Cosmic Strings in Hidden Sectors: 1. Radiation of Standard Model Particles

Understand

In hidden sector models with an extra U(1) gauge group, new fields can interact with the Standard Model only through gauge kinetic mixing and the Higgs portal.

• After the U(1) is spontaneously broken, these interactions couple the resultant cosmic strings to Standard Model particles.
• We calculate the spectrum of radiation emitted by these "dark strings" in the form of Higgs bosons, Z bosons, and Standard Model fermions assuming that string tension is above the TeV scale.
• We also calculate the scattering cross sections of Standard Model fermions on dark strings due to the Aharonov-Bohm interaction.