Dark matter and twin Higgs models

• Grant number: 19/00890-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Effective date (Start): February 22, 2019
• Effective date (End): August 21, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Elementary Particle Physics and Fields
• Principal Investigator: Gustavo Alberto Burdman
• Grantee: Davi Bastos Costa
• Supervisor: Roni Harnik
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 18/09833-9 - Dark matter and twin Higgs models, BP.MS

Abstract

The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics describes ordinary matter and its interactions and it has been tested to an excellent precision up to the energies reached in current high energy physics experiments, most notably the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It makes many predictions and has successfully passed many experimental tests, often to high precision. However, it is likely that there is physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) because there are a number of problems, missing ingredients, and open questions. In this project we are mainly interested in three problems: the hierarchy problem, the nature of Dark Matter and the nature of neutrino masses. In particular we will concentrate in the Twin Higgs (TH) model. The TH was initially developed to solve the hierarchy problem by assuming that the Higgs boson is a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (pNGB) which results from the spontaneous symmetry breaking of a global symmetry. However, the model predicts a Twin sector, which is an almost exact copy of the SM, and therefore supplies good candidates for dark matter. In this project, we will consider the spontaneous breaking of the necessary Z2 symmetry in TH models, which can be used to give masses to neutrinos and twin neutrinos, and therefore evading an important constraint from cosmology. Therefore, the TH is a very promising framework to address the problems we are mainly interested in these project. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

COSTA, DAVI B.; DOBRESCU, BOGDAN A.; FOX, PATRICK J.. Chiral Abelian gauge theories with few fermions. Physical Review D, v. 101, n. 9, MAY 27 2020. (19/00890-2)