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Large Hadron Collider: Could the Higgs Boson Decay Into Dark Matter? - SciTechDaily
Aug 10, 2020 1 min, 46 secs

Probing Dark Matter With the Higgs Boson?

To remedy this problem, a simple theoretical extension of the Standard Model posits that existing particles, such as the Higgs boson, act as a “portal” between known particles and dark-matter particles.

Since the Higgs boson couples to mass, massive dark-matter particles should interact with it.

The Higgs boson still has large uncertainties associated with the strength of its interaction with Standard Model particles; up to 30% of the Higgs-boson decays can potentially be invisible, according to the latest ATLAS combined Higgs-boson measurements.

Could some of the Higgs bosons decay into dark matter?

According to the Standard Model, the fraction of Higgs bosons decaying to an invisible final state (four neutrinos!) accounts for just 0.1% and is thus negligible.

Should such events be observed, it would be a direct indication of new physics and potential evidence of Higgs bosons decaying into dark-matter particles.

Could the Higgs boson decay into dark matter.

The ATLAS Collaboration searched the full LHC Run 2 dataset to set the strongest limits on the Higgs boson decaying to invisible dark-matter particles to date.

At the LHC, the most sensitive channel to search for direct decays of the Higgs boson to invisible particles is via the so-called vector boson fusion (VBF) production of the Higgs boson.

This, combined with a large missing momentum in perpendicular direction (“transverse”) to the beam axis from the invisible dark-matter particles, creates a unique signature that ATLAS physicists can search for.

A hypothetical Higgs boson signal decaying to invisible final states is shown in red.

ATLAS derived, at a 95% confidence level, an exclusion bound of the Higgs-boson decay to invisible particles of 13%.

This observed exclusion is consistent with no signs of the Higgs boson decaying to dark matter.

These limits are competitive with the best direct-detection experiments for WIMP masses up to half of the Higgs-boson mass, assuming the Higgs boson interacts directly with dark matter.

This new analysis places the strongest existing limits on the Higgs boson decaying to invisible particles to date.

Linking the Higgs boson to Dark Matter is a stretch, to say the least

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