Higgs Portal From The Atmosphere To Hyper-K

Understand

A light Higgs portal scalar could be abundantly produced in the earth's atmosphere and decay in large-volume neutrino detectors.

• We point out that the Hyper-Kamiokande detector bears a strong discovery potential of probing such particles in an uncharted parameter space that is actively explored by intensity frontier experiments including rare kaon decays.
• The signal we propose to look for is electron-positron pair creation that manifests as a double-ring appearing from the same vertex.
• Most of these pairs originate from zenith angles above the Hyper-K detector's horizon.