{"id":233661,"date":"2026-03-19T14:09:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/double-the-doublet-shake-well-break-one-and-keep-the-other-intact-welcome-dark-scalars"},"modified":"2026-03-19T14:09:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:09:51","slug":"double-the-doublet-shake-well-break-one-and-keep-the-other-intact-welcome-dark-scalars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/double-the-doublet-shake-well-break-one-and-keep-the-other-intact-welcome-dark-scalars","title":{"rendered":"Double the doublet, shake well, break one, and keep the other intact: welcome, dark scalars!"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

The search isn\u2019t over\u2014future runs of the High-Luminosity LHC and the proposed Future Circular Collider (FCC) will continue to hunt for these \u201cinert\u201d twins to see if they are hiding at even higher energy levels.<\/p>\n

\n

\nFor the first time ever, the CMS experiment has designed a dedicated analysis using <\/strong><\/em>parametrised machine learning<\/strong><\/em> to look for new dark particles that don\u2019t socialize with <\/strong><\/em>Standard Model<\/strong><\/em><\/a> <\/strong><\/em>fermions<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, one of them being a favourite candidate in the search for <\/strong><\/em>dark matter<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Using proton-proton collisions delivered by the LHC<\/a> in 2016\u20132018 and 2022, CMS collaborators have been looking for new scalar particles in a theoretical framework that had never before been tested with a dedicated analysis, leading to the widest excluded mass range to date for this model.<\/p>\n

Are there more Higgs-boson-like particles?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having found a Higgs boson<\/a> (a scalar particle), theorists naturally ask themselves: could there be more than one? In fact, rather than a single Higgs boson, which is the only observable particle, the Standard Model predicts a so-called Higgs doublet<\/a>. While we\u2019re at it, let\u2019s add a second electroweak doublet; why not? The effect is the conception of 4 new scalar particles: two neutral ones, labeled H and A (with H the lightest of the two), and two charged ones, H+ and H-. The search for such extra scalar particles has already spanned several decades, but only when they actually interact with our Standard Model<\/a> particles. With an extra ingredient, called the \u21242<\/sub> symmetry, the new scalars become allergic to our matter particles, the fermions, and only prefer to talk to bosons like themselves: the Higgs boson, but also the W<\/a> and Z bosons<\/a>. They become so-called inert, or dark, scalars and the model inherits this name \u2014 the Inert Doublet Model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The search isn\u2019t over\u2014future runs of the High-Luminosity LHC and the proposed Future Circular Collider (FCC) will continue to hunt for these \u201cinert\u201d twins to see if they are hiding at even higher energy levels. For the first time ever, the CMS experiment has designed a dedicated analysis using parametrised machine learning to look for [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":709,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-futurism","category-particle-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/709"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}