We study the potential of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to probe the spin of new massive vector boson resonances predicted by Higgsless models. We consider its production via weak boson fusion which relies only on the coupling between the new resonances and the weak gauge bosons. We show that the LHC will be able to unravel the spin of the particles associated with the partial restoration of unitarity in vector boson scattering for integrated luminosities of 150-560 fb^-1, depending on the new state mass and on the method used in the analyses.
We identify and study the signatures of the recently proposed Higgsless models at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We concentrate on tests of the mechanism of partial unitarity restoration in the longitudinal vector boson scattering, which is crucial to the phenomenological success of any Higgsless model and does not depend on the model-building details. We investigate the discovery reach for charged massive vector boson resonances and show that all of the preferred parameter space will be probed with 100 inverse fb of LHC data. Unitarity restoration requires that the masses and couplings of t…
We investigate the potential of the LHC for discovering the heavy vector and fermion resonances present in the Three-Site Higgsless Model. To this end, the model was implemented into the WHIZARD parton-level Monte Carlo eventgenerator. The results of parton-level simulations for different potential discovery channels are presented together with a discussion of the parameter space thus accessible at the LHC.
Modern extra-dimensional Higgsless scenarios rely on a mass-matching between fermionic and bosonic KK resonances to evade constraints from precision electroweak measurements. After analyzing all of the Tevatron and LEP bounds on these so-called Cured Higgsless scenarios, we study their LHC signatures and explore how to identify the mass-matching mechanism, the key to their viability. We find singly and pair produced fermionic resonances show up as clean signals with 2 or 4 leptons and 2 hard jets, while neutral and charged bosonic resonances are visible in the dilepton and leptonic WZ channels…
In Higgsless models, new vector resonances appear to restore the unitarity of the W_L W_L scattering amplitude without the Higgs boson. In the ideal delocalized three site Higgsless model, one of large prodcution cross section of the neutral vector resonance (Z') at the Large Hadron Collider is the W-associated production, pp \to Z'W \to WWW. Although the dileptonic decay channnel, lνl'ν'jj, is experimentally clean to search for the Z' signals, it is difficult to reconstruct the Z' invariant mass due to the two neutrinos in the final state. We study collider signatures of Z' using the M_{T2}-A…
We investigate the signatures of the recently proposed Higgsless models at future colliders. We focus on tests of the mechanism of partial unitarity restoration in the longitudinal vector boson scattering, which do not depend on any Higgsless model-building details. We study the LHC discovery reach for charged massive vector boson resonances and show that all of the preferred parameter space will be probed with $100 {\rm fb}^{-1}$ of LHC data. We also discuss the prospects for experimental verification of the Higgsless nature of the model at the LHC. In addition, in this talk we present new re…
We present a one-loop calculation of the oblique S parameter within Higgsless models of electroweak symmetry breaking. We have used a general effective Lagrangian with at most two derivatives, implementing the chiral symmetry breaking SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R -> SU(2)_{L+R} with Goldstones, gauge bosons and one multiplet of vector and axial-vector resonances. The estimation is based on the short-distance constraints and the dispersive approach proposed by Peskin and Takeuchi.
We discuss the signatures of a representative Higgsless model with ideal fermion delocalization in vector-boson fusion processes, focusing on the gold- and silver-plated decay modes of the gauge bosons at the CERN-Large Hadron Collider. For this purpose, we have developed a fully-flexible parton-level Monte-Carlo program, which allows for the calculation of cross sections and kinematic distributions within experimentally feasible selection cuts at NLO-QCD accuracy. We find that Kaluza-Klein resonances give rise to very distinctive distributions of the decay leptons. Similar to the Standard Mod…
Higgsless models with fermions whose SU(2) properties are "ideally delocalized," such that the fermion's probability distribution is appropriately related to the W boson wavefunction, have been shown to minimize deviations in precision electroweak parameters. As contributions to the S parameter vanish to leading order, current constraints on these models arise from limits on deviations in multi-gauge-boson vertices. We compute the form of the triple and quartic gauge boson vertices in these models and show that these constraints provide lower bounds only of order a few hundred GeV on the masse…
We study the Drell-Yan production of heavy vector and axial-vector states of generic Higgsless models at hadron colliders. We analyse in particular the l+l-, WZ, and three SM gauge boson final states. In the l+l- case we show how present Tevatron data restricts the allowed parameter space of these models. The two and three gauge boson final states (especially WZ, WWZ, and WZZ) are particularly interesting in view of the LHC, especially for light axial-vector masses, and could shed more light on the role of spin-1 resonances in the electroweak precision tests.
We present a one-loop calculation of the oblique S parameter within Higgsless models of electroweak symmetry breaking and analyze the phenomenological implications of the available electroweak precision data. We use the most general effective Lagrangian with at most two derivatives, implementing the chiral symmetry breaking SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R -> SU(2)_{L+R} with Goldstones, gauge bosons and one multiplet of vector and axial-vector massive resonance states. Using the dispersive representation of Peskin and Takeuchi and imposing the short-distance constraints dictated by the operator product expa…
We study the potential LHC discovery of the Z1 KK gauge boson unitarizing longitudinal W+W- scattering amplitude. In particular, we explore the decay mode Z1->t tbar along with Z1-> W+W- without specifying the branching fractions. We propose to exploit the associated production pp-> W Z1, and select the final state of like-sign dileptons plus multijets and large missing energy. We conclude that it is possible to observe the Z1 resonance at a 5 sigma level with an integrated luminosity of 100 inverse fb at the LHC upto 650 GeV for a dominant WW channel, and 560 GeV for a dominant ttbar channel.
We study the viability of generic Higgsless models at low energies when compliance with EWPO and unitarity constraints up to the TeV scale are imposed. Our analysis shows that consistency with S and T can be achieved at the one-loop level even with a single light vector state, m_V <= 500 GeV. However, this scenario turns out to be strongly disfavored when direct resonance searches at the Tevatron are also taken into account. We show that a fully consistent picture can be obtained if an axial state is introduced. Interestingly, m_V is still predicted to be light (below 1 TeV) while typical valu…
Recently several Higgsless models of electroweak symmetry breaking have been proposed in which unitarity of $W,Z$ scattering amplitudes is partially restored through a tower of massive vector gauge bosons. These massive states are expected to couple mainly to $W$ and $Z$ and should appear as resonances in $WW$ and $WZ$ fusion at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We study the LHC discovery reach for the first neutral state, $V_1^0$, through the reaction $W^+W^- \to V_1^0 \to W^+W^- \to e^\pm μ^\mp + \eslt$. The background from $t\bar{t}$, $τ^+τ^-$ and $W$ pair production is calculated and d…
The recently observed excess in diphoton events at around 750\,GeV can be satisfactorily described in terms of a new spin-0 real singlet with effective interactions to the gauge bosons. In this letter we first review the current constraints on this setup. We further explore the production in association with a gauge boson. We show the potential of this channel to unravel current flat directions in the allowed parameter space. We then study the potential of two different asymmetries for disentangling the CP nature of such a singlet in both gluon fusion and vector-boson fusion. For this matter, …
The mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) will be directly scrutinized soon at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We analyze the LHC potential to look for new vector bosons associated with the EWSB sector. We present a possible model independent approach to search for these new spin--1 resonances. We show that the analyses of the processes pp --> l^+ l^- Emiss_T, l^\pm j j Emiss_T, l^\pm l^+ l^- Emiss_T, and l^+ l^- j j (with l=e or μand j=jet) have a large reach at the LHC and can lead to the discovery or exclusion of many EWSB scenarios such as Higgsless models.
We present a mechanism to get S ~ 0 or even negative, without bringing into play the SM fermion sector. This mechanism can be applied to a wide range of 5D models, including composite Higgs and Higgsless models. As a realization of the mechanism we introduce a simple model, although the effect on S does not rely on the underlying dynamics generating the background. Models that include this mechanism enjoy the following features: weakly-coupled light resonances (as light as 600 GeV) and degenerate or inverted resonance spectrum.
This is a brief outline of the top-BESS model and its properties. The top-BESS model is the higgsless effective description of the strong electroweak symmetry breaking with a single new SU(2)_L+R triplet vector resonance. In contrast with the universality of the fermion interactions of the BESS model, the top-BESS vector resonance couples directly to the third quark generation only. The complete formulation of the model along with its phenomenology can be found in arXiv:1107.0570.
A Higgsless electroweak theory may be populated by spin-1 resonances around E ~ 1TeV as a consequence of a new strong interacting sector, frequently proposed as a tool to smear the high-energy behaviour of scattering amplitudes, for instance, elastic gauge boson scattering. Information on those resonances, if they exist, must be contained in the low-energy couplings of the electroweak chiral effective theory. Using the facts that: i) the scattering of longitudinal gauge bosons, W_L, Z_L, can be well described in the high-energy region E >> M_W by the scattering of the corresponding Goldstone b…
While the LHC takes on the challenge of experimentally exploring the electroweak symmetry breaking sector, it is not only interesting but also crucial to explore alternatives to the Standard Model scenario with an elementary scalar Higgs boson. The idea of electroweak symmetry breaking by some new strong dynamics is discussed. A simple, general and self-consistent low energy effective description of Higgsless models is introduced. This effective theory is studied from the point of view of prolonging perturbative unitarity of WW scattering by spin-1 resonances originating from the strongly inte…
We examine the phenomenology of a warped 5-dimensional model based on SU(2)$_L \times$ SU(2)$_R \times$ U(1)$_{B-L}$ model which implements electroweak symmetry breaking through boundary conditions, without the presence of a Higgs boson. We use precision electroweak data to constrain the general parameter space of this model. Our analysis includes independent $L$ and $R$ gauge couplings, radiatively induced UV boundary gauge kinetic terms, and all higher order corrections from the curvature of the 5-d space. We show that this setup can be brought into good agreement with the precision electrow…
Contrary to a widely spread believe, we have demonstrated that strongly coupled electroweak models including both a light Higgs-like boson and massive spin-1 resonances are not in conflict with experimental constraints on the oblique S and T parameters. We use an effective Lagrangian implementing the chiral symmetry breaking SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R -> SU(2)_{L+R} that contains the Standard Model gauge bosons coupled to the electroweak Goldstones, one Higgs-like scalar state h with mass m_h=126 GeV and the lightest vector and axial-vector resonance multiplets V and A. We have considered the one-loop …
We revisit the electroweak precision tests for Higgsless models of strong EWSB. We use the Vector Meson Dominance approach and express S and T via couplings characterizing vector and axial spin-1 resonances of the strong sector. These couplings are constrained by the elastic unitarity and by requiring a good UV behavior of various formfactors. We pay particular attention to the one-loop contribution of resonances to T (beyond the chiral log), and to how it can improve the fit. We also make contact with the recent studies of Conformal Technicolor. We explain why the second Weinberg sum rule nev…
We explore the potential of the CERN Large Hadron Collider to access a strongly interacting electroweak symmetry breaking sector via weak boson scattering with WWjj, ZZjj and WZjj final states. As examples of models with scalar or vector resonances we concentrate on a scenario with a heavy Higgs boson and on a Warped Higgsless Kaluza-Klein model of narrow spin-one resonances. The signal and the most prominent background processes are evaluated using exact tree-level matrix elements including full off-shell and finite width effects for final states with two tagging jets and four leptons. Using …
We study scattering of the electroweak gauge bosons in 5D warped models. Within two different models we determine the precise manner in which the Higgs boson and the vector resonances ensure the unitarity of longitudinal vector boson scattering. We identify three separate scales that determine the dynamics of the scattering process in all cases. For a quite general background geometry of 5D, these scales can be linked to a simple functional of the warp factor. The models smoothly interpolate between a `composite' Higgs limit and a Higgsless limit. By holographic arguments, these models provide…
The existence of a new strong interacting sector around E ~ 1 TeV is a common feature of Higgsless electroweak theories but also of theories with a light Higgs, for instance, when this is not elementary. In those schemes, this new interaction could be at the origin of an extended spectra with, in particular, spin-1 resonances that could be hinted in elastic gauge boson scattering. Information on those resonances, if they exist, must be contained in the low-energy couplings of the electroweak chiral effective theory. Using the facts that: i) the scattering of longitudinal gauge bosons, W_L, Z_L…
