Lepton-Flavored Scalar Dark Matter with Minimal Flavor Violation

Abstract

We explore scalar dark matter that is part of a lepton flavor triplet satisfying symmetry requirements under the hypothesis of minimal flavor violation. Beyond the standard model, the theory contains in addition three right-handed neutrinos that participate in the seesaw mechanism for light neutrino mass generation. The dark-matter candidate couples to standard-model particles via Higgs-portal renormalizable interactions as well as to leptons through dimension-six operators, all of which have minimal flavor violation built-in. We consider restrictions on the new scalars from the Higgs boson measurements, observed relic density, dark-matter direct detection experiments, LEP II measurements on e+e- scattering into a photon plus missing energy, and searches for flavor-violating lepton decays. The viable parameter space can be tested further with future data. Also, we investigate the possibility of the new scalars' couplings accounting for the tentative hint of Higgs flavor-violating decay h -> mu tau recently detected in the CMS experiment. They are allowed by constraints from other Higgs data to produce a rate of this decay roughly compatible with the CMS finding.

22 pages, 4 figures, expanded to include LEP constraints, references added, to appear in JHEP

References in corpus (5)

• Dark Matter Candidates from Particle Physics and Methods of Detection
• Supersymmetric models with minimal flavour violation and their running
• Various definitions of Minimal Flavour Violation for Leptons
• Strategies for Determining the Nature of Dark Matter
• Neutrino phenomenology and stable dark matter with A4

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Higgs $\to$ $\mu \tau$ as an indication for $S_4$ flavor symmetry