arXiv subjects

Hong-Hao Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Hong-Hao Zhang.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone dark matter and two-Higgs-doublet models

We study a dark matter model with one singlet complex scalar and two Higgs doublets. The scalar potential respects a softly broken global symmetry, which makes the imaginary part of the singlet become a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson acting as a dark matter candidate. The pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone nature of the boson leads to the vanishing of its tree-level scattering amplitude off nucleons at zero momentum transfer. Therefore, although the interaction strength could be sufficiently large to yield a viable relic abundance via thermal mechanism, direct detection is incapable of probing this candidate. We further investigate the constraints from Higgs measurements, relic abundance observation, and indirect detection.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Minimal asymptotically safe dark matter

We study a simple class of dark matter models with N_f copies of electroweak fermionic multiplets, stabilized by O(N_F) global symmetry. Unlike conventional minimal dark matter which usually suffers from Landau poles, in these models the gauge coupling g_2 has a non-trivial ultraviolet fixed point, and thus is asymptotically safe as long as N_F is large enough. These fermionic n-plet models have only two free parameters: N_F and a common mass M_DM, which relate to dark matter relic abundance. We find that the mass of triplet fermionic dark matter with N_F being dozens of flavors can be several hundred GeV, which is testable on LHC. A benefit of large N_F is that DM pair annihilation rate in dwarf galaxies is effectively suppressed by 1/N_F, and thus they can evade the constraint from gamma-ray continuous spectrum observation. For the case of triplets, we find that the models in the range 3 <= N_F <= 20 are consistent with all current experiments. However, for N_F quintuplets, even with large N_F they are still disfavored by the gamma-ray continuous spectrum.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

A Genetic Algorithm for Astroparticle Physics Studies

Precision measurements of charged cosmic rays have recently been carried out by space-born (e.g. AMS-02), or ground experiments (e.g. HESS). These measured data are important for the studies of astro-physical phenomena, including supernova remnants, cosmic ray propagation, solar physics and dark matter. Those scenarios usually contain a number of free parameters that need to be adjusted by observed data. Some techniques, such as Markov Chain Monte Carlo and MultiNest, are developed in order to solve the above problem. However, it is usually required a computing farm to apply those tools. In this paper, a genetic algorithm for finding the optimum parameters for cosmic ray injection and propagation is presented. We find that this algorithm gives us the same best fit results as the Markov Chain Monte Carlo but consuming less computing power by nearly 2 orders of magnitudes.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

Torsional Responses and Liouville Anomaly in Weyl Semimetals with Dislocations

Weyl nodes in three-dimensional Weyl semimetals break the Liouville equation, leading to the Liouville anomaly. Here we present a new approach to derive the semiclassical action and equations of motion for Weyl fermions in the presence of electromagnetic fields and torsions from the quantum field theory: combining the Wigner transformation with band projection operation. It has been shown that the Liouville anomaly, including a new pure torsion anomaly term, a mixing term between the electromagnetic fields and torsions as well as the conventional chiral anomaly, entirely differs from the counterpart of axial gauge fields. We find various torsional responses and reproduce the chiral vortical effect and the torsional chiral magnetic effect. A new torsion modified anomalous Hall effect due to the mixing term in the Liouville anomaly is predicted and its implementation is also discussed. Therefore, our work not only provides new insights into the torsional responses for Weyl fermions but also acts as a starting point to investigate their topological responses.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Vacuum alignment in a composite 2HDM

We study in detail the vacuum structure of a composite two Higgs doublet model based on a minimal underlying theory with 3 Dirac fermions in pseudo-real representations of the condensing gauge interactions, leading to the SU(6)/Sp(6) symmetry breaking pattern. We find that, independently on the source of top mass, the most general CP-conserving vacuum is characterised by three non-vanishing angles. A special case occurs if the Yukawas are aligned, leading to a single angle. In the latter case, a Dark Matter candidate arises, protected by a global U(1) symmetry.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Scalar Quintuplet Minimal Dark Matter with Yukawa Interactions: Perturbative up to the Planck Scale

We confront the perturbativity problem in the real scalar quintuplet minimal dark matter model. In the original model, the quintuplet quartic self-coupling inevitably hits a Landau pole at a scale $\sim 10^{14}$ GeV, far below the Planck scale. In order to push up this Landau pole scale, we extend the model with a fermionic quintuplet and three fermionic singlets which couple to the scalar quintuplet via Yukawa interactions. Involving such Yukawa interactions at a scale $\sim 10^{10}$ GeV can not only keep all couplings perturbative up to the Planck scale, but can also explain the smallness of neutrino masses via the type-I seesaw mechanism. Furthermore, we identify the parameter regions favored by the condition that perturbativity and vacuum stability are both maintained up to the Planck scale.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Dark Matter Search in Space: Combined Analysis of Cosmic Ray Antiproton-to-Proton Flux Ratio and Positron Flux Measured by AMS-02

Dark matter search in space has been carried out for many years. Measurements of cosmic ray photons, charged antiparticles and neutrinos are useful tools for dark matter indirect search. The antiparticle energy spectra of cosmic rays have several exciting features such as the unexpected positron excess at energy about 10 -- 500 GeV and the remarkably flattening antiproton/proton at energy about 60--450 GeV precisely measured by the AMS-02 experiment, which can not be explained simultaneously by secondary production in interstellar medium. In this work, we report a combined analysis of cosmic ray antiproton and positron spectra arising from dark matter on the top of a secondary production in a spatial-dependent propagation model. We discuss the systematics from antiproton production cross section using the two latest Monte Carlo generators, i.e. EPOS LHC and QGSJET-II-04m, respectively. We compare their results. In the case of EPOS LHC, we find that the dark matter pair annihilating into tau leptons channel with 100% branching ratio is the only possible one channel scenario to explain data. On the other hand, there is not a single possible channel in the case of QGSJET-II-04m. We also propose possible two-channel scenarios based on these two Monte Carlo generators.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Minimal Dark Matter in the Local $B-L$ Extension

The minimal gauge group extension to the standard model (SM) by the local $U(1)_{B-L}$ (MBLSM) is well known as the minimal model to understand neutrino mass origins via the seesaw mechanism, following the gauge principle. This "small" symmetry also has deep implication to another big thing, dark matter (DM) stability. We demonstrate it in the framework of minimal dark matter (MDM), which aims at addressing two basic questions on DM, stability and the nature of interactions. However, stability and perturbativity may only allow the fermionic quintuplet. The situation is very different in the MBLSM, which leaves the subgroup of $U(1)_{B-L}$, the matter parity $(-1)^{3(B-L)}$, unbroken; it is able to stabilize all of the weakly-interacting {MDM candidates } after assigning a proper $U(1)_{B-L}$ charge. For the candidates with nonzero hypercharge, the phenomenological challenge comes from realizing the inelastic DM scenario thus evading the very strict DM direct detention bounds. We present two approaches that can slightly split the CP-even and -odd parts of the neutral components: 1) using the dimension 5 operators, which works for the $U(1)_{B-L}$ spontaneously breaking at very high scale; 2) mixing with {other fields} having zero hypercharge, which instead works for a low $U(1)_{B-L}$ breaking scale.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

CEPC Precision of Electroweak Oblique Parameters and Weakly Interacting Dark Matter: the Scalar Case

We investigate the sensitivity to weakly interacting scalar dark matter from future determination of electroweak oblique parameters in the Circular Electron-Positron Collider (CEPC) project. As illuminating examples, three dark matter models with scalar electroweak multiplets are studied. The multiplet couplings to the standard model Higgs doublet can break the mass degeneracy among the components, leading to nonzero contributions to oblique parameters. The dark matter candidate in these model is either a CP-even or CP-odd scalar, whose trilinear coupling to the Higgs boson could induce direct detection signals. For some moderate coupling values, we find that the CEPC sensitivity can be better than current direct detection experiments, exploring up to a TeV mass scale.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

CEPC Precision of Electroweak Oblique Parameters and Weakly Interacting Dark Matter: the Fermionic Case

Future electroweak precision measurements in the Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) project would significantly improve the precision of electroweak oblique parameters. We evaluate the expected precision through global fits, and study the corresponding sensitivity to weakly interacting fermionic dark matter. Three models with electroweak multiplets in the dark sector are investigated as illuminating examples. We find that the CEPC data can probe up to TeV scales and explore some regions where direct detection cannot reach, especially when the models respect the custodial symmetry.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

The 750 GeV diphoton resonance as a singlet scalar in an extra dimensional model

We interpret the 750~GeV diphoton excess recently found in the 13~TeV LHC data as a singlet scalar in an extra dimensional model, where one extra dimension is introduced. In the model, the scalar couples to multiple vector-like fermions, which are just the KK modes of SM fermions. Mediated by the loops of these vector-like fermions, the $ϕ$ effective couplings to gluons and photons can be significantly large. Therefore, it is quite easy to obtain an observed cross section for the diphoton excess. We also calculate the cross sections for other decay channels of $ϕ$, and find that this interpretation can evade the bounds from the 8~TeV LHC data.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Pulsar interpretation of the lepton spectra measured by AMS-02

AMS-02 recently published its lepton spectra measurement. The results show that the positron fraction no longer increases above $\sim$200 GeV. The aim of this work is to investigate the possibility that the excess of positron fraction is due to pulsars. Nearby known pulsars from ATNF catalogue are considered as a possible primary positron source of the high energy positrons. We find that the pulsars with age $T\simeq (0.45\sim4.5)\times10^{5}$ yr and distance $d<0.5$ kpc can explain the behavior of positron fraction of AMS-02 in the range of high energy. We show that each of the four pulsars --- Geminga, J1741-2054, Monogem and J0942-5552 --- is able to be a single source satisfying all considered physical requirements. We also discuss the possibility that these high energy $e^{\pm}$ are from multiple pulsars. The multiple pulsars contribution predicts a positron fraction with some structures at higher energies.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Majorana neutrinos with point interactions

We propose a realistic model with Majorana neutrinos in the framework of unifying the three generations of fermions by point interactions in an extra dimension. This model can simultaneously explain the origin of fermion generations, fermion masses and mixing, and the smallness of the masses of Majorana neutrinos. We show that there are two mechanisms working together to suppress the neutrino masses significantly, so we do not have to introduce a very large extra-dimension cut-off scale. One is the type-I seesaw mechanism and the other is the overlap integration of localized lepton wave functions. A singlet scalar with an exponential-like VEV plays a central role in these two mechanisms. For consistency in this model we introduce a $U(1)'$ gauge symmetry, which will be broken by the singlet scalar. Parameters of our model can fit the masses and flavor mixing data well. These parameters can also predict all CP violating phases including the Majorana ones and accidentally rescue the proton from decay.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Perturbativity Limits for Scalar Minimal Dark Matter with Yukawa Interactions: Septuplet

The candidate of minimal dark matter (MDM) is limited if one demands perturbativity up to a very high scale, and it was believed that the MDM model with a real scalar septuplet could keep perturbative up to the Planck or GUT scale. In this work we point out that it is not true after taking into account the running of the quartic self-couplings of the scalar septuplet. For the septuplet mass around $10$ TeV, which is suggested by the observed dark matter relic abundance, these couplings would hit the Landau pole at a scale $\sim 10^8-10^9$ GeV, much lower than the Planck scale. We attempt to push up the Landau pole scale as high as possible by proposing an extension with extra Yukawa interactions of the septuplet. We find that in principle the Landau pole could be deferred to a scale of $\sim 10^{14}$ GeV if one could tolerate a serious fine-tuning of the initial condition of the Yukawa coupling. Moreover, if the MDM particle mass could be relaxed to $\sim10^8$ GeV, which would need some nonthermal production mechanisms to give a correct relic abundance, the Landau pole scale could be pushed up above the Planck scale.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Confronting the real scalar septuplet minimal dark matter model with vacuum stability, perturbativity, and Type-I and Type-III seesaws

We study a real scalar septuplet model which has a neutral component regarded as a dark matter particle candidate. The calculation of its thermal relic abundance without (with) the Sommerfeld effect suggests that the observed value corresponds to the mass of the dark matter particle $m_0 \gtrsim 8.8~(25)~\mathrm{TeV}$. Two extra quartic couplings $λ_2$ and $λ_3$ introduced in this model affect the running of other couplings, and hence the vacuum stability and the perturbativity up to the Planck scale. Therefore, the vacuum stability and the perturbativity conditions can constrain these couplings into a narrow region in the $λ_2$-$λ_3$ plane. Other constraints from $h\toγγ$, electroweak oblique parameters, and direct and indirect DM searches are also investigated. Moreover, we survey the vacuum stability and the perturbativity in the model combining the septuplet with the Type-I or Type-III seesaw. The running of couplings is further altered when the energy scale goes above the seesaw scale. In the Type-I case, when the seesaw scale $\sim 10^{15}~\mathrm{GeV}$, the vacuum stability condition makes the acceptable region in the $λ_2$-$λ_3$ plane much narrower. In the Type-III case, if the seesaw scale is $\lesssim 52~\mathrm{TeV}$ or $\gtrsim 10^{15}~\mathrm{GeV}$, the acceptable region vanishes.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Measuring the extragalactic background light from very high energy gamma-ray observations of blazars

The extragalactic background light (EBL) contains important information about stellar and galaxy evolution. It leaves imprint on the very high energy $γ$-ray spectra from sources at cosmological distances due to the process of pair production. In this work we propose to {\em measure} the EBL directly by extracting the collective attenuation effects in a number of $γ$-ray sources at different redshifts. Using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo fitting method, the EBL intensities and the intrinsic spectral parameters of $γ$-ray sources are derived simultaneously. No prior shape of EBL is assumed in the fit. With this method, we can for the first time to derive the spectral shape of the EBL model-independently. Our result shows the expected features predicted by the present EBL models and thus support the understanding of the EBL origin.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Constraining the interaction strength between dark matter and visible matter: II. scalar, vector and spin-3/2 dark matter

We investigate the constraints on the scalar, vector and spin-3/2 dark matter interaction with the standard model particles, from the observations of dark matter relic density, the direct detection experiments of CDMS and XENON, and the indirect detection of the antiproton-to-proton ratio by PAMELA. A model independent way is adopted by constructing general 4-particle operators up to dimension 6 for the effective interaction between dark matter and standard model particles. We find that the constraints from different experiments are complementary with each other. Comparison among these constraints may exclude some effective models of dark matter and limit some parameters of others. The spin-independent direct detection gives strong constraints for some operators, while the indirect detection of antiproton-to-proton data can be more sensitive than direct detection or relic density for light dark matter (whose mass less than 70 GeV) in some cases. The constraints on some operators for spin-3/2 dark matter are shown to be similar to those on their analogous operators for Dirac fermionic dark matter. There are still some operators not sensitive to the current dark matter direct and indirect search experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Constraining the interaction strength between dark matter and visible matter: I. fermionic dark matter

In this work we study the constraints on the dark matter interaction with the standard model particles, from the observations of dark matter relic density, the direct detection experiments of CDMS and XENON, and the indirect detection of the antiproton-to-proton ratio by PAMELA. A model independent way is adopted in the study by constructing the effective interaction operators between dark matter and standard model particles. The most general 4-fermion operators are investigated. We find that the constraints from different observations are complementary with each other. Especially the spin independent scattering gives very strong constraints for corresponding operators. In some cases the indirect detection of antiproton-to-proton data can actually be more sensitive than the direct detection or relic density for light dark matter (less than 70 GeV).

hep-ph↗