Search

A B-mode polarization signal in the cosmic microwave background is widely regarded as smoking gun evidence for gravitational waves produced during inflation. Here we demonstrate that tensor perturbations from a cosmological phase transition in the post-inflationary universe can nearly mimic the characteristic shape and power of inflationary predictions across a range of observable angular scales. Although phase transitions arise from subhorizon physics, they nevertheless exhibit a white noise power spectrum on superhorizon scales. Thus, while B-mode power is suppressed on these large scales, it is not necessarily negligible. For viable phase transition parameters, the maximal B-mode amplitude at multipole moments around the recombination peak can be comparable to nearly all single-field inflationary predictions that can be tested with current and future experiments. This approximate degeneracy can be broken if a signal is measured at different angular scales, since the inflationary power spectrum is nearly scale invariant while the phase transition predicts a distinct suppression of power on large scales., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

In this work, we study the cosmological effects of a tower of warm dark matter states on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and on large-scale structure (LSS). For concreteness, we consider the $N$naturalness model, which is a proposed mechanism to solve the Higgs hierarchy problem. In this framework, the sector of particles of the Standard Model is copied $N$ times where the Higgs mass-squared value is the only parameter that changes between sectors. The other sectors are similar to our own, except their particles are proportionally heavier and cooler compared to the Standard Model sector. Since each sector is extremely weakly coupled to other sectors, direct observations of the new particles are not expected. The addition of new photon-like species and new neutrino-like species, however, can be detected through the CMB and in LSS data. These additional neutrinos form a tower of states with increasing mass and decreasing temperature compared to the SM neutrinos. This tower causes a more gradual suppression of the matter power spectrum across different comoving wavenumbers than a single warm dark matter state would. We quantitatively explore these effects in the $N$naturalness model and compute the parameter space allowed by the Planck 2018, weak lensing, and Lyman-$\alpha$ datasets. Depending on the underlying parameters, Planck 2018 and weak lensing data can require $N$naturalness to be tuned at the $10\%$ level for Dirac neutrinos and at the $5\%$ level for Majorana neutrinos. The additional neutrino states are crucial in constraining the model, particularly through their suppression of the power spectrum at small scales. The inclusion of many warm dark matter species is computationally very challenging and we make detailed assessments of our approximations and comment on potential future improvements., Comment: 36 pages, 15 captioned figures, 4 tables

We consider the possibility of indirect detection of dark sector processes by investigating a novel form of interaction between ambient dark matter (DM) and primordial black holes (PBHs). The basic scenario we envisage is that the ambient DM is ``dormant'', \ie, it has interactions with the SM, but its potential for an associated SM signal is not realized for various reasons. We argue that the presence of PBHs with active Hawking radiation (independent of any DM considerations) can act as a catalyst in this regard by overcoming the aforementioned bottlenecks. The central point is that PBHs radiate all types of particles, whether in the standard model (SM) or beyond (BSM), which have a mass at or below their Hawking temperature. The emission of such radiation is ``democratic" (up to the particle spin), since it is based on a coupling of sorts of gravitational origin. In particular, such shining of (possibly dark sector) particles onto ambient DM can then activate the latter into giving potentially observable SM signals. We illustrate this general mechanism with two specific models. First, we consider asymmetric DM, which is characterized by an absence of ambient anti-DM, and consequently the absence of DM indirect detection signals. In this case, PBHs can ``resurrect'' such a signal by radiating anti-DM, which then annihilates with ambient DM in order to give SM particles such as photons. In our second example, we consider the PBH emission of dark gauge bosons which can excite ambient DM into a heavier state (which is, again, not ambient otherwise), this heavier state later decays back into DM and photons. Finally, we demonstrate that we can obtain observable signals of these BSM models from asteroid-mass PBHs (Hawking radiating currently with $\sim \mathcal{O}(\mathrm{MeV})$ temperatures) at gamma-ray experiments such as AMEGO-X., Comment: 19 pages + 3 appendices, 9 figures

In studying secondary gamma-ray emissions from Primordial Black Holes (PBHs), the production of scalar particles like pions and axion-like particles (ALPs) via Hawking radiation is crucial. While previous analyses assumed relativistic production, asteroid-mass PBHs, relevant to upcoming experiments like AMEGO-X, likely produce pions and ALPs non-relativistically when their masses exceed 10 MeV. To account for mass dependence in Hawking radiation, we revisit the greybody factors for massive scalars from Schwarzschild black holes, revealing significant mass corrections to particle production rates compared to the projected AMEGO-X sensitivity. We highlight the importance of considering non-relativistic $\pi^0$ production in interpreting PBH gamma-ray signals, essential for determining PBH properties. Additionally, we comment on the potential suppression of pion production due to form factor effects when producing extended objects via Hawking radiation. We also provide an example code for calculating the Hawking radiation spectrum of massive scalar particles., Comment: v1: 16+2 pages, 8 figures.v2: version published in JHEP. The numerical code is available at https://github.com/Hao-Ran-Brook/HoRNS

A phase shift in the acoustic oscillations of cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectra is a characteristic signature for the presence of non-photon radiation propagating differently from photons, even when the radiation couples to the Standard Model particles solely gravitationally. It is well-established that compared to the presence of free-streaming radiation, CMB spectra shift to higher $\ell$-modes in the presence of self-interacting non-photon radiation such as neutrinos and dark radiation. In this study, we further demonstrate that the scattering of non-photon radiation with dark matter can further amplify this phase shift. We show that when the energy density of the interacting radiation surpasses that of interacting dark matter around matter-radiation equality, the phase shift enhancement is proportional to the interacting dark matter abundance and remains insensitive to the radiation energy density. Given the presence of dark matter-radiation interaction, this additional phase shift emerges as a generic signature of models featuring an interacting dark sector or neutrino-dark matter scattering. Using neutrino-dark matter scattering as an example, we numerically calculate the amplified phase shift and offer an analytical interpretation of the result by modeling photon and neutrino perturbations with coupled harmonic oscillators. This framework also explains the phase shift contrast between self-interacting and free-streaming neutrinos. Fitting models with neutrino-dark matter or dark radiation-dark matter interactions to CMB and large-scale structure data, we validate the presence of the enhanced phase shift, affirmed by the linear dependence observed between the preferred regions of the sound horizon angle $\theta_s$ and interacting dark matter abundance., Comment: 54 pages, 22 figures, 5 tables

Identifying the anisotropies in a cosmologically sourced stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) would be of significance in shedding light on the nature of primordial inhomogeneities. For example, if SGWB carries isocurvature fluctuations, it would provide evidence for a multi-field inflationary origin of these inhomogeneities. However, this is challenging in practice due to finite detector sensitivity and also the presence of the astrophysical foregrounds that can compete with the cosmological signal. In this work, we explore the prospects for measuring cosmological SGWB anisotropies in the presence of an astrophysical counterpart and detector noise. To illustrate the main idea, we perform a Fisher analysis using a well-motivated cosmological SGWB template corresponding to a first order phase transition, and an astrophysical SGWB template corresponding to extra-galactic binary mergers, and compute the uncertainty with which various parameters characterizing the isotropic and anisotropic components can be extracted. We also discuss some subtleties and caveats involving shot noise in the astrophysical foreground. Overall, we show that upcoming experiments, e.g., LISA, Taiji, Einstein Telescope, Cosmic Explorer, and BBO, can all be effective in discovering plausible anisotropic cosmological SGWBs., Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures

In this paper, we study a possible early universe source for the recent observation of a stochastic gravitational wave background at the NANOGrav pulsar timing array. The source is a tachyonic instability in a dark gauge field induced by an axion-like particle (ALP), a known source for gravitational waves. We find that relative to the previous analysis with the NANOGrav 12.5-year data set, the current 15-year data set favors parameter space with a relatively larger axion mass and decay constant. This favored parameter space is heavily constrained by $\Delta N_{\rm eff}$ and overproduction of ALP dark matter. While there are potential mechanisms for avoiding the second problem, evading the $\Delta N_{\rm eff}$ constraint remains highly challenging. In particular, we find that the gravitational wave magnitude is significantly suppressed with respect to the gauge boson dark radiation, which implies that successfully explaining the NANOGrav observation requires a large additional dark radiation, violating the cosmological constraints. Satisfying the $\Delta N_{\rm eff}$ constraint will limit the potential contribution from this mechanism to the observed signal to at most a percent level., Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures. Matches published version

We explore the potential of precision cosmological data to study non-minimal dark sectors by updating the cosmological constraint on the mirror twin Higgs model (MTH). The MTH model addresses the Higgs little hierarchy problem by introducing dark sector particles. In this work, we perform a Bayesian global analysis that includes the latest cosmic shear measurement from the DES three-year survey and the Planck CMB and BAO data. In the early Universe, the mirror baryon and mirror radiation behave as dark matter and dark radiation, and their presence modifies the Universe's expansion history. Additionally, the scattering between mirror baryon and photon generates the dark acoustic oscillation process, suppressing the matter power spectrum from the cosmic shear measurement. We demonstrate how current data constrain these corrections to the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology and find that for a viable solution to the little hierarchy problem, the proportion of MTH dark matter cannot exceed about $30\%$ of the total dark matter density, unless the temperature of twin photon is less than $30\%$ of that of the standard model photon. While the MTH model is presently not a superior solution to the observed $H_0$ tension compared to the $\Lambda$CDM+$\Delta N_{\rm eff}$ model, we demonstrate that it has the potential to alleviate both the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions, especially if the $S_8$ tension persists in the future and approaches the result reported by the Planck SZ (2013) analysis. In this case, the MTH model can relax the tensions while satisfying the DES power spectrum constraint up to $k \lesssim 10~h\rm {Mpc}^{-1}$. If the MTH model is indeed accountable for the $S_8$ and $H_0$ tensions, we show that the future China Space Station Telescope (CSST) can determine the twin baryon abundance with a $10\%$ level precision., Comment: 32 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables. Published in JCAP

Particles with masses much larger than the inflationary Hubble scale, $H_I$, can be pair-produced non-adiabatically during inflation. Due to their large masses, the produced particles modify the curvature perturbation around their locations. These localized perturbations eventually give rise to localized signatures on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), in particular, pairwise hotspots (PHS). In this work, we show that Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) provide a powerful tool for identifying PHS on the CMB. While for a given hotspot profile a traditional Matched Filter Analysis is known to be optimal, a Neural Network learns to effectively detect the large variety of shapes that can arise in realistic models of particle production. Considering an idealized situation where the dominant background to the PHS signal comes from the standard CMB fluctuations, we show that a CNN can isolate the PHS with $\mathcal{O}(10)\%$ efficiency even if the hotspot temperature is $\mathcal{O}(10)$ times smaller than the average CMB fluctuations. Overall, the CNN search is sensitive to heavy particle masses $M_0/H_I=\mathcal{O}(200)$, and constitutes one of the unique probes of very high energy particle physics.

Future gamma-ray experiments, such as the e-ASTROGAM and AMEGO telescopes, can detect the Hawking radiation of photons from primordial black holes (PBHs) if they make up a fraction or all of dark matter. PBHs can analogously also Hawking radiate new particles, which is especially interesting if these particles are mostly secluded from the Standard Model (SM) sector, since they might therefore be less accessible otherwise. A well-motivated example of this type is axion-like particles (ALPs) with a tiny coupling to photons. We assume that the ALPs produced by PBHs decay into photons well before reaching the earth, so these will augment the photons directly radiated by the PBHs. Remarkably, we find that the peaks in the energy distributions of ALPs produced from PBHs are different than the corresponding ones for Hawking radiated photons due to the spin-dependent greybody factor. Therefore, we demonstrate that this process will in fact distinctively modify the PBHs' gamma-ray spectrum relative to the SM prediction. We use monochromatic asteroid-mass PBHs as an example to show that e-ASTROGAM can observe the PBH-produced ALP gamma-ray signal (for masses up to ~60 MeV) and further distinguish it from Hawking radiation without ALPs. By measuring the gamma-ray signals, e-ASTROGAM can thereby probe yet unexplored parameters in the ALP mass and photon coupling., Comment: 8 pages + references, 5 figures

Atomic dark matter is a simple but highly theoretically motivated possibility for an interacting dark sector that could constitute some or all of dark matter. We perform a comprehensive study of precision cosmological observables on minimal atomic dark matter, exploring for the first time the full parameter space of dark QED coupling and dark electron and proton masses $(\alpha_{D}, m_{e_{D}}, m_{p_{D}})$ as well as the two cosmological parameters of aDM mass fraction $f_{D}$ and temperature ratio $\xi$ at time of SM recombination. We also show how aDM can accommodate the $(H_0, S_8)$ tension from late-time measurements, leading to a better fit than $\Lambda$CDM or $\Lambda$CDM + dark radiation. Furthermore, including late-time measurements leads to closed contours of preferred $\xi$ and dark hydrogen binding energy. The dark proton mass is seemingly unconstrained. Our results serve as an important new jumping-off point for future precision studies of atomic dark matter at non-linear and smaller scales., Comment: 29 pages + references, 2 tables, 13 figures v2: Significant improvements and further performed checks for public CLASS-aDM code to increase reliability across aDM parameter space. Reran all scans, used newer KiDS-1000 measurement of S_8, no significant change to main results or conclusions, but added plot showing preferred DeltaNeff and dark binding energy

We report on recent progress and next steps in the design of the proposed MATHUSLA Long Lived Particle (LLP) detector for the HL-LHC as part of the Snowmass 2021 process. Our understanding of backgrounds has greatly improved, aided by detailed simulation studies, and significant R&D has been performed on designing the scintillator detectors and understanding their performance. The collaboration is on track to complete a Technical Design Report, and there are many opportunities for interested new members to contribute towards the goal of designing and constructing MATHUSLA in time for HL-LHC collisions, which would increase the sensitivity to a large variety of highly motivated LLP signals by orders of magnitude., Comment: Contribution to Snowmass 2021 (EF09, EF10, IF6, IF9), 18 pages, 12 figures. v2: included additional endorsers. v3: updated affiliations. v4: added missing contributors as authors

We update cosmological constraints on two decaying dark matter models in light of BOSS-DR12 data analyzed under the Effective Field Theory of Large-Scale Structures (EFTofLSS) formalism, together with Planck, Pantheon and other BOSS measurements of the baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO). In the first model, a fraction $f_{\rm dcdm}$ of cold dark matter (CDM) decays into dark radiation (DR) with a lifetime $\tau$. In the second model (recently suggested as a potential resolution to the $S_8$ tension), all the CDM decays with a lifetime $\tau$ into DR and a massive warm dark matter (WDM) particle, with a fraction $\varepsilon$ of the CDM rest mass energy transferred to the DR. Using numerical codes from the recent literature, we perform the first calculation of the mildly non-linear (matter and galaxy) power spectra with the EFTofLSS for these two models. In the case of DR products, we obtain the constraints $f_{\rm dcdm}\lesssim0.022$ (95\% C.L.) for lifetimes shorter than the age of the universe, and $\tau/f_{\rm dcdm} \gtrsim 250$ Gyr in the long-lived regime assuming $f_{\rm dcdm}\to1$. We show that Planck data contributes the most to these constraints, with EFTofBOSS providing a marginal improvement over conventional BAO and redshift space distortions ($f\sigma_8$) data. In the case of DR and WDM decay products, we find that EFTofBOSS data significantly improves the constraints at 68\% C.L. on the CDM lifetime with a $S_8$ prior from KiDS-1000. We show that, in order to fit EFTofBOSS data while lowering $S_8$ to match KiDS-1000, the best-fit model has a longer lifetime $\tau = 120$ Gyr, with a larger kick velocity $v_{\rm kick}/c \simeq \varepsilon \simeq 1.2\%$, than that without EFTofBOSS ($\tau = 43$ Gyr, $\varepsilon =0.6\%$). We anticipate that future surveys will provide exquisite constraints on such models., Comment: 30 pages (including appendices), 17 figures. Comments welcome!

Theoretical investigations into the evolution of the early universe are an essential part of particle physics that allow us to identify viable extensions to the Standard Model as well as motivated parameter space that can be probed by various experiments and observations. In this white paper, we review particle physics models of the early universe. First, we outline various models that explain two essential ingredients of the early universe (dark matter and baryon asymmetry) and those that seek to address current observational anomalies. We then discuss dynamics of the early universe in models of neutrino masses, axions, and several solutions to the electroweak hierarchy problem. Finally, we review solutions to naturalness problems of the Standard Model that employ cosmological dynamics., Comment: contribution to Snowmass 2021

Asteroid-mass primordial black holes (PBH) can explain the observed dark matter abundance while being consistent with the current indirect detection constraints. These PBH can produce gamma-ray signals from Hawking radiation that are within the sensitivity of future measurements by the AMEGO and e-ASTROGAM experiments. PBH which give rise to such observable gamma-ray signals have a cosmic origin from large primordial curvature fluctuations. There must then be a companion, stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background produced by the same curvature fluctuations. We demonstrate that the resulting GW signals will be well within the sensitivity of future detectors such as LISA, DECIGO, BBO, and the Einstein Telescope. The multi-messenger signal from the observed gamma-rays and GW will allow a precise measurement of the primordial curvature perturbation that produces the PBH. Indeed, we argue that the resulting correlation between the two types of observations can provide a smoking-gun signal of PBH., Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures. v2: version published in PRD, fixed a typo in Eq.28

We present cosmological constraints on the sum of neutrino masses as a function of the neutrino lifetime, in a framework in which neutrinos decay into dark radiation after becoming non-relativistic. We find that in this regime the cosmic microwave background (CMB), baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) and (uncalibrated) luminosity distance to supernovae from the Pantheon catalog constrain the sum of neutrino masses $\sum m_\nu$ to obey $\sum m_\nu< 0.42$ eV at (95$\%$ C.L.). While the the bound has improved significantly as compared to the limits on the same scenario from Planck 2015, it still represents a significant relaxation of the constraints as compared to the stable neutrino case. We show that most of the improvement can be traced to the more precise measurements of low-$\ell$ polarization data in Planck 2018, which leads to tighter constraints on $\tau_{\rm reio}$ (and thereby on $A_s$), breaking the degeneracy arising from the effect of (large) neutrino masses on the amplitude of the CMB power spectrum., Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures. v2 matches published JHEP version. Comments welcome!

The mirror twin Higgs model (MTH) is a solution to the Higgs hierarchy problem that provides well-predicted cosmological signatures with only three extra parameters: the temperature of the twin sector, the abundance of twin baryons, and the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of twin electroweak symmetry breaking. These parameters specify the behavior of twin radiation and the acoustic oscillations of twin baryons, which lead to testable effects on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large-scale structure (LSS). While collider searches can only probe the twin VEV, through a fit to cosmological data we show that the existing CMB (Planck18 TTTEEE+lowE+lowT+lensing) and LSS (KV450) data already provide useful constraints on the remaining MTH parameters. Additionally, we show that the presence of twin radiation in this model can raise the Hubble constant $H_0$ while the scattering twin baryons can reduce the matter fluctuations $S_8$, which helps to relax the observed $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions simultaneously. This scenario is different from the typical $\Lambda$CDM + $\Delta N_{\rm eff}$ model, in which extra radiation helps with the Hubble tension but worsens the $S_8$ tension. For instance, when including the SH0ES and Planck SZ data in the fit, we find that a universe with $\gtrsim 20\%$ of the dark matter comprised of twin baryons is preferred over $\Lambda$CDM by $\sim4\sigma$. If the twin sector is indeed responsible for resolving the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions, future measurements from the Euclid satellite and CMB Stage 4 experiment will further measure the twin parameters to $O(1-10\%)$-level precision. Our study demonstrates how models with hidden naturalness can potentially be probed using precision cosmological data., Comment: 45 pages, 18 figures. Published version: Fixed a typo in the code, expanded the discussion of CMB phase shift in the MTH model, conclusions are unchanged. Code available at https://github.com/srbPhy/class_twin

Dark matter (DM) with a mass below a few keV must have a phase space distribution that differs substantially from the Standard Model particle thermal phase space: otherwise, it will free stream out of cosmic structures as they form. We observe that fermionic DM psi in this mass range will have a non-negligible momentum in the early Universe, even in the total absence of thermal kinetic energy. This is because the fermions were inevitably more dense at higher redshifts, and thus experienced Pauli degeneracy pressure. They fill up the lowest-momentum states, such that a typical fermion gains a momentum ~ O(p_F) that can exceed its mass m_psi. We find a simple relation between m_psi, the current fraction f_psi of the cold DM energy density in light fermions, and the redshift at which they were relativistic. Considering the impacts of the transition between nonrelativistic and relativistic behavior as revealed by measurements of DNeff and the matter power spectrum, we derive qualitatively new bounds in the f_psi-m_psi plane. We also improve existing bounds for f_psi = 1 by an order of magnitude to m_psi=2 keV. We remark on implications for direct detection and suggest models of dark sectors that may give rise to cosmologically degenerate fermions., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

Dark radiation (DR) appears as a new physics candidate in various scenarios beyond the Standard Model. While it is often assumed that perturbations in DR are adiabatic, they can easily have an isocurvature component if more than one field was present during inflation, and whose decay products did not all thermalize with each other. By implementing the appropriate isocurvature initial conditions (IC), we derive the constraints on both uncorrelated and correlated DR density isocurvature perturbations from the full Planck 2018 data alone, and also in combination with other cosmological data sets. Our study on free-streaming DR (FDR) updates and generalizes the existing bound on neutrino density isocurvature perturbations by including a varying number of relativistic degrees of freedom, and for coupled DR (CDR) isocurvature, we derive the first bound. We also show that for CDR qualitatively new physical effects arise compared to FDR. One such effect is that for isocurvature IC, FDR gives rise to larger CMB anisotropies compared to CDR -- contrary to the adiabatic case. More generally, we find that a blue-tilt of DR isocurvature spectrum is preferred. This gives rise to a larger value of the Hubble constant $H_0$ compared to the standard $\Lambda$CDM+$\Delta N_{\rm eff}$ cosmology with adiabatic spectra and relaxes the $H_0$ tension., Comment: 50 pages, 22 figures and 11 tables. Changes in v2: Analyses extended, conclusion unchanged. Matches the version published in JCAP

Heavy particles with masses much bigger than the inflationary Hubble scale $H_*$, can get non-adiabatically pair produced during inflation through their couplings to the inflaton. If such couplings give rise to time-dependent masses for the heavy particles, then following their production, the heavy particles modify the curvature perturbation around their locations in a time-dependent and scale non-invariant manner. This results into a non-trivial spatial profile of the curvature perturbation that is preserved on superhorizon scales and eventually generates localized hot or cold spots on the CMB. We explore this phenomenon by studying the inflationary production of heavy scalars and derive the final temperature profile of the spots on the CMB by taking into account the subhorizon evolution, focusing in particular on the parameter space where pairwise hot spots (PHS) arise. When the heavy scalar has an $\mathcal{O}(1)$ coupling to the inflaton, we show that for an idealized situation where the dominant background to the PHS signal comes from the standard CMB fluctuations themselves, a simple position space search based on applying a temperature cut, can be sensitive to heavy particle masses $M_0/H_*\sim\mathcal{O}(100)$. The corresponding PHS signal also modifies the CMB power spectra and bispectra, although the corrections are below (outside) the sensitivity of current measurements (searches)., Comment: 25+5 pages, 9+2 figures

In this paper, we describe the potential of the LHCb experiment to detect Stealth physics. This refers to dynamics beyond the Standard Model that would elude searches that focus on energetic objects or precision measurements of known processes. Stealth signatures include long-lived particles and light resonances that are produced very rarely or together with overwhelming backgrounds. We will discuss why LHCb is equipped to discover this kind of physics at the Large Hadron Collider and provide examples of well-motivated theoretical models that can be probed with great detail at the experiment., Comment: 82 pages, 31 figures. This is the version of the article before peer review or editing, as submitted by an author to Reports on Progress in Physics. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at doi:10.1088/1361-6633/ac4649

We show that axion-like particles that only couple to invisible dark photons can generate visible B-mode signals around the reionization epoch. The axion field starts rolling shortly before reionization, resulting in a tachyonic instability for the dark photons. This generates an exponential growth of the dark photon quanta sourcing both scalar metric modes and gravitational waves that leave an imprint on the reionized baryons. The tensor modes modify the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization at reionization, generating visible B-mode signatures for the next generation of CMB experiments for parameter ranges that satisfy the current experimental constraints., Comment: V2: 9 pages 2 figures. Improved the analysis by increasing the number of gauge modes from 100 to 200. Published in PRD. V1: 8 pages, 2 figures

We explore the possibility of discovering the mirror baryons and electrons of the Mirror Twin Higgs model in direct detection experiments, in a scenario in which these particles constitute a subcomponent of the observed DM. We consider a framework in which the mirror fermions are sub-nano-charged, as a consequence of kinetic mixing between the photon and its mirror counterpart. We consider both nuclear recoil and electron recoil experiments. The event rates depend on the fraction of mirror DM that is ionized, and also on its distribution in the galaxy. Since mirror DM is dissipative, at the location of the Earth it may be in the form of a halo or may have collapsed into a disk, depending on the cooling rate. For a given mirror DM abundance we determine the expected event rates in direct detection experiments for the limiting cases of an ionized halo, an ionized disk, an atomic halo and an atomic disk. We find that by taking advantage of the complementarity of the different experiments, it may be possible to establish not just the multi-component nature of mirror dark matter, but also its distribution in the galaxy. In addition, a study of the recoil energies may be able to determine the masses and charges of the constituents of the mirror sector. By showing that the mass and charge of mirror helium are integer multiples of those of mirror hydrogen, these experiments have the potential to distinguish the mirror nature of the theory. We also carefully consider mirror plasma screening effects, showing that the capture of mirror dark matter particles in the Earth has at most a modest effect on direct detection signals., Comment: 71 pages, 10 figures

We discuss new bounds on vectors coupled to currents whose non-conservation is due to mass terms, such as $U(1)_{L_\mu - L_\tau}$. Due to the emission of many final state longitudinally polarized gauge bosons, inclusive rates grow exponentially fast in energy, leading to constraints that are only logarithmically dependent on the symmetry breaking mass term. This exponential growth is unique to Stueckelberg theories and reverts back to polynomial growth at energies above the mass of the radial mode. We present bounds coming from the high transverse mass tail of mono-lepton+missing transverse energy events at the LHC, which beat out cosmological bounds to place the strongest limit on Stueckelberg $U(1)_{L_\mu - L_\tau}$ models for most masses below a keV. We also discuss a stronger, but much more uncertain, bound coming from the validity of perturbation theory at the LHC., Comment: v1: 5+6 pages, 2+2 figures; v2: new discussions and references added

Cosmological phase transitions in the primordial universe can produce anisotropic stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds (GWB), similar to the cosmic microwave background (CMB). For adiabatic perturbations, the fluctuations in GWB follow those in the CMB, but if primordial fluctuations carry an isocurvature component, this need no longer be true. It is shown that in non-minimal inflationary and reheating settings, primordial isocurvature can survive in GWB and exhibit significant non-Gaussianity (NG) in contrast to the CMB, while obeying current observational bounds. While probing such NG GWB is at best a marginal possibility at LISA, there is much greater scope at future proposed detectors such as DECIGO and BBO. It is even possible that the first observations of inflation-era NG could be made with gravitational wave detectors as opposed to the CMB or Large-Scale Structure surveys., Comment: 12+3 pages, 2 figures

We report on recent progress in the design of the proposed MATHUSLA Long Lived Particle (LLP) detector for the HL-LHC, updating the information in the original Letter of Intent (LoI), see CDS:LHCC-I-031, arXiv:1811.00927. A suitable site has been identified at LHC Point 5 that is closer to the CMS Interaction Point (IP) than assumed in the LoI. The decay volume has been increased from 20 m to 25 m in height. Engineering studies have been made in order to locate much of the decay volume below ground, bringing the detector even closer to the IP. With these changes, a 100 m x 100 m detector has the same physics reach for large c$\tau$ as the 200 m x 200 m detector described in the LoI and other studies. The performance for small c$\tau$ is improved because of the proximity to the IP. Detector technology has also evolved while retaining the strip-like sensor geometry in Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) described in the LoI. The present design uses extruded scintillator bars read out using wavelength shifting fibers and silicon photomultipliers (SiPM). Operations will be simpler and more robust with much lower operating voltages and without the use of greenhouse gases. Manufacturing is straightforward and should result in cost savings. Understanding of backgrounds has also significantly advanced, thanks to new simulation studies and measurements taken at the MATHUSLA test stand operating above ATLAS in 2018. We discuss next steps for the MATHUSLA collaboration, and identify areas where new members can make particularly important contributions., Comment: 22 pages + references, 12 Figures

Indirect dark matter (DM) detection typically involves the observation of standard model (SM) particles emerging from DM annihilation/decay inside regions of high dark matter concentration. We consider an annihilation scenario in which this reaction has to be initiated by one of the DMs involved being boosted while the other is an ambient non-relativistic particle. This "trigger" DM must be created, for example, in a previous annihilation or decay of a heavier component of DM. Remarkably, boosted DM annihilating into gamma-rays at a specific point in a galaxy could actually have traveled from its source at another point in the same galaxy or even from another galaxy. Such a "non-local" behavior leads to a non-trivial dependence of the resulting photon signal on the galactic halo parameters, such as DM density and core size, encoded in the so-called "astrophysical" $J$-factor. These non-local $J$-factors are strikingly different than the usual scenario. A distinctive aspect of this model is that the signal from dwarf galaxies relative to the Milky Way tends to be suppressed from the typical value to various degrees depending on their characteristics. This feature can thus potentially alleviate the mild tension between the DM annihilation explanation of the observed excess of $\sim$ GeV photons from the Milky Way's galactic center vs. the apparent non-observation of the corresponding signal from dwarf galaxies., Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures

We explore the cosmological signals of theories in which the neutrinos decay into invisible dark radiation after becoming non-relativistic. We show that in this scenario, near-future large scale structure measurements from the Euclid satellite, when combined with cosmic microwave background data from Planck, may allow an independent determination of both the lifetime of the neutrinos and the sum of their masses. These parameters can be independently determined because the Euclid data will cover a range of redshifts, allowing the growth of structure over time to be tracked. If neutrinos are stable on cosmological timescales, these observations can improve the lower limit on the neutrino lifetime by seven orders of magnitude, from $\mathcal{O}(10)$ years to $2\times 10^8$ years ($95\%$ C.L.), without significantly affecting the measurement of neutrino mass. On the other hand, if neutrinos decay after becoming non-relativistic but on timescales less than $\mathcal{O}(100)$ million years, these observations may allow, not just the first measurement of the sum of neutrino masses, but also the determination of the neutrino lifetime from cosmology., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

In this article we investigate the effects of single derivative mixing in massive bosonic fields. In the regime of large mixing, we show that this leads to striking changes of the field dynamics, delaying the onset of classical oscillations and decreasing, or even eliminating, the friction due to Hubble expansion. We highlight this phenomenon with a few examples. In the first example, we show how an axion like particle can have its number abundance parametrically enhanced. In the second example, we demonstrate that the QCD axion can have its number abundance enhanced allowing for misalignment driven axion dark matter all the way down to $f_a$ of order astrophysical bounds. In the third example, we show that the delayed oscillation of the scalar field can also sustain a period of inflation. In the last example, we present a situation where an oscillating scalar field is completely frictionless and does not dilute away in time., Comment: 6 + 4 pages; v2 matches version published in PRL

The LHCb detector provides accurate vertex reconstruction and hadronic particle identification, which make the experiment an ideal place to look for light long-lived particles (LLP) decaying into Standard Model (SM) hadrons. In contrast with the typical search strategy relying on energetic jets and a high multiplicity of tracks from the LLP decay, LHCb can identify LLPs in exclusive, specific hadronic final states. To illustrate the idea, we study the sensitivity of LHCb to an exotic Higgs decay $h\to SS$, followed by the displaced decay of GeV-scale scalars into charged kaons $S\to K^+K^-$. We show that the reconstruction of kaon vertices in narrow invariant mass windows can efficiently eliminate the combinatorial backgrounds from $B$-meson decays. While the same signal is extremely difficult to probe in the existing displaced jet searches at ATLAS/CMS, the LHCb search we propose can probe the branching ratio BR$(h\to SS)$ down to $0.1\%$ ($0.02\%$) level with $15$ ($300$) fb$^{-1}$ of data. We also apply this projected bound to two scenarios with Higgs portal couplings, where the scalar mediator $S$ either couples to a) the SM quarks only, or b) to both quarks and leptons in the minimal flavor violation paradigm. In both scenarios we compare the reach of our proposed search with the expected constraints from ATLAS and CMS on the invisible Higgs width and with the constraints from rare B-decays studies at LHCb. We find that for 1 GeV $< m_S < $ 2 GeV and $0.5~{\rm mm} \lesssim c \tau \lesssim 10$ mm our proposed search will be competitive with the ATLAS and CMS projections, while at the same time providing crucial information of the hadronic interactions of $S$, which can not be obtained from the {\it indirect} measurement of the Higgs invisible width., Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures

At present, the strongest upper limit on $\sum m_{\nu}$, the sum of neutrino masses, is from cosmological measurements. However, this bound assumes that the neutrinos are stable on cosmological timescales, and is not valid if the neutrino lifetime is less than the age of the universe. In this paper, we explore the cosmological signals of theories in which the neutrinos decay into invisible dark radiation on timescales of order the age of the universe, and determine the bound on the sum of neutrino masses in this scenario. We focus on the case in which the neutrinos decay after becoming non-relativistic. We derive the Boltzmann equations that govern the cosmological evolution of density perturbations in the case of unstable neutrinos, and solve them numerically to determine the effects on the matter power spectrum and lensing of the cosmic microwave background. We find that the results admit a simple analytic understanding. We then use these results to perform a Monte Carlo analysis based on the current data to determine the limit on the sum of neutrino masses as a function of the neutrino lifetime. We show that in the case of decaying neutrinos, values of $\sum m_{\nu}$ as large as 0.9 eV are still allowed by the data. Our results have important implications for laboratory experiments that have been designed to detect neutrino masses, such as KATRIN and KamLAND-ZEN., Comment: 31 pages, 6 figures. v2 matches the published JHEP version

Particles beyond the Standard Model (SM) can generically have lifetimes that are long compared to SM particles at the weak scale. When produced at experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, these long-lived particles (LLPs) can decay far from the interaction vertex of the primary proton-proton collision. Such LLP signatures are distinct from those of promptly decaying particles that are targeted by the majority of searches for new physics at the LHC, often requiring customized techniques to identify, for example, significantly displaced decay vertices, tracks with atypical properties, and short track segments. Given their non-standard nature, a comprehensive overview of LLP signatures at the LHC is beneficial to ensure that possible avenues of the discovery of new physics are not overlooked. Here we report on the joint work of a community of theorists and experimentalists with the ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb experiments --- as well as those working on dedicated experiments such as MoEDAL, milliQan, MATHUSLA, CODEX-b, and FASER --- to survey the current state of LLP searches at the LHC, and to chart a path for the development of LLP searches into the future, both in the upcoming Run 3 and at the High-Luminosity LHC. The work is organized around the current and future potential capabilities of LHC experiments to generally discover new LLPs, and takes a signature-based approach to surveying classes of models that give rise to LLPs rather than emphasizing any particular theory motivation. We develop a set of simplified models; assess the coverage of current searches; document known, often unexpected backgrounds; explore the capabilities of proposed detector upgrades; provide recommendations for the presentation of search results; and look towards the newest frontiers, namely high-multiplicity "dark showers", highlighting opportunities for expanding the LHC reach for these signals.

We show that in a confining hidden valley model where the lightest hidden particles are dark hadrons that have mass splittings larger than $\mathcal{O}(0.1)$ GeV, if the lightest dark hadron is either stable or decays into Standard Model (SM) hadrons/charged leptons during the big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), at least one of the heavier dark hadrons needs to decay into SM particles within $\mathcal{O}(10)$ nanosec. Once being produced at collider experiments, this heavier dark hadron is likely to decay within $\mathcal{O}(1)$ meter distance, which strengthens the motivation of searching for long-lived particles with sub-meter scale decay lengths at colliders. To illustrate the idea, we study the lifetime constraint in scenarios where the lightest dark particle is a pseudo-scalar meson, and dark hadrons couple to SM particles either through kinetic mixing between the SM and dark photons or by mixing between the SM and dark Higgs. We study the annihilation and decay of dark hadrons in a thermal bath and calculate upper bounds on the lightest vector meson (scalar hadron) lifetime in the kinetic mixing (Higgs portal) scenario. We discuss the application of these lifetime constraints in long-lived particle searches that use the LHCb VELO or the ATLAS/CMS inner detectors., Comment: 19 pages plus reference, 8 figures; Matches published version in JHEP; fix the author's information

The observation of long-lived particles at the LHC would reveal physics beyond the Standard Model, could account for the many open issues in our understanding of our universe, and conceivably point to a more complete theory of the fundamental interactions. Such long-lived particle signatures are fundamentally motivated and can appear in virtually every theoretical construct that address the Hierarchy Problem, Dark Matter, Neutrino Masses and the Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe. We describe in this document a large detector, MATHUSLA, located on the surface above an HL-LHC $pp$ interaction point, that could observe long-lived particles with lifetimes up to the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis limit of 0.1 s. We also note that its large detector area allows MATHUSLA to make important contributions to cosmic ray physics. Because of the potential for making a major breakthrough in our conceptual understanding of the universe, long-lived particle searches should have the highest level of priority., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Input to the update process of the European Strategy for Particle Physics by the MATHUSLA collaboration (http://mathusla.web.cern.ch). See also CERN-PBC-REPORT-2018-007 for the ESPP contribution of the Physics Beyond Colliders working group, which contains a discussion of low-energy simplified models as well as some comments on MATHUSLA's budget and timelines

We study self-interacting dark matter signatures at the Large Hadron Collider. A light dark photon, mediating dark matter self-interactions, can bind dark matter particles to form a bound state when they are produced via a heavy pseduoscalar in $pp$ collisions. The bound state can further annihilate into a pair of boosted dark photons, which subsequently decay into charged leptons through a kinetic mixing portal, resulting in striking displaced lepton jet signals. After adapting the analysis used in the ATLAS experiment, we explore the reach of the model parameters at the $13~{\rm TeV}$ run with an integrated luminosity of $300~{\rm fb^{-1}}$. For heavy dark matter, the displaced lepton jet searches can surpass traditional monojet signals in setting the lower bound on the pseduoscalar mass. If a positive signal is detected, we can probe the dark matter mass and the dark coupling constant after combining both the displaced lepton jet and monojet searches. We further show the CMS dimuon search can be sensitive to the final state radiation of the dark photon. Our results demonstrate terrestrial collider experiments complement astronomical observations of galaxies in the search of the self-interacting nature of dark matter., Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures; v2: include discussions of di-muon pair searches and the dark FSR process, match the published JHEP version

We present a simple model of dark matter that can address astrophysical and cosmological puzzles across a wide range of scales. The model is an application of the Secretly Asymmetric Dark Matter mechanism, where several flavors of dark matter are fully asymmetric despite an exact dark matter number symmetry $U(1)_{\chi}$. The dark matter relic abundance arises from these asymmetries, generated in the early universe through right-handed neutrino decays. The $U(1)_{\chi}$ is gauged by a massless dark photon, and asymmetries with opposite signs in the different DM flavors result in the formation of bound states. Dark acoustic oscillations in the early universe lead to a suppression in the matter power spectrum for addressing the $\sigma_8$ problem. The dark photon as a relativistic degree of freedom contributes to $\Delta N_{eff}$, easing the tension between the CMB and late-time $H_{0}$ measurements. Finally, scattering between the bound states after structure formation leads to a flattening of the dark matter distribution at the cores of haloes., Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures. v3: Minor revisions and clarifications. Matches published version

In this Letter of Intent (LOI) we propose the construction of MATHUSLA (MAssive Timing Hodoscope for Ultra-Stable neutraL pArticles), a dedicated large-volume displaced vertex detector for the HL-LHC on the surface above ATLAS or CMS. Such a detector, which can be built using existing technologies with a reasonable budget in time for the HL-LHC upgrade, could search for neutral long-lived particles (LLPs) with up to several orders of magnitude better sensitivity than ATLAS or CMS, while also acting as a cutting-edge cosmic ray telescope at CERN to explore many open questions in cosmic ray and astro-particle physics. We review the physics motivations for MATHUSLA and summarize its LLP reach for several different possible detector geometries, as well as outline the cosmic ray physics program. We present several updated background studies for MATHUSLA, which help inform a first detector-design concept utilizing modular construction with Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) as the primary tracking technology. We present first efficiency and reconstruction studies to verify the viability of this design concept, and we explore some aspects of its total cost. We end with a summary of recent progress made on the MATHUSLA test stand, a small-scale demonstrator experiment currently taking data at CERN Point 1, and finish with a short comment on future work.

We examine the theoretical motivations for long-lived particle (LLP) signals at the LHC in a comprehensive survey of Standard Model (SM) extensions. LLPs are a common prediction of a wide range of theories that address unsolved fundamental mysteries such as naturalness, dark matter, baryogenesis and neutrino masses, and represent a natural and generic possibility for physics beyond the SM (BSM). In most cases the LLP lifetime can be treated as a free parameter from the $\mu$m scale up to the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis limit of $\sim 10^7$m. Neutral LLPs with lifetimes above $\sim$ 100m are particularly difficult to probe, as the sensitivity of the LHC main detectors is limited by challenging backgrounds, triggers, and small acceptances. MATHUSLA is a proposal for a minimally instrumented, large-volume surface detector near ATLAS or CMS. It would search for neutral LLPs produced in HL-LHC collisions by reconstructing displaced vertices (DVs) in a low-background environment, extending the sensitivity of the main detectors by orders of magnitude in the long-lifetime regime. In this white paper we study the LLP physics opportunities afforded by a MATHUSLA-like detector at the HL-LHC. We develop a model-independent approach to describe the sensitivity of MATHUSLA to BSM LLP signals, and compare it to DV and missing energy searches at ATLAS or CMS. We then explore the BSM motivations for LLPs in considerable detail, presenting a large number of new sensitivity studies. While our discussion is especially oriented towards the long-lifetime regime at MATHUSLA, this survey underlines the importance of a varied LLP search program at the LHC in general. By synthesizing these results into a general discussion of the top-down and bottom-up motivations for LLP searches, it is our aim to demonstrate the exceptional strength and breadth of the physics case for the construction of the MATHUSLA detector., Comment: 213 pages, 73 figures. Extended Section 2 to add more detailed discussion of LLP reconstruction and analysis, and background rejection. Updated comparison of MATHUSLA RH neutrino sensitivity to other experiments. Updated analysis of long-lived ALPs produced in weak-scale processes and decaying to jets. Various clarifications, fixed typos, and added references. Results and conclusions unchanged

Phase transitions in the early universe can readily create an observable stochastic gravitational wave background. We show that such a background necessarily contains anisotropies analogous to those of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) of photons, and that these too may be within reach of proposed gravitational wave detectors. Correlations within the gravitational wave anisotropies and their cross-correlations with the CMB can provide new insights into the mechanism underlying primordial fluctuations, such as multi-field inflation, as well as reveal the existence of non-standard ``hidden sectors" of particle physics in earlier eras., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, match the published PRL version

Primordial magnetic fields in the dark sector can be transferred to magnetic fields in the visible sector due to a gauge kinetic mixing term. We show that the transfer occurs when the evolution of magnetic fields is dominated by dissipation due to finite electric conductivity, and does not occur at later times if the magnetic fields evolve according to magnetohydrodynamics scaling laws. The efficiency of the transfer is suppressed by not only the gauge kinetic mixing coupling but also the ratio between the large electric conductivity and the typical momentum of the magnetic fields. We find that the transfer gives nonzero visible magnetic fields today. However, without possible dynamo amplifications, the field transfer is not efficient enough to obtain the intergalactic magnetic fields suggested by the gamma-ray observations, although there are plenty of possibilities for efficient dark magnetogenesis, which are experimentally unconstrained., Comment: 26 pages, 2 figures

We explore the cosmological signatures associated with the twin baryons, electrons, photons and neutrinos in the Mirror Twin Higgs framework. We consider a scenario in which the twin baryons constitute a subcomponent of dark matter, and the contribution of the twin photon and neutrinos to dark radiation is suppressed due to late asymmetric reheating, but remains large enough to be detected in future cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. We show that this framework can lead to distinctive signals in large scale structure and in the cosmic microwave background. Baryon acoustic oscillations in the mirror sector prior to recombination lead to a suppression of structure on large scales, and leave a residual oscillatory pattern in the matter power spectrum. This pattern depends sensitively on the relative abundances and ionization energies of both twin hydrogen and helium, and is therefore characteristic of this class of models. Although both mirror photons and neutrinos constitute dark radiation in the early universe, their effects on the CMB are distinct. This is because prior to recombination the twin neutrinos free stream, while the twin photons are prevented from free streaming by scattering off twin electrons. In the Mirror Twin Higgs framework the relative contributions of these two species to the energy density in dark radiation is predicted, leading to testable effects in the CMB. These highly distinctive cosmological signatures may allow this class of models to be discovered, and distinguished from more general dark sectors., Comment: 30 pages, 6 figures; added new discussions and figures; references added; matches published version

We explore the LHC reach on beyond-the-Standard Model (BSM) particles $X$ associated with a new strong force in a hidden sector. We focus on the motivated scenario where the SM and hidden sectors are connected by fermionic mediators $\psi^{+, 0}$ that carry SM electroweak charges. The most promising signal is the Drell-Yan production of a $\psi^\pm \bar{\psi}^0$ pair, which forms an electrically charged vector bound state $\Upsilon^\pm$ due to the hidden force and later undergoes resonant annihilation into $W^\pm X$. We analyze this final state in detail in the cases where $X$ is a real scalar $\phi$ that decays to $b\bar{b}$, or a dark photon $\gamma_d$ that decays to dileptons. For prompt $X$ decays, we show that the corresponding signatures can be efficiently probed by extending the existing ATLAS and CMS diboson searches to include heavy resonance decays into BSM particles. For long-lived $X$, we propose new searches where the requirement of a prompt hard lepton originating from the $W$ boson ensures triggering and essentially removes any SM backgrounds. To illustrate the potential of our results, we interpret them within two explicit models that contain strong hidden forces and electroweak-charged mediators, namely $\lambda$-supersymmetry (SUSY) and non-SUSY ultraviolet extensions of the Twin Higgs model. The resonant nature of the signals allows for the reconstruction of the mass of both $\Upsilon^\pm$ and $X$, thus providing a wealth of information about the hidden sector., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures

We explore strategies for probing Hidden Valley scenarios exhibiting confinement. Such scenarios lead to a multiplicity of light hidden hadrons from showering processes. Their decays are typically soft and displaced, making them challenging to probe with traditional LHC searches. We show the low trigger thresholds and excellent track and vertex reconstruction at LHCb provide an ideal environment to search for such signals -- in both muonic and hadronic channels. We also explore the potential of ATLAS/CMS and discuss modifications to present searches that might make these experiments competitive with the LHCb reach. Our proposed searches can probe $Z^{\prime}$ models with dominant decays to dark sectors as well as exotic Higgs boson decays in Twin Higgs models., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

The Twin Higgs model is the preeminent example of a theory of neutral naturalness, where the new particles that alleviate the little hierarchy problem are Standard Model (SM) singlets. The most promising collider search strategy, based on rare Higgs decays, is nevertheless not effective in significant regions of the parameter space of the low energy theory. This underlines the importance of phenomenological studies on ultraviolet completions of the Twin Higgs model, which must lie at a scale lower than 5-10 TeV. We pursue this course in the context of non-supersymmetric completions, focusing on exotic fermions that carry SM electroweak and twin color charges, as well as on exotic vectors that transform as the bi-fundamental of the electroweak or color groups. Both $Z_2$-preserving and $Z_2$-breaking mass spectra are considered for the exotic fermions. In the former case they must be heavier than $\sim 1$ TeV, but can still be sizably produced in the decays of the color bi-fundamental vector. In the $Z_2$-breaking scenario, the exotic fermions can have masses in the few hundred GeV range without significantly increasing the fine-tuning. Once pair-produced through the electroweak interactions, they naturally form bound states held together by the twin color force, which subsequently annihilate back to SM particles. The associated resonance signals are discussed in detail. We also outline the phenomenology of the electroweak bi-fundamental vectors, some of which mix with the SM $W$ and $Z$ and can therefore be singly produced in hadron collisions., Comment: 36 pages, 9 figures; v2: version published in PRD, a few discussions extended to address referee's comments. References added

We study extensions of the Twin Higgs model that solve the Hierarchy problem and simultaneously address problems of the large- and small-scale structures of the Universe. Besides naturally providing dark matter (DM) candidates as the lightest charged twin fermions, the twin sector contains a light photon and neutrinos, which can modify structure formation relative to the prediction from the $\Lambda$CDM paradigm. We focus on two scenarios. First, we study a Fraternal Twin Higgs model in which the spin-3/2 baryon $\hat{\Omega}\sim(\hat{b}\hat{b}\hat{b})$ and the lepton twin tau $\hat{\tau}$ contribute to the dominant and subcomponent dark matter densities. A non-decoupled scattering between the twin tau and twin neutrino arising from a gauged twin lepton number symmetry provides a drag force that damps the density inhomogeneity of a dark matter subcomponent. Next, we consider the possibility of having the twin hydrogen atom $\hat{H}$ as the dominant DM component. After recombination, a small fraction of the twin protons and leptons remains ionized during structure formation, and their scattering to twin neutrinos through a gauged U$(1)_{B-L}$ force provides the mechanism that damps the density inhomogeneity. Both scenarios realize the Partially Acoustic dark matter (PAcDM) scenario and explain the $\sigma_8$ discrepancy between the CMB and weak lensing results. Moreover, the self-scattering neutrino behaves as a dark fluid that enhances the size of the Hubble rate $H_0$ to accommodate the local measurement result while satisfying the CMB constraint. For the small-scale structure, the scattering of $\hat{\Omega}$'s and $\hat{H}$'s through the twin photon exchange generates a self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) model that solves the mass deficit problem from dwarf galaxy to galaxy cluster scales., Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures; version accepted for publication in JHEP; include discussion of twin hydrogen DM

The standard paradigm of collisionless cold dark matter is in tension with measurements on large scales. In particular, the best fit values of the Hubble rate $H_0$ and the matter density perturbation $\sigma_8$ inferred from the cosmic microwave background seem inconsistent with the results from direct measurements. We show that both problems can be solved in a framework in which dark matter consists of two distinct components, a dominant component and a subdominant component. The primary component is cold and collisionless. The secondary component is also cold, but interacts strongly with dark radiation, which itself forms a tightly coupled fluid. The growth of density perturbations in the subdominant component is inhibited by dark acoustic oscillations due to its coupling to the dark radiation, solving the $\sigma_8$ problem, while the presence of tightly coupled dark radiation ameliorates the $H_0$ problem. The subdominant component of dark matter and dark radiation continue to remain in thermal equilibrium until late times, inhibiting the formation of a dark disk. We present an example of a simple model that naturally realizes this scenario in which both constituents of dark matter are thermal WIMPs. Our scenario can be tested by future stage-IV experiments designed to probe the CMB and large scale structure., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures; matches version published in JHEP