Dark Matter, Dark Radiation and Gravitational Waves from Mirror Higgs Parity

Abstract

An exact parity replicates the Standard Model giving a Mirror Standard Model, SM $\leftrightarrow$ SM$'$. This "Higgs Parity" and the mirror electroweak symmetry are spontaneously broken by the mirror Higgs, $\left\langle H'\right\rangle = v' \gg \left\langle H\right\rangle$, yielding the Standard Model Higgs as a Pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone Boson of an approximate $SU(4)$ symmetry, with a quartic coupling $λ_{SM}(v') \sim 10^{-3}$. Mirror electromagnetism is unbroken and dark matter is composed of $e'$ and $\bar{e}'$. Direct detection may be possible via the kinetic mixing portal, and in unified theories this rate is correlated with the proton decay rate. With a high reheat temperature after inflation, the $e'$ dark matter abundance is determined by freeze-out followed by dilution from decays of mirror neutrinos, $ν' \rightarrow \ell H$. Remarkably, this requires $v' \sim (10^8 - 10^{10})$ GeV, consistent with the Higgs mass, and a Standard Model neutrino mass of $(10^{-2} - 10^{-1})$ eV, consistent with observed neutrino masses. The mirror QCD sector exhibits a first order phase transition producing gravitational waves that may be detected by future observations. Mirror glueballs decay to mirror photons giving dark radiation with $ΔN_{\rm eff} \sim 0.03 - 0.4$. With a low reheat temperature after inflation, the $e'$ dark matter abundance is determined by freeze-in from the SM sector by either the Higgs or kinetic mixing portal.