Enabling Electroweak Baryogenesis through Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper explores how dark matter-induced faster cosmological expansion can enable electroweak baryogenesis within the Standard Model by modifying phase transition conditions and experimental bounds.

Contribution

It demonstrates that non-standard cosmological histories driven by dark matter can significantly alter bounds and conditions for electroweak baryogenesis, especially with scalar field dark matter.

Findings

Faster expansion rates can enable strong first-order phase transitions.

Modified cosmology can keep Higgs coupling deviations below experimental sensitivities.

The scale of new physics can vary by up to twenty percent with expansion rate changes.

Abstract

We study the impact on electroweak baryogenesis from a swifter cosmological expansion induced by dark matter. We detail the experimental bounds that one can place on models that realize it, and we investigate the modifications of these bounds that result from a non-standard cosmological history. The modifications can be sizeable if the expansion rate of the Universe increases by several orders of magnitude. We illustrate the impact through the example of scalar field dark matter, which can alter the cosmological history enough to enable a strong-enough first-order phase transition in the Standard Model when it is supplemented by a dimension six operator directly modifying the Higgs boson potential. We show that due to the modified cosmological history, electroweak baryogenesis can be realized, while keeping deviations of the triple Higgs coupling below HL-LHC sensitivies. The required scale of new physics to effectuate a strong-enough first order phase transition can change by as much as twenty percent as the expansion rate increases by six orders of magnitude.