Alignment without Decoupling: the Portal to Light Dark Matter in the MSSM

Abstract

We study light, thermal neutralino dark matter in the sub-GeV to 65 GeV mass range in the Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM). We consider realizations of the limit of alignment without decoupling in the Higgs sector where the heavier CP-even Higgs impersonates the observed Higgs state at 125 GeV, while the lighter CP-even Higgs is the mediator of dark matter annihilation. We single out three distinct and novel possibilities for light dark matter: (i) a neutralino with mass around half the light Higgs mass, in the sub-GeV to 30 GeV mass range; (ii) a neutralino with a mass around half the pseudoscalar Higgs boson mass, in our examples around 60 to 65 GeV; (iii) a very light neutralino with mass around the light Higgs mass, pair-annihilating to Higgs pairs. We discuss the implications of all these possibilities for indirect and direct dark matter detection experiments, and we demonstrate that all scenarios will be tested by next generation direct detection experiments. We also emphasize that the unique Higgs phenomenology of these scenarios warrants a dedicated search program at the LHC.

arXiv comment9 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables; v2: minor changes, added discussion of dominant annihilation final states, matches published version in PRD

References in corpus (57)

• Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
• Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters
• Observation of a new boson at a mass of 125 GeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC
• Supersymmetric Dark Matter
• The Anatomy of Electro-Weak Symmetry Breaking. II: The Higgs bosons in the Minimal Supersymmetric Model
• Searching for Dark Matter Annihilation from Milky Way Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies with Six Years of Fermi-LAT Data
• FeynHiggs: a program for the calculation of the masses of the neutral CP-even Higgs bosons in the MSSM
• The CP-conserving two-Higgs-doublet model: the approach to the decoupling limit
• Towards High-Precision Predictions for the MSSM Higgs Sector
• The Masses of the Neutral CP-even Higgs Bosons in the MSSM: Accurate Analysis at the Two-Loop Level
• HiggsBounds: Confronting Arbitrary Higgs Sectors with Exclusion Bounds from LEP and the Tevatron
• Search for Neutral MSSM Higgs Bosons at LEP
• micrOMEGAs: A program for calculating the relic density in the MSSM
• HiggsBounds-4: Improved Tests of Extended Higgs Sectors against Exclusion Bounds from LEP, the Tevatron and the LHC
• HiggsSignals: Confronting arbitrary Higgs sectors with measurements at the Tevatron and the LHC
• The Higgs Boson Masses and Mixings of the Complex MSSM in the Feynman-Diagrammatic Approach
• HiggsBounds 2.0.0: Confronting Neutral and Charged Higgs Sector Predictions with Exclusion Bounds from LEP and the Tevatron
• Indirect Dark Matter Signatures in the Cosmic Dark Ages I. Generalizing the Bound on s-wave Dark Matter Annihilation from Planck
• micrOMEGAs4.1: two dark matter candidates
• micrOMEGAs: Version 1.3
• High-precision predictions for the light CP-even Higgs Boson Mass of the MSSM
• WIMP-Search Results from the Second CDMSlite Run
• Interpreting the LHC Higgs Search Results in the MSSM
• Probing the Standard Model with Higgs signal rates from the Tevatron, the LHC and a future ILC
• Applying Exclusion Likelihoods from LHC Searches to Extended Higgs Sectors
• Impersonating the Standard Model Higgs Boson: Alignment without Decoupling
• Maximally Symmetric Two Higgs Doublet Model with Natural Standard Model Alignment
• Search for neutral MSSM Higgs bosons decaying to a pair of tau leptons in pp collisions
• Light Stau Phenomenology and the Higgs γγRate
• Phenomenology of a very light scalar (100 MeV $<m_h<$ 10 GeV) mixing with the SM Higgs
• Search for a charged Higgs boson in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV
• Mass Bounds on a Very Light Neutralino
• Confronting the MSSM and the NMSSM with the Discovery of a Signal in the two Photon Channel at the LHC
• Search for charged Higgs bosons decaying via $H^{\pm }\to {\tau }^{\pm }\nu$ in fully hadronic final states using $pp$ collision data at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
• TeV gamma-rays and the largest masses and annihilation cross sections of neutralino dark matter
• LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Conceptual Design Report
• MSSM Interpretations of the LHC Discovery: Light or Heavy Higgs?
• Naturalness of Light Neutralino Dark Matter in pMSSM after LHC, XENON100 and Planck Data
• Exploring the BWCA (Bino-Wino Co-Annihilation) Scenario for Neutralino Dark Matter
• Complementarity Between Non-Standard Higgs Searches and Precision Higgs Measurements in the MSSM
• The pMSSM10 after LHC Run 1
• Global analysis of the pMSSM in light of the Fermi GeV excess: prospects for the LHC Run-II and astroparticle experiments
• Properties of 125 GeV Higgs boson in non-decoupling MSSM scenarios
• The Higgs sector of the MSSM in the decoupling limit
• LHC Tests of Light Neutralino Dark Matter without Light Sfermions
• Cornering light Neutralino Dark Matter at the LHC
• Constraining Supersymmetry using the relic density and the Higgs boson
• A Supersymmetric Explanation of the Excess of Higgs--Like Events at the LHC and at LEP
• Lessons and Prospects from the pMSSM after LHC Run I: Neutralino LSP
• Search for a Low-Mass Scalar Higgs Boson Decaying to a Tau Pair in Single-Photon Decays of Upsilon(1S)
• Implications of the Higgs discovery for the MSSM
• Status of MSSM Higgs Sector using Global Analysis and Direct Search Bounds, and Future Prospects at the HL-LHC
• Non-Decoupling MSSM Higgs Sector and Light Superpartners
• Implications of 98 GeV and 125 GeV Higgs scenario in non-decoupling SUSY with updated ATLAS, CMS and PLANCK data
• Embedding the 125 GeV Higgs boson measured at the LHC in an effective MSSM: possible implications for neutralino dark matter
• Light Stop Mass Limits from Higgs Rate Measurements in the MSSM: Is MSSM Electroweak Baryogenesis Still Alive After All?
• Higgs data constraints on the minimal supersymmetric standard model

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Status of the Charged Higgs Boson in Two Higgs Doublet Models
• Global fits of GUT-scale SUSY models with GAMBIT
• MSSM Higgs Boson Searches at the LHC: Benchmark Scenarios for Run 2 and Beyond
• A global fit of the MSSM with GAMBIT
• The Light and Heavy Higgs Interpretation of the MSSM
• Supervised deep learning in high energy phenomenology: a mini review
• Accurate predictions for charged Higgs production: closing the $m_{H^{\pm }}\sim m_t$ window
• The Not-So-Well Tempered Neutralino
• The Impact of Two-Loop Effects on the Scenario of MSSM Higgs Alignment without Decoupling
• The invisible decay of Higgs boson in the context of a thermal and non-thermal relic in MSSM
• Probing GeV-scale MSSM neutralino dark matter in collider and direct detection experiments
• Probing Heavy Charged Higgs Boson at the LHC
• Higgsino Asymmetry and Direct-Detection Constraints of Light Dark Matter in the NMSSM with Non-Universal Higgs Masses
• Light right-handed Smuons at the LHC: Natural dark matter and $g_{\mu }-2$ in an unexplored realm of the pMSSM