Testing Complex Singlet Scalar Cosmology at the Large Hadron Collider

Abstract

The Standard Model extended with a complex singlet scalar (cxSM) can admit a strong first order electroweak phase transition (SFOEWPT) as needed for electroweak baryogenesis and provide a dark matter (DM) candidate. The presence of both a DM candidate and a singlet-like scalar that mixes with the Standard Model Higgs boson leads to the possibility of a $b\bar{b}+\text{MET}$ final state in $pp$ collisions. Focusing on this channel, we analyze the prospective reach at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for a heavy singlet-like scalar in regions of cxSM parameter space compatible with a SFOEWT and DM phenomenology. We identify this parameter space while implementing current constraints from electroweak precision observable and Higgs boson property measurements as well as those implied by LHC heavy resonance searches.