Early soft X-ray to UV emission from double neutron star mergers: implications from the long-term radio and X-ray emissions of GW 170817

Recent long-term radio follow-up observations of GW 170817 reveals a simple power-law rising light curve, with a slope of $t^{0.78}$, up to 93 days after the merger. The latest X-ray detection at 109 days is also consistent with such a temporal slope. Such a shallow rise behavior requires a mildly relativistic outflow with a steep velocity gradient profile, so that slower material with larger energy catches up with the decelerating ejecta and re-energizes it. It has been suggested that this mildly relativistic outflow may represent a cocoon of material. We suggest that the velocity gradient profile may form during the stage that the cocoon is breaking out of the merger ejecta, resulted from shock propagation down a density gradient. The cooling of the hot relativistic cocoon material immediately after it breaks out should have produced soft X-ray to UV radiation at tens of seconds to hours after the merger. The soft X-ray emission has a luminosity of $L_{\rm X}\sim 10^{45}{\rm erg s^{-1}}$ over a period of tens of seconds for a merger event like GW 170817. The UV emission shows a rise initially and peaks at about a few hours with a luminosity of $L_{\rm UV}\sim 10^{42} {\rm erg s^{-1}}$. The soft X-ray transients could be detected by future wide-angle X-ray detectors, such as the Chinese mission Einstein Probe. This soft X-ray/UV emission would serve as one of the earliest electromagnetic counterparts of gravitation waves from double neutron star mergers and could provide the earliest localization of the sources.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, ApJL in press, discussions on the reverse shock emission in the refreshed shock scenario for the long-term radio and X-ray emissions are adde

Supersymmetric Exotic Decays of the 125 GeV Higgs Boson

We reveal a set of novel decay topologies for the 125 GeV Higgs boson in supersymmetry which are initiated by its decay into a pair of neutralinos, and discuss their collider search strategies. This category of exotic Higgs decays are characterized by the collider signature: visible objects + \mbox{{\not\! E}_{\rm T}}, with \mbox{{\not\! E}_{\rm T}} dominantly arising from escaping dark matter particles. Their benchmark arises naturally in the Peccei-Quinn symmetry limit of the MSSM singlet-extensions, which is typified by the co-existence of three light particles: singlet-like scalar $h_1$ and pseudoscalar $a_1$, and singlino-like neutralino $\chi_1$, all with masses of $\lesssim 10$ GeV, and the generically suppression of the exotic decays of the 125 GeV Higgs boson $h_2\to h_1 h_1$, $a_1a_1$ and $\chi_1\chi_1$, however. As an illustration, we study the decay topology: $h_2 \to \chi_1 \chi_2$, where the bino-like $\chi_2$ decays to $h_1 \chi_1$ or $a_1 \chi_1$, and $h_1/a_1 \to f\bar f$, with $f\bar f = \mu^+\mu^-$, $b\bar b$. In the di-muon case ($m_{h_1/a_1} \sim 1$ GeV), a statistical sensitivity of $\frac{S}{\sqrt{B}} > 6 \sigma$ can be achieved easily at the 8 TeV LHC, assuming $\frac{\sigma(pp \rightarrow W h_2)}{\sigma(pp \rightarrow W h_{\rm SM})} {\rm Br}(h_2 \to \mu^+\mu^- \chi_1 \chi_1)=0.1$. In the $b\bar b$ case ($m_{h_1/a_1} \sim 45$ GeV), 600 fb$^{-1}$ data at the 14 TeV LHC can lead to a statistical sensitivity of $\frac{S}{\sqrt{B}} > 5 \sigma$, assuming $\frac{\sigma(pp \rightarrow Z h_2)}{\sigma(pp \rightarrow Z h_{\rm SM})} {\rm Br}(h_2 \to b\bar b \chi_1 \chi_1)=0.5$. These exotic decays open a new avenue for exploring new physics couplings with the 125 GeV Higgs boson at colliders.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, final version for Phys. Rev. Let

Supersymmetric Sub-Electroweak Scale Dark Matter, the Galactic Center Gamma-ray Excess, and Exotic Decays of the 125 GeV Higgs Boson

We continue our exploration of the nearly Peccei-Quinn symmetric limit shared by common singlet extensions of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. This limit has been established as a viable framework for studying sub-electroweak scale dark matter phenomenology and has interesting and direct connections to new exotic Higgs decay physics. We present analytic calculations to motivate the important phenomenological features mentioned above. We also discuss benchmark points in this model framework that accommodate the observed Galactic Center gamma ray excess. We emphasize connections between phenomenology of dark matter direct detection and indirect detection, and new exotic decay channels for the 125 GeV Higgs boson. We conclude by identifying two benchmark modes of exotic Higgs decays for h \to \tau^+ \tau^- \mbox{{\not\! E}_{\rm T}} and h \to b \bar{b} \mbox{{\not\! E}_{\rm T}} final states and estimate their sensitivity prospects at the LHC.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures; v2, minor edits, references adde