Viable Dark Matter via Radiative Symmetry Breaking in a Scalar Singlet Higgs Portal Extension of the Standard Model

T. G. Steele, Zhi-Wei Wang, D. Contreras, and R. B. Mann

Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 171602 – Published 30 April 2014

Abstract

We consider the generation of dark matter mass via radiative electroweak symmetry breaking in an extension of the conformal standard model containing a singlet scalar field with a Higgs portal interaction. Generating the mass from a sequential process of radiative electroweak symmetry breaking followed by a conventional Higgs mechanism can account for less than 35% of the cosmological dark matter abundance for dark matter mass $M_{s} > 80 GeV$ . However, in a dynamical approach where both Higgs and scalar singlet masses are generated via radiative electroweak symmetry breaking, we obtain much higher levels of dark matter abundance. At one-loop level we find abundances of 10%–100% with $106 GeV < M_{s} < 120 GeV$ . However, when the higher-order effects needed for consistency with a 125 GeV Higgs mass are estimated, the abundance becomes 10%–80% for $80 GeV < M_{s} < 96 GeV$ , representing a significant decrease in the dark matter mass. The dynamical approach also predicts a small scalar-singlet self-coupling, providing a natural explanation for the astrophysical observations that place upper bounds on dark matter self-interaction. The predictions in all three approaches are within the $M_{s} > 80 GeV$ detection region of the next generation XENON experiment.