequent decay to SM, and possible light twin sector states.