$B\to K{+}$invisible, dark matter, and $CP$ violation in hyperon decays

Abstract

Recently the Belle II Collaboration has reported a measurement of the $B^+\to K^+\nu\bar\nu$ rate that is higher than the standard-model expectation. Since the emitted neutrinos are unobserved, the excess could be due to the $B^+$ decaying into a $K^+$ and a dark-matter pair. We entertain this possibility in a two-Higgs-doublet model supplemented with a real singlet scalar boson acting as the dark matter. This model also accommodates strangeness-changing interactions providing new sources of $CP$ violation which can affect hyperon and kaon nonleptonic transitions. We find that the resulting $CP$ violation in the hyperon sector can be significant, reaching the current empirical bounds, after taking into account constraints from kaon mixing and decay and from dark-matter relic-density data and direct searches including the Migdal effect. We demonstrate that the hyperon and kaon processes are complementary probes of this new-physics scenario. Its prediction for sizable hyperon $CP$ violation is potentially testable in ongoing experiments, such as BESIII, Belle II, and LHCb, and in next-generation ones like PANDA and at the Super Tau Charm Facility.