BBN for the LHC: constraints on lifetimes of the Higgs portal scalars

Abstract

LHC experiments can provide a remarkable sensitivity to exotic metastable massive particles, decaying with significant displacement from the interaction point. The best sensitivity is achieved to models where the production and decay occur due to different coupling constants, and the lifetime of exotic particles determines the probability of decay within a detector. The lifetimes of such particles can be independently limited from standard cosmology, in particular the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. In this paper, we analyze the constraints on the simplest scalar model coupled through the Higgs portal, where the production occurs via $h\to SS$, and the decay is induced by the small mixing angle of the Higgs field $h$ and scalar $S$. We find that throughout the most part of the parameter space, $2m_{\mu }<m_S<m_h/2$, the lifetimes of exotic particle has to be less than 0.1 seconds, while below $2m_{\mu }$ it could grow to about a second. The strong constraints on lifetimes are induced by the nucleonic and mesonic decays of scalars that tend to raise the $n/p$ ratio. Strong constraints on lifetimes of the minimal singlet extensions of the Higgs potential is a welcome news for the MATHUSLA proposal that seeks to detect displaced decays of exotic particles produced in the LHC collisions. We also point out how more complicated exotic sectors could evade the BBN lifetime constraints.

16 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (13)

• Secluded WIMP Dark Matter
• Gauge Singlet Scalars as Cold Dark Matter
• Precise Relic WIMP Abundance and its Impact on Searches for Dark Matter Annihilation
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Hadronically and Electromagnetically Decaying Relic Neutral Particles
• Minimal Extension of the Standard Model Scalar Sector
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis as a Probe of New Physics
• Multilepton and Lepton Jet Probes of Sub-Weak-Scale Right-Handed Neutrinos
• Search for long-lived particles that decay into final states containing two electrons or two muons in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV
• Displaced Supersymmetry
• Metastable GeV-scale particles as a solution to the cosmological lithium problem
• Cosmological Constraints on Neutrino Injection
• Constraining Light Bosons with Radiative ${\rm Y}(1S)$ Decays
• Primordial beryllium as a big bang calorimeter

Cited by in corpus (44)

• Feebly-Interacting Particles:FIPs 2020 Workshop Report
• The First Three Seconds: a Review of Possible Expansion Histories of the Early Universe
• The Search for Feebly-Interacting Particles
• Improved BBN constraints on Heavy Neutral Leptons
• BBN constraints on the annihilation of MeV-scale dark matter
• The Higgs Portal to Cosmology
• Revisiting supernova constraints on a light CP-even scalar
• Cosmological beam dump: constraints on dark scalars mixed with the Higgs boson
• Mirror Twin Higgs Cosmology: Constraints and a Possible Resolution to the $H_0$ and $S_8$ Tensions
• LSND Constraints on the Higgs Portal
• Neutrino dark matter and the Higgs portal: improved freeze-in analysis
• Dark matter freeze-in from semi-production
• Diraxiogenesis
• (In)Visible signatures of the minimal dark abelian gauge sector
• Light, Long-Lived $B-L$ Gauge and Higgs Bosons at the DUNE Near Detector
• Stellar limits on light CP-even scalar
• The muon g-2 anomaly confronts new physics in $e^{\pm }$ and ${\mu }^{\pm }$ final states scattering
• Direct detection of pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone dark matter with light mediator
• Primordial neutrinos and new physics: novel approach to solving neutrino Boltzmann equation
• Screening the Higgs portal
• Revisiting sterile neutrino dark matter in gauged $U(1{)}_{B-L}$ model
• Is light thermal scalar dark matter possible?
• New physics decaying into metastable particles: impact on cosmic neutrinos
• How new physics affects primordial neutrinos decoupling: Direct Simulation Monte Carlo approach
• Exploring the lifetime and cosmic frontier with the MATHUSLA detector
• Higgs Squared
• Dynamics of metastable Standard Model particles from long-lived particle decays in the MeV primordial plasma
• Frozen-in fermionic singlet dark matter in non-standard cosmology with a decaying fluid
• Uncertainties of hadronic scalar decay calculations
• Light Dilaton in Rare Meson Decays and Extraction of its CP Property
• Complementarity between Cosmic String Gravitational Waves and long-lived particle searches in a laboratory
• Freezing-in Cannibal Dark Sectors
• BBN Constraints on the Hadronic Annihilation of sub-GeV Dark Matter
• New Bounds on Heavy QCD Axions from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
• Search for a light Higgs boson in single-photon decays of ${\rm Y}(1S)$ using ${\rm Y}(2S)\to {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}{\rm Y}(1S)$ tagging method
• From obstacle to opportunity: uncovering the silver lining of pileup
• The Forward Physics Facility at the High-Luminosity LHC
• Search for b hadron decays to long-lived particles in the CMS endcap muon detectors
• Constraints on Heavy Neutral Leptons interacting with a singlet scalar
• New Physics Searches at Kaon and Hyperon Factories
• Neutron Portal and Dark Matter-Baryon Coincidence: from UV Completion to Phenomenology
• Freeze-in Production of Non-Abelian Millicharged Vector Dark Matter
• Probing the Chern-Simons Portal at the HL-LHC through Displaced Vertices from W Boson Associated Production
• Light scalars in neutron star mergers