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A bstract Hidden sectors are ubiquitous in supergravity theories, in strings and in branes. Well motivated models such as the Stueckelberg hidden sector model could provide a candidate for dark matter. In such models, the hidden sector communicates with the visible sector via the exchange of a dark photon (dark Z ′) while dark matter is constituted of Dirac fermions in the hidden sector. Using data from collider searches and precision measurements of SM processes as well as the most recent limits from dark matter direct and indirect detection experiments, we perform a comprehensive scan over a wide range of the Z ′ mass and set exclusion bounds on the parameter space from sub-GeV to several TeV. We then discuss the discovery potential of an $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (TeV) scale Z ′ at HL-LHC and the ability of future forward detectors to probe very weakly interacting sub-GeV Z ′ bosons. Our analysis shows that the parameter space in which a Z ′ can decay to hidden sector dark matter is severely constrained whereas limits become much weaker for a Z ′ with no dark decays. The analysis also favors a self-thermalized dark sector which is necessary to satisfy the dark matter relic density. 

A bstract An analysis of a tower of hidden sectors coupled to each other, with one of these hidden sectors coupled to the visible sector, is given and the implications of such couplings on physics in the visible sector are investigated. Thus the analysis considers n number of hidden sectors where the visible sector couples only to hidden sector 1, while the latter couples also to hidden sector 2, and the hidden sector 2 couples to hidden sector 3 and so on. A set of successively feeble couplings of the hidden sectors to the visible sector are generated in such a set up. In general each of these sectors live in a different heat bath. We develop a closed form set of coupled Boltzmann equations for the correlated evolution of the temperatures and number densities of each of the heat baths. We then apply the formalism to a simplified model with scalar portals between the different sectors. Predictions related to dark matter direct detection experiments and future CMB probes of dark radiation are made. 

Abstract The recent analysis from the SH0ES collaboration has confirmed the existence of a Hubble tension between measurements at high redshift ( z > 1000) and at low redshift ( z < 1) at the 5 σ level with the low redshift measurement giving a higher value. In this work we propose a particle physics model that can help alleviate the Hubble tension via an out-of-equilibrium hidden sector coupled to the visible sector. The particles that populate the dark sector consist of a dark fermion, which acts as dark matter, a dark photon, a massive scalar and a massless pseudo-scalar. Assuming no initial population of particles in the dark sector, feeble couplings between the visible and the hidden sectors via kinetic mixing populate the dark sector even though the number densities of hidden sector particles never reach their equilibrium distribution and the two sectors remain at different temperatures. A cosmologically consistent analysis is presented where a correlated evolution of the visible and the hidden sectors with coupled Boltzmann equations involving two temperatures, one for the visible sector and the other for the hidden sector, is carried out. The relic density of the dark matter constituted of dark fermions is computed in this two-temperature formalism. As a consequence, BBN predictions are upheld with a minimal contribution to Δ N eff . However, the out-of-equilibrium decay of the massive scalar to the massless pseudo-scalar close to the recombination time causes an increase in Δ N eff that can help weaken the Hubble tension. 

A bstract Analysis of EDGES data shows an absorption signal of the redshifted 21-cm line of atomic hydrogen at z ∼ 17 which is stronger than expected from the standard ΛCDM model. The absorption signal interpreted as brightness temperature T 21 of the 21-cm line gives an amplitude of $$ -{500}_{-500}^{+200} $$ − 500 − 500 + 200 mK at 99% C.L. which is a 3.8 σ deviation from what the standard ΛCDM cosmology gives. We present a particle physics model for the baryon cooling where a fraction of the dark matter resides in the hidden sector with a U(1) gauge symmetry and a Stueckelberg mechanism operates mixing the visible and the hidden sectors with the hidden sector consisting of dark Dirac fermions and dark photons. The Stueckelberg mass mixing mechanism automatically generates a millicharge for the hidden sector dark fermions providing a theoretical basis for using millicharged dark matter to produce the desired cooling of baryons seen by EDGES by scattering from millicharged dark matter. We compute the relic density of the millicharged dark matter by solving a set of coupled equations for the dark fermion and dark photon yields and for the temperature ratio of the hidden sector and the visible sector heat baths. For the analysis of baryon cooling, we analyze the evolution equations for the temperatures of baryons and millicharged dark matter as a function of the redshift. We exhibit regions of the parameter space which allow consistency with the EDGES data. We note that the Stueckelberg mechanism arises naturally in strings and the existence of a millicharge would point to its string origin. 

Abstract The recent muong− 2 result from Fermilab combined with the Brookhaven result, strongly points to new physics beyond the Standard Model which can be well described by the electroweak sector of supersymmetry if the masses of the sleptons and some of the electroweak gauginos are in the few hundred GeV range. However, the Higgs boson mass measurement at 125 GeV indicates a mass scale for squarks which lies in the few TeV region indicating a split mass spectrum between squarks and sleptons. This apparent puzzle is resolved in a natural way in gluino-driven radiative breaking of the electroweak symmetry where radiative breaking is driven by a large gluino mass and the gluino color interactions lead to a large splitting between the squarks and the sleptons. We show that an analysis without prejudice using an artificial neural network also leads to the gluino-driven radiative breaking. We use a set of benchmarks and a deep neural network analysis to test the model for the discovery of light sleptons and sneutrinos at HL-LHC and HE-LHC. 

Abstract It is shown that a decaying neutralino in a supergravity unified framework is a viable candidate for dark matter. Such a situation arises in the presence of a hidden sector with ultraweak couplings to the visible sector where the neutralino can decay into the hidden sector’s lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) with a lifetime larger than the lifetime of the universe. We present a concrete model where the MSSM/SUGRA is extended to include a hidden sector comprised of $$U(1)_{X_1} \times U(1)_{X_2}$$ U ( 1 ) X 1 × U ( 1 ) X 2 gauge sector and the LSP of the hidden sector is a neutralino which is lighter than the LSP neutralino of the visible sector. We compute the loop suppressed radiative decay of the visible sector neutralino into the neutralino of the hidden sector and show that the decay can occur with a lifetime larger than the age of the universe. The decaying neutralino can be probed by indirect detection experiments, specifically by its signature decay into the hidden sector neutralino and an energetic gamma ray photon. Such a gamma ray can be searched for with improved sensitivity at Fermi-LAT and by future experiments such as the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) and the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). We present several benchmarks which have a natural suppression of the hadronic channels from dark matter annihilation and decays and consistent with measurements of the antiproton background. 

A bstract We investigate the Yukawa coupling unification for the third generation in a class of SO(10) unified models which are consistent with the 4.2 σ deviation from the standard model of the muon g − 2 seen by the Fermilab experiment E989. A recent analysis in supergravity grand unified models shows that such an effect can arise from supersymmetric loops correction. Using a neural network, we further analyze regions of the parameter space where Yukawa coupling unification consistent with the Fermilab result can appear. In the analysis we take into account the contributions to Yukawas from the cubic and the quartic interactions. We test the model at the high luminosity and high energy LHC and estimate the integrated luminosities needed to discover sparticles predicted by the model. 

A bstract We present a particle physics model to explain the observed enhancement in the Xenon-1T data at an electron recoil energy of 2.5 keV. The model is based on a U(1) extension of the Standard Model where the dark sector consists of two essentially mass degenerate Dirac fermions in the sub-GeV region with a small mass splitting interacting with a dark photon. The dark photon is unstable and decays before the big bang nucleosynthesis, which leads to the dark matter constituted of two essentially mass degenerate Dirac fermions. The Xenon-1T excess is computed via the inelastic exothermic scattering of the heavier dark fermion from a bound electron in xenon to the lighter dark fermion producing the observed excess events in the recoil electron energy. The model can be tested with further data from Xenon-1T and in future experiments such as SuperCDMS. 

A bstract An analysis of sub-MeV dark photon as dark matter is given which is achieved with two hidden sectors, one of which interacts directly with the visible sector while the second has only indirect coupling with the visible sector. The formalism for the evolution of three bath temperatures for the visible sector and the two hidden sectors is developed and utilized in solution of Boltzmann equations coupling the three sectors. We present exclusion plots where the sub-MeV dark photon can be dark matter. The analysis can be extended to a multi-temperature universe with multiple hidden sectors and multiple heat baths.