The other natural two Higgs doublet model

We characterize models where electroweak symmetry breaking is driven by two light Higgs doublets arising as pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons of new dynamics above the weak scale. They represent the simplest natural two Higgs doublet alternative to supersymmetry. We construct their low-energy effective Lagrangian making only few specific assumptions about the strong sector. These concern their global symmetries, their patterns of spontaneous breaking and the sources of explicit breaking. In particular we assume that all the explicit breaking is associated with the couplings of the strong sector to the Standard Model fields, that is gauge and (proto)-Yukawa interactions. Under those assumptions the scalar potential is determined at lowest order by very few free parameters associated to the top sector. Another crucial property of our scenarios is the presence of a discrete symmetry, in addition to custodial SO(4), that controls the T-parameter. That can either be simple CP or a Z₂ that distinguishes the two Higgs doublets. Among various possibilities we study in detail models based on SO(6)/SO(4) × SO(2), focussing on their predictions for the structure of the scalar spectrum and the deviations of their couplings from those of a generic renormalizable two Higgs doublet model.     

A Three Higgs Doublet Model for Fermion Masses

In this paper we propose a possible explanation to the Fermion mass hierarchy problem by fitting the type-II seesaw mechanism into the Higgs doublet sector, such that their vacuum expectation values are hierarchal. We extend the Standard Model with two extra Higgs doublets as well as a spontaneously broken U_X(1) gauge symmetry. All the fermion Yukawa couplings except that of the top quark are of O(10^-2) in our model. Constraints on the parameter space of the model from low energy processes are studied. Besides, the lightest one of the neutral fermion fields, which is introduced to cancel the anomalies of the U(1)_X gauge symmetry can be the cold dark matter candidate. We investigate its signature in the dark matter direct detection.     

Asymptotic behavior of amplitudes for longitudinal-leptoquark processes and structure of the scalar sector in the minimal model involving four-color symmetry

Within the minimal model based on the four-color symmetry of quarks and leptons of the Pati-Salam type, the asymptotic behavior of amplitudes for processes involving longitudinal leptoquarks (and W or Z′ bosons) is investigated, together with the mechanism according to which the growth of these amplitudes at high energies is suppressed by scalar fields. It is shown that, within the Higgs mechanism of mass generation and of the mass splitting of quarks and leptons, the four-color symmetry of quarks and leptons requires that scalar-leptoquark doublets, scalar-gluon doublets, and an extra color-singlet scalar doublet exist in addition to the standard Higgs doublet.     

The Higgs sector of supersymmetric theories and the implications for high-energy colliders

One of the main motivations for low-energy supersymmetric theories is their ability to address the hierarchy and naturalness problems in the Higgs sector of the standard model. In these theories, at least two doublets of scalar fields are required to break the electroweak symmetry and to generate the masses of the elementary particles, resulting in a rather rich Higgs spectrum. The search for the Higgs bosons of supersymmetry and the determination of their basic properties is one of the major goals of high-energy colliders and, in particular, the LHC, which will soon start operation. We review the salient features of the Higgs sector of the minimal supersymmetric standard model and of some of its extensions and summarize the prospects for probing them at the LHC and at the future ILC. In memoriam of Julius Wess, 1934–2007.     

Decays of the Weinberg-Salam Higgs particle in models with two Higgs doublets

In a class of extended Higgs structures containing two Higgs doublets, the decays of the Weinberg-Salam Higgs particle might be significantly different from those in the standard model because it has large branching ratios to decay into light Higgs bosons. We discuss the decays of the Weinberg-Salam Higgs particle with mass range from 7 GeV up to 1 TeV.     

Mass relations in the two Higgs doublet model from the absence of quadratic divergences

By setting the quadratic divergences to zero, four mass relations are obtained for the Standard Model generalized to two Higgs doublets. These four mass relations are obtained most simply in terms of the original fields in the Lagrangian, before spontaneousSU(2)×U(1) symmetry breaking is applied. Unlike the case of the Standard Model, the Higgs tadpoles of the two Higgs doublet theory do not furnish a complete set of mass relations, giving only three of the four.Work supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under Grant DE-FG02-84ER40158     

Partially composite two-Higgs doublet model

In the extra dimensional scenarios with gauge fields in the bulk, the Kaluza-Klein (KK) gauge bosons can induce Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) type attractive fourfermion interactions, which can break electroweak symmetry dynamically with accompanying composite Higgs fields. We consider a possibility that electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) is triggered by both a fundamental Higgs and a composite Higgs arising in a dynamical symmetry breaking mechanism induced by a new strong dynamics. The resulting Higgs sector is a partially composite two-Higgs doublet model with specific boundary conditions on the coupling and mass parameters originating at a compositeness scale Λ. The phenomenology of this model is discussed including the collider phenomenology at LHC and ILC.      

Di-photon Higgs signals at the LHC in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model

The NMSSM contains a Higgs singlet in addition to the two Higgs doublets typical of the MSSM, thus resulting in a total of seven physical Higgs mass states. Therefore, the phenomenology of the NMSSM Higgs sector can differ considerably from that of the MSSM, and there are good prospects of finding in regions of the NMSSM parameter space Higgs signals that cannot be reproduced in the MSSM. We examined here the two-photon decay mode of a Higgs boson and found that up to three neutral Higgs states, heavy and/or light, could be simultaneously observable at the LHC, a possibility precluded to the MSSM. There are also some possibilities that only the lightest NMSSM Higgs boson be detectable via this mode, with a mass beyond the upper limit of the corresponding MSSM state, thus also allowing one to distinguish between the two scenarios. However, in most of the NMSSM parameter space the configurations of the non-minimal model are not very different from those arising in the minimal case.     

Conformal invariance and spontaneous symmetry breaking

We study the spontaneous symmetry breaking in a conformally invariant gravitational theory. We particularly emphasize on the nonminimal coupling of matter fields to gravity. By the nonminimal coupling we consider a local distinction between the conformal frames of metric of matter fieldsand the metric explicitly entering the vacuum sector. We suppose that these two frames are conformally related by a dilaton field. We show that the imposition of a condition on the variable mass term of a scalar field may lead to the spontaneous symmetry breaking. In this way the scalar field may imitate the Higgs field behavior. Attributing a constant configuration to the ground state of the Higgs field, a Higgs conformal frame is specified. We define the Higgs conformal frame as a cosmological frame which describes the large scale characteristics of the observed universe. In the cosmological frame the gravitational coupling acquires a correct value and one no longer deals with the vacuum energy problem. We then study a more general case by considering a variable configuration for the ground state of Higgs field. In this case we introduce a cosmological solution of themodel.     

Relatively heavy Higgs boson in more generic gauge mediation

We discuss gauge mediation models where the doublet messengers and Higgs doublets are allowed to mix through a “charged” coupling. The charged coupling replaces messenger parity as a means of suppressing flavor changing neutral currents without introducing any unwanted CP violation. As a result of this mixing between the Higgs doublets and the messengers, relatively large A-terms are generated at the messenger scale. These large A-terms produce a distinct weak scale mass spectrum. Particularly, we show that the lightest Higgs boson mass is enhanced and can be as heavy as 125 GeV for a gluino mass as light as 2 TeV. We also show that the stops are heavier than that predicted by conventional gauge mediation models. It is also shown that these models have a peculiar slepton mass spectrum.     

Reparameterization of the scalar potential in the two Higgs doublet model

In the two Higgs doublet model with no additional symmetries in the scalar sector (different from the gauge and Lorentz symmetries), it is customary to reparameterize the model by rotating the scalar doublets so that one of the vacuum expectation values vanishes. It is well known that the Yukawa sector of the model is unaffected by such a transformation. Notwithstanding this, since the Higgs potential must also be transformed, it is necessary to show that such a sector is also unaltered in its physical content. We demonstrate that the physical content of the potential is invariant even when the charge conjugation symmetry is demanded. PACS 12.60.Fr; 11.30.Er; 11.15.Ex; 11.30.Hv     

Superconformal technicolor

In supersymmetric theories with a strong conformal sector, soft supersymmetry breaking at the TeV scale naturally gives rise to confinement and chiral symmetry breaking at the same scale. We consider two such scenarios, one where the strong dynamics induces vacuum expectation values for elementary Higgs fields, and another where the strong dynamics is solely responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking. In both cases, the mass of the Higgs boson can exceed the LEP bound without tuning, solving the supersymmetry naturalness problem. A good precision electroweak fit can be obtained, and quark and lepton masses are generated without flavor-changing neutral currents. In addition to standard supersymmetry signals, these models predict production of multiple heavy standard model particles (t, W, Z, and b) from decays of resonances in the strong sector.     

Neutrino masses,mixings, and FCNC’s in an <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis><Subscript>3</Subscript> flavor symmetric extension of the standard model

By introducing threeHiggs fields that are SU(2) doublets and a flavor permutational symmetry, S ₃, in the theory, we extend the concepts of flavor and generations to the Higgs sector and formulate a Minimal S ₃-Invariant Extension of the Standard Model. The mass matrices of the neutrinos and charged leptons are re-parameterized in terms of their eigenvalues, then the neutrino mixing matrix, V _PMNS, is computed and exact, explicit analytical expressions for the neutrino mixing angles as functions of the masses of neutrinos and charged leptons are obtained in excellent agreement with the latest experimental data. We also compute the branching ratios of some selected flavor-changing neutral current (FCNC) processes, as well as the contribution of the exchange of neutral flavor-changing scalars to the anomaly of the magnetic moment of the muon, as functions of the masses of charged leptons and the neutral Higgs bosons. We find that the S ₃ × Z ₂ flavor symmetry and the strong mass hierarchy of the charged leptons strongly suppress the FCNC processes in the leptonic sector, well below the present experimental bounds by many orders of magnitude. The contribution of FCNC’s to the anomaly of the muon’s magnetic moment is small, but not negligible.     

Seesaw induced Higgs mechanism

We discuss a two scalar doublets model which induces the Higgs mechanism by means of a seesaw mechanism. This model naturally predicts a light Higgs scalar whose mass is suppressed by the grand unification scale. The model requires an intermediate scale between the electroweak symmetry breaking scale and the grand unification scale at 10⁹ GeV. Below this intermediate energy scale the usual standard model appears as an effective theory. An implementation of this mechanism in models where the Planck scale is in the TeV region is discussed. Received: 20 September 2002 / Revised version: 6 March 2003 / Publishes online: 13 May 2003 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: calmet@theory.caltech.edu     

Dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking with a heavy fourth generation

A heavy fourth generation with a mass of the order of 400 GeV or more could trigger dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking by forming condensates through the exchange of a fundamental Higgs scalar doublet. The dynamics leading to these condensates is studied within the framework of the Schwinger–Dyson equation. This scenario leads to the presence of three (two composite and one fundamental) Higgs doublets, with interesting phenomenological implications. In addition, this dynamical phenomenon occurs in the vicinity of the energy scale where the restoration of scale symmetry might happen.     

The derivative expansion of the fermion number current

The fermion number current is evaluated to leading order in the derivative expansion for chiral fermions in the background of arbitrary Higgs and chiral gauge fields. This current is given by the gauge topological current plus a total divergence term. The total divergence term is absent in Weinberg-Salam theory with one scalar Higgs doublet, even for an arbitrary mass matrix, but appears when several Higgs doublets are present.     

Higgs bosons in supersymmetric models (I)

We describe the properties of Higgs bosons in a class of supersymmetric theories. We consider models in which the low-energy sector contains two weak complex doublets and perhaps one complex gauge-singlet Higgs field. Supersymmetry is assumed to be either softly or spontaneously broken, thereby imposing a number of restrictions on the Higgs boson parameters. We elucidate the Higgs boson masses and present Feynman rules for their couplings to the gauge bosons, fermions and scalars of the theory. We also present Feynman rules for vertices which are related by supersymmetry to the above couplings. Exact analytic expressions are given in two useful limits — one corresponding to the absence of the gauge-singlet Higgs field and the other corresponding to the absence of a supersymmetric Higgs mass term.     

A new type of CP symmetry, family replication and fermion mass hierarchies

We study a two-Higgs doublet model with four generalised CP symmetries in the scalar sector. Electroweak symmetry breaking leads automatically to spontaneous breaking of two of them. We require that these four CP symmetries can be extended from the scalar sector to the full Lagrangian and call this requirement the principle of maximal CP invariance. The Yukawa interactions of the fermions are severely restricted by this requirement. In particular, a single fermion family cannot be coupled to the Higgs fields. For two fermion families, however, this is possible. Enforcing the absence of flavour-changing neutral currents, we find degenerate masses in both families or one family massless and one massive. In the latter case the Lagrangian is highly symmetric, with the mass hierarchy being generated by electroweak symmetry breaking. Adding a third family uncoupled to the Higgs fields and thus keeping it massless we get a model which gives a rough approximation of some features of the fermions observed in Nature. We discuss a number of predictions of the model which may be checked in future experiments at the LHC.     

Vector Higgs portal dark matter and the invisible Higgs

The Higgs sector of the Standard Model offers a unique probe of the hidden sector. In this work, we explore the possibility of renormalizable Higgs couplings to the hidden sector vector fields which can constitute dark matter (DM). Abelian gauge sectors with minimal field content, necessary to render the gauge fields massive, have a natural Z₂ parity. This symmetry ensures stability of the vector fields making them viable dark matter candidates, while evading the usual electroweak constraints. We illustrate this idea with the Stückelberg and Higgs mechanisms. Vector DM is consistent with the WMAP, XENON100, and LHC constraints, while it can affect significantly the invisible Higgs decay. Due to the enhanced branching ratio for the Higgs decay into the longitudinal components of the vector field, the vector Higgs portal provides an efficient way to hide the Higgs at the LHC. This could be the reason why the latest combined ATLAS/CMS data did not bring evidence for the existence of the Higgs boson.     

Yukawa alignment in a multi Higgs doublet model: An effective approach

In the two Higgs doublet model, natural flavour conservation can be achieved through the use of a discrete Z₂$Z_2$ symmetry. A less restrictive condition is the requirement of alignment in the Yukawa sector. So far, alignment has been an ansatz, not rooted in a specific model. In this Letter we present a model for alignment, which starts with 2+N$2+N$ Higgs doublets, with natural flavour conservation imposed by a discrete symmetry. Only two of these scalars couple to the fermions, the other N scalars are in a hidden sector. Assuming that the two scalar doublets coupled to fermions are heavy, their decoupling leads to an effective Yukawa interaction. The latter connects the fermions and the scalars of the hidden sector, and exhibits the same Yukawa coupling matrix for each of the N scalars.