Electroweak symmetry breaking induced by dark matter

The mechanism behind electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) and the nature of dark matter (DM) are currently among the most important issues in high energy physics. Since a natural dark matter candidate is a weakly interacting massive particle or WIMP, with mass around the electroweak scale, it is clearly of interest to investigate the possibility that DM and EWSB are closely related. In the context of a very simple extension of the Standard Model, the inert doublet model, we show that dark matter could play a crucial role in the breaking of the electroweak symmetry. In this model, dark matter is the lightest component of an inert scalar doublet. The coupling of the latter with the Standard Model Higgs doublet breaks the electroweak symmetry at one-loop, à la Coleman–Weinberg. The abundance of dark matter, the breaking of the electroweak symmetry and the constraints from electroweak precision measurements can all be accommodated by imposing (an exact or approximate) custodial symmetry.