Signals from portals to non-minimal hidden sectors

Hidden Sectors (HS) that exclusively contain particles that are neutral under the Standard Model (SM) gauge groups can address some of the problems of the SM, such as the origin of neutrino masses, the little hierarchy problem, and the nature of dark matter. In these scenarios, interactions of the HS with the SM are only possible through terms in the Lagrangian that couple gauge invariant operators of the SM (portals) to operators of the HS. In this dissertation, we review recent studies on the signals of non-minimal HS coupling to the SM through two of the lowest-dimensional portals. The first model we study is that of a strongly coupled HS that interacts with the SM through the Neutrino Portal. The second model contains a heavy $Z'$ corresponding to a gauging of the U(1)_B-L symmetry that has an additional interaction with the SM through the Hypercharge Portal. Finally, we study the possibility of detecting exotic signatures of HS models at the IceCube experiment.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Grantor

The University of Texas at Austin

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Sudha, Ram Purandhar Reddy

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kilic, Can

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Distler, Jacques
• Karch, Andreas
• Munoz, Julian
• Zimmerman, Aaron

• Neutrino portal
• Particle phenomenology

Language dc:language.iso

English

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.26153/tsw/64026

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/136724