Composite Dark Sectors

Abstract: We introduce a new paradigm in Composite Dark Sectors, where the full Standard Model (including the Higgs boson) is extended with a strongly-interacting composite sector with global symmetry group $\mathcal{G}$ spontaneously broken to $\mathcal{H}\subset \mathcal{G}$. We show that, under well-motivated conditions, the lightest neutral pseudo Nambu-Goldstone bosons are natural dark matter candidates for they are protected by a parity symmetry not even broken in the electroweak phase. These models are characterized by only two free parameters, namely the typical coupling $g_D$ and the scale $f_D$ of the composite sector, and are therefore very predictive. We consider in detail two minimal scenarios, $SU(3)/[SU(2)\times U(1)]$ and $[SU(2)^2\times U(1)]/[SU(2)\times U(1)]$, which provide a dynamical realization of the Inert Doublet and Triplet models, respectively. We show that the radiatively-induced potential can be computed in a five-dimensional description with modified boundary conditions with respect to Composite Higgs models. Finally, the dark matter candidates are shown to be compatible, in a large region of the parameter space, with current bounds from dark matter searches as well as electroweak and collider constraints on new resonances.