Scalar Representations in the Light of Electroweak Phase Transition and Cold Dark Matter Phenomenology

Abstract

The extension of the standard model's minimal Higgs sector with an inert $SU(2)_L$ scalar doublet can provide light dark matter candidate and simultaneously induce a strong phase transition for explaining Baryogenesis. There is however no symmetry reasons to prevent the extension using scalars with higher $SU(2)_L$ representations. By making random scans over the models' parameters, we show that in the light of electroweak physics constraints, strong first order electroweak phase transition and the possibility of having sub-TeV cold dark matter candidate the higher representations are rather disfavored compared to the inert doublet. This is done by computing generic perturbativity behavior and impact on electroweak phase transitions of higher representations in comparison with the inert doublet model. Explicit phase transition and cold dark matter phenomenology within the context of the inert triplet and quartet representations are used for detailed illustrations.