Dark higher-form fields and triangle anomalies

TL;DR

This paper explores how higher-form fields and triangle anomalies influence dark particle phenomenology, highlighting the two-photon decay mode as a key probe for distinguishing underlying dark field structures.

Contribution

It extends higher-form field frameworks to include fermionic triangle loops and compares their phenomenological implications with standard models.

Findings

Two-photon decay mode is highly sensitive to dark field realization.

Higher-form descriptions offer viable alternative frameworks for dark particle phenomenology.

Triangle anomalies significantly impact dark particle decay and production processes.

Abstract

Light scalar and vector particles admit non-trivial descriptions in terms of anti-symmetric higher-rank tensor fields. Far from mere rewritings, these provide compelling alternative frameworks, leading to immediate phenomenological applications. In this paper, we extend the playground to include the contributions of fermionic triangle loops, and use these results to compare the standard and higher-form realizations for two phenomenological processes: the pair production of two dark particles and the decay of a dark particle in two photons. Though they all do show some dependencies on the chosen realizations for the spin-zero or the spin-one dark states, we find that the two-photon mode is particularly sensitive and could actually be our prime window into the true nature of the dark field.