Do color-neutral top partners, as in Twin Higgs models, exist?
In plain words
Some proposals keep the Higgs light with partner particles that do not feel the strong force, so the LHC barely produces them. They would show up as small shifts in Higgs couplings, or as Higgs decays to hidden-sector particles that fly a measurable distance before decaying.
Precise statement
In neutral-naturalness models (Twin Higgs, folded supersymmetry, quirky little Higgs) the top-loop contribution to $m_h^{2}$ is cancelled by states without SM color, with a mirror-sector scale f; Higgs couplings shift by about $v^{2}/(2 f^{2})$ and the Higgs can decay to mirror glueballs with displaced vertices (approximate relations, model dependent). Determine whether such a sector exists with $f\ \text{below about}\ 1\ \text{to}\ 2\ \mathrm{TeV}$, by measuring $\mathrm{BR}(h \to \text{mirror hadrons})$ down to about $10^{-4}$ and Higgs couplings at the per-mille level, or exclude it.
What would settle it
Displaced-vertex searches for exotic Higgs decays at the HL-LHC and at dedicated long-lived-particle detectors, together with per-mille Higgs coupling measurements at a Higgs factory.
Status in the literature
Unverified note: it names recent work and was partly written without a live literature search; it awaits a check by an editor.
No exotic Higgs decays to long-lived particles observed through LHC Run 2; Batell, Low, Neil and Verhaaren review the open parameter space (Physics Reports 1165, 2026, arXiv:2203.05531).
Parent problems
- Special case of Why is the electroweak scale so far below the Planck scale? · open · from revision 1 The parent was revised since revision 1: it now states another question.
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