We will show how extra scalar fields can link the standard model to the dark sector. We show that in such models we can also have a strong first order phase transition and stabilise the electroweak vacuum. We look at how additional scalars might also allow the Higgs field to be the inflaton in the standard model without modified Gravity although we show that in the simplest cases this doesn't work too well.

We then look at the prospects for detecting dark matter which couples so the standard model through the Higgs sector at direct detection experiments and see that there are large regions of parameter space where the direct detection cross section is so small that any detector capable of searching for it would also register a large neutrino background. We will then discuss future prospects for distinguishing between a neutrino flux and dark matter.