The CDF PYTHIA 6.2 Tune DW predictions for the behavior of the LHC underlying event (UE) data at 900 GeV and 7 TeV are examined in detail. The behavior of the UE at the LHC is roughly what we expected. The LHC PYTHIA 6.4 Tune Z1 does an excellent job describing the UE data at 900 GeV and 7 TeV. Both Tune DW and Tune Z1 describe fairly well the Drell-Yan UE data at 1.96 TeV and 7 TeV. No model describes all the features of "min-bias" (MB) collisions at 900 GeV and 7 TeV.
We report on the first measurements of the LHCb experiment, as obtained from $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 0.9$ TeV and 7 TeV recorded using a minimum bias trigger. In particular measurements of the absolute $K^0_S$ production cross section at $\sqrt{s} = 0.9$ TeV and of the $\barΛ/Λ$ ratio both at $\sqrt{s} = 0.9$ TeV and 7 TeV are discussed and preliminary results are presented.
Due to a limited bandwidth and a large proton-proton interaction cross-section relative to the rate of interesting physics processes, most events produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are discarded in real time. A sophisticated trigger system must quickly decide which events should be kept and is very efficient for a broad range of processes. However, there are many processes that cannot be accommodated by this trigger system. Furthermore, there may be models of physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) constructed after data taking that could have been triggered, but no trigger was implem…
The CDF PYTHIA 6.2 Tune DW predictions of the LHC underlying event (UE) data at 900 GeV and 7 TeV are examined in detail. The behavior of the UE at the LHC is roughly what we expected. The new LHC PYTHIA 6.4 Tune Z1 does an even better job describing the UE data at 900 GeV and 7 TeV. However, the modeling of "min-bias" at the LHC (i.e. the overall inelastic cross section) is a very different story. No model describes all the features of "min-bias" collisions at 900 GeV and 7 TeV.
In a very short time the experiments at the LHC have collected a large amount of data that can be used to study minimum bias (MB) collisions and the underlying event (UE) in great detail. The CDF PYTHIA 6.2 Tune DW predictions for the LHC UE data at 900 GeV and 7 TeV are examined in detail. The behavior of the UE at the LHC is roughly what we expected. The LHC PYTHIA 6.4 Tune Z1 does an excellent job describing the LHC UE data. The modeling of MB (i.e. the overall inelastic cross section) is more complicated because one must include a model of diffraction. The ability of PYTHIA Tune DW and Tun…
In general, minimum-bias triggers planned for experiments at the LHC miss a considerable fraction of the total number of events. We exemplify the rejection rate using the Durham model of soft high-energy interactions to obtain quantitative estimates of the signals arising from the ATLAS scintillation counters positioned in the rapidity intervals 2<|eta|<4, and also from TOTEM detectors covering the intervals 3.1<|eta|<6.5. Typically we find that the expected signal is about half of the total cross section, sigma(tot). We also calculate the cross section for the so-called zero-bias measurement …
Fluctuation measurements of event-wise mean transverse momentum $\langle p_t \rangle$ for p-p and Pb-Pb collisions at the large hadron collider (LHC) have been reported recently. In that study it was concluded that the strength of "nonstatistical" $\langle p_t \rangle$ fluctuations decreases with increasing particle multiplicity $n_{ch}$ (or A-A centrality) and is nearly independent of collision energy over a large interval. Among several potential mechanisms for those trends onset of thermalization and collectivity are mentioned. The LHC analysis employed one fluctuation measure selected from…
EPOS is a Monte-Carlo event generator for minimum bias hadronic interactions, used for both heavy ion interactions and cosmic ray air shower simulations. Since the last public release in 2009, the LHC experiments have provided a number of very interesting data sets comprising minimum bias p-p, p-Pb and Pb-Pb interactions. We describe the changes required to the model to reproduce in detail the new data available from LHC and the consequences in the interpretation of these data. In particular we discuss the effect of the collective hadronization in p-p scattering. A different parametrization of…
The soft diffraction phenomena in the elastic proton-proton scattering are reviewed from the viewpoint of experiments at the LHC (TOTEM and ATLAS collaboration). In the framework of the High Energy Generalized Structure (HEGS) model the form of the diffraction minimum in the nucleon-nucleon elastic scattering in a wide energy region is analyzed. The energy dependences of the main characteristics of the diffraction dip are obtained. The numerical predictions at LHC energies are presented. The comparison of the model predictions with the new LHC data at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV is made.
Centrality selection has been observed to have a large effect on jet observables in pPb collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, stronger than that predicted by the nuclear modification of parton densities. We study to which extent simple considerations of energy-momentum conservation between the hard process and the underlying event affect jets observables in such collisions. We develop a simplistic approach that considers first the production of jets in a pp collision as described by PYTHIA. From each pp collision, the value of the energy of the parton from the proton participating in the ha…
We present results and predictions for the nuclear modification of the differential cross sections for inclusive light hadron and prompt photon production in minimum bias d+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV and minimum bias p+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 5$ TeV at RHIC and LHC, respectively. Our calculations combine the leading order perturbative QCD formalism with cold nuclear matter effects that arise from the elastic, inelastic and coherent multiple scattering of partons in large nuclei. We find that a theoretical approach that includes the isospin effect, Cronin effect, cold nuclear ma…
We discuss the implementation of the "minimal" type III seesaw model, i.e. with one fermionic triplet, in FeynRules/MadGraph. This is the first step in order to realize a real study of LHC data recorded in the LHC detectors. With this goal in mind, we comment on the possibility of discovering this kind of new physics at the LHC running at 7 TeV with a luminosity of few fb^-1.
We investigate photon production in a scenario of quark-gluon plasma formation in proton-proton scattering at 7 TeV. It is shown that thermal photon yields increase quadratically with the charged particle multiplicity. This gives an enhanced weight to high multiplicity events, and leads to an important photon production even in minimum bias events, where the thermal photons largely dominate over the prompt ones at transverse momentum values smaller than 10 GeV/c.
We review possible properties of Higgs bosons in the NMSSM, which allow to discriminate this model from the MSSM: masses of mostly Standard-Model-like Higgs bosons at or above 140 GeV, or enhanced branching fractions into two photons, or Higgs-to-Higgs decays. In the case of a Standard-Model-like Higgs boson above 140 GeV, it is necessarily accompagnied by a lighter state with a large gauge singlet component. Examples for such scenarios are presented. Available studies on Higgs-to-Higgs decays are discussed according to the various Higgs production modes, light Higgs masses and decay channels.
We revisit discovery prospects for a long-lived sterile neutrino $N$ at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the context of left-right symmetric theories. We focus on a displaced vertex search strategy sensitive to $\mathcal{O}$(GeV) neutrino masses produced via a right-handed $W_{R}$ boson. Both on-shell and off-shell Drell-Yan production of $W_{R}$ are considered. We estimate the reach as a function of $m_{N}$ and $m_{W_{R}}$. With $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV and 300/fb of integrated luminosity, the LHC can probe neutrino masses as high as $\sim 30$ GeV and $m_{W_{R}}$ around 6 TeV. The reach goes up to…
We update our analysis of the Higgs sector masses in Minimal Supersymmetry and in the Two-Higgs Doublet Model to the final ATLAS and CMS data from the 2011-2012 LHC run.
We summarise the motivation for, and the status of, the tools developed by CEDAR/MCnet for validating and tuning Monte Carlo event generators for the LHC against data from previous colliders. We then present selected preliminary results from studies of event shapes and hadronisation observables from e+e- colliders, and of minimum bias and underlying event observables from the Tevatron, and comment on the approach needed with early LHC data to best exploit the potential for new physics discoveries at the LHC in the next few years.
Over the last years, Machine Learning (ML) methods have been successfully applied to a wealth of problems in high-energy physics. For instance, in a previous work we have reported that using ML techniques one can extract the Multiparton Interactions (MPI) activity from minimum-bias pp data. Using the available LHC data on transverse momentum spectra as a function of multiplicity, we reported the average number of MPI ($\langle N_{\rm mpi} \rangle$) for minimum-bias pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ and 13\,TeV. In this work, we apply the same analysis to a new set of data. We report that $\lang…
We present results of our recent EPPS16 global analysis of NLO nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs). For the first time, dijet and heavy gauge boson production data from LHC proton-lead collisions have been included in a global fit. Especially, the CMS dijets play an important role in constraining the nuclear effects in gluon distributions. With the inclusion of also neutrino-nucleus deeply-inelastic scattering and pion-nucleus Drell-Yan data and a proper treatment of isospin-corrected data, we were able to free the flavor dependence of the valence and sea quark nuclear modifications …
Long-range correlations for pairs of charged particles with two-particle angular correlations are studied in $pp$ at ${\sqrt{\textit s}}=13$~TeV with various Monte Carlo generators. The correlation functions are constructed as functions of relative azimuthal angle $Δφ$ and pseudorapidity separation $Δη$ for pairs of different particle species with the identified hadrons such as $π$, $K$, $p$, and $Λ$ in wide $Δη$ ranges. Fourier coefficients are extracted for the long-range correlations in several -multiplicity classes using a low-multiplicity template fit method. The method allows to subtract…
Once supersymmetry is found at the LHC, the question arises what are the fundamental parameters of the Lagrangian. The answer to this question should thereby not be biased by assumptions on high-scale models. SFitter is a tool designed for this task. Taking LHC (and possibly ILC) data as input it scans the TeV-scale MSSM parameter space using its new weighted Markov chain technique. Using this scan it determines a list of best-fitting parameter points. Additionally a log-likelihood map is calculated, which can be reduced to lower-dimensional Frequentist's profile likelihoods or Bayesian probab…
We discuss the collider phenomenology of the model of Minimal Universal Extra Dimensions (MUED) at the Large hadron Collider (LHC). We derive analytical results for all relevant strong pair-production processes of two level 1 Kaluza-Klein partners and use them to validate and correct the existing MUED implementation in the fortran version of the PYTHIA event generator. We also develop a new implementation of the model in the C++ version of PYTHIA. We use our implementations in conjunction with the CHECKMATE package to derive the LHC bounds on MUED from a large number of published experimental …
Stringent experimental constraints have raised the lower limit on the masses of squarks to TeV levels, while compatibility with the mass of the Higgs boson provides an upper limit. This two-sided bound has lead to the emergence of Mini-Split theories where gauginos are not far removed from the electroweak scale while scalars are somewhat heavier. This small hierarchy modifies the spectrum of standard anomaly and gauge mediation, leading to Mini-Split deflected anomaly and gauge mediation models. In this paper, we study LHC constraints on these models and their prospects at LHC 14 and a 100 TeV…
We discuss the production of $D$-mesons and $J/ψ$ in high multiplicity proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions within the Color-Glass-Condensate (CGC) framework. We demonstrate that the modification of the LHC data on $D$ and $J/ψ$ yields in high multiplicity events relative to minimum bias events arise from a significant enhancement of the gluon saturation scales of the corresponding rare parton configurations in the colliding protons and nuclei. For a given event multiplicity, we predict these relative yields to be energy independent from $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV at RHIC to the highest LHC ene…
The $p_\perp$ dependence of the nuclear modification factor $R_{\text{AA}}$ measured in PbPb collisions at the LHC exhibits a universal shape, which can be very well reproduced in a simple energy loss model based on the BDMPS medium-induced gluon spectrum. We update a former study by including in the analysis the recent CMS measurements on $J/ψ$ production in PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ TeV and charged hadron production in XeXe collisions at $\sqrt{s}=5.44$ TeV. The average parton energy loss extracted from minimum bias XeXe collisions is reduced typically by 20% compared to PbPb collis…
Collectivity, as interpreted to mean flow of a dense medium in high-energy A-A collisions described by hydrodynamics, has been attributed to smaller collision systems -- p-A and even p-p collisions -- based on recent analysis of LHC data. However, alternative methods reveal that some data features attributed to flows are actually manifestations of minimum-bias (MB) jets. In this presentation I review the differential structure of single-particle $p_t$ spectra from SPS to LHC energies in the context of a two-component (soft + hard) model (TCM) of hadron production. I relate the spectrum hard co…
We consider next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model (NMSSM) which has a gauge singlet superfield. In the scale invariant superpotential we do not have the mass terms and the whole Lagrangian has an additional $Z_3$ symmetry. This model can have light scalar and/or pseudoscalar allowed by the recent data from LHC and the old data from LEP. We investigate the situation where a relatively light charged Higgs can decay to such singlet-like pseudoscalar and a $W^\pm$ boson giving rise to final state containing $τ$ and/or $b$-jets and lepton(s). Such decay evades the recent bounds on charged H…
We summarize the status of various supersymmetric models in view of the existing LHC data. A particular focus is on the implications of the measured Higgs mass on these models which gives important constraints. We consider here minimal and non-mininal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model.
Universal Extra Dimension (UED) is a well-motivated and well-studied scenario. One of the main motivations is the presence of a dark matter (DM) candidate namely, the lightest level-1 Kaluza-Klein (KK) particle (LKP), in the particle spectrum of UED. The minimal version of UED (mUED) scenario is highly predictive with only two parameters namely, the radius of compactification and cut-off scale, to determine the phenomenology. Therefore, stringent constraint results from the WMAP/PLANCK measurement of DM relic density (RD) of the universe. The production and decays of level-1 quarks and gluons …
In this paper we present a comparative study between PYTHIA, EPOS, QGSJET, and SIBYLL generators. The global event observables considered are the charged energy flow, charged-particle distributions, charged-hadron production ratios and $V^{0}$ ratios. The study is performed in the LHCb and TOTEM fiducial phase-spaces on minimum bias simulated data samples for \emph{pp} collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV using reference measurements from the aforementioned experiments. In the majority of cases, the measurements are within a band defined by the most extreme predictions. The observed differences be…
We construct a model containing a viable dark matter candidate, in the framework of left-right symmetry, which can explain both width and cross-section of the observed 750 GeV diphoton excess at the LHC. We introduce a fermion quintuplet whose neutral component can be a possible dark matter candidate, whereas the charged components enhance the loop induced coupling of a 750 GeV singlet scalar with a pair of photons. We study the photo-production of the singlet scalar and its various decay modes, successfully addressing both the ATLAS and the CMS diphoton excess.
The inclusive spectra of secondaries produced in soft (minimum-bias) p+Pb collisions at LHC energy are calculated in the frame of the Quark-Gluon String Model, by including the inelastic screening corrections (percolation effects). These effects are expected to be quite large at the very high energies, and they should drive down the spectra in the midrapidity region more than 2 times, at sqrt(sNN)=5 TeV.
In anticipation of data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the potential discovery of supersymmetry, in this work we seek an answer to the following: What are the chances that supersymmetry will be found at the LHC? Will the LHC data be enough to discover a given supersymmetric model? And what other measurements can assist the LHC establish the presence of supersymmetry? As a step toward answering these general questions, we calculate the odds of the next-to-minimal version of the popular supergravity motivated model (NmSuGra) being discovered at the LHC to be 4:3 (57 %). We also demonst…
We present an analysis of centrality-dependent pseudorapidity distributions of produced charged hadrons in pPb and PbPb collisions at the LHC energy of sqrt{s_NN}=5.02 TeV, and of minimum-bias pPb collisions at 8.16 TeV within the nonequilibrium-statistical relativistic diffusion model (RDM). In a three-source approach, the role of the fragmentation sources is emphasized. Together with the Jacobian transformation from rapidity to pseudorapidity and the limiting fragmentation conjecture, these are essential for modeling the centrality dependence. For central PbPb collisions, a prediction at the…
We present the systematic analysis of the behavior of elastic pp scattering cross section in the region of the diffraction peak and the first diffraction minimum in the framework of quasi-eikonal Gribov-Regge approach, taking into account the unitarity condition. We use the formalism taking into consideration the dependence of pomeron signature factor on $t$. We show that although in this approach one can describe the general features of pp scattering, the behavior of pp elastic differential cross section in the vicinity of the first diffraction minimum measured by the TOTEM experiment at LHC …
ATLAS and CMS report indications of a Higgs boson at M_h 125 GeV. In addition, CMS data show a tenuous bump in the ZZ channel, at about 320 GeV. We make the bold assumption that it might be the indication of a secondary line corresponding to the heaviest scalar Higgs boson of Minimal Supersymmetry, H, and discuss the viability of this hypothesis. We discuss also the case of a heavier H, the relevance of the b bbar decay channel is underlined.
We study neutrino masses in the framework of the supersymmetric inverse seesaw model. Different from the non-supersymmetric version a minimal realization with just one pair of singlets is sufficient to explain all neutrino data. We compute the neutrino mass matrix up to 1-loop order and show how neutrino data can be described in terms of the model parameters. We then calculate rates for lepton flavour violating (LFV) processes, such as $μ\to e γ$, and chargino decays to singlet scalar neutrinos. The latter decays are potentially observable at the LHC and show a characteristic decay pattern dic…
The recent results of 13 TeV ATLAS and CMS di-photon searches show an excess at di-photon invariant mass of 750 GeV. We look for possible explanation of this within minimal left right symmetric model (MLRSM). The possible candidate is a neutral Higgs of mass 750 GeV that can decay to di-photon via charged Higgs and right handed gauge boson loop. However, the cross-section is not consistent with the ATLAS and CMS results. We then discuss one possible variation of this model with universal seesaw for fermion masses that can explain this excess.
Universal Extra Dimension (UED) model is one of the popular extension of the Standard Model (SM) which offers interesting phenomenology. In the minimal UED (mUED) model, Kaluza-Klein (KK) parity conservation ensures that $n=1$ KK states can only be pair produced at colliders and the lightest KK particle is stable. In most of the parameter space, first KK excitation of SM hypercharge gauge boson is the lightest one and it can be a viable dark matter candidate. Thus, the decay of $n=1$ KK particles will always involve missing transverse energy as well as leptons and jets. The production cross se…
We review the current status of the minimal non-supersymmetric SO(10) grand unified theory and perform a detailed next-to-leading-order analysis of the gauge unification and proton lifetime constraints on the part of its parameter space supporting a ZeV-scale color sextet scalar. This, together with a TeV-scale color octet studied in detail in a preceding work, represents one of the two minimally fine-tuned settings compatible with all the relevant consistency and phenomenology limits. Both these scenarios can be extensively tested at the future megaton-scale proton-decay facilities. On top of…
The experimental signatures of TeV-mass black hole (BH) formation in heavy ion collisions at the LHC is examined. We find that the black hole production results in a complete disappearance of all very high $p_T$ ({$> 500$} GeV) back-to-back correlated di-jets of total mass {$M > M_f \sim 1$}TeV. We show that the subsequent Hawking-decay produces multiple hard mono-jets and discuss their detection. We study the possibility of cold black hole remnant (BHR) formation of mass $\sim M_f$ and the experimental distinguishability of scenarios with BHRs and those with complete black hole decay. Due to …
In this work we discuss our consistent implementation of the minimal model of Universal Extra Dimensions in CalcHEP. We pay special attention to the gauge invariance issues that arise due to the incorporation of 5D quantum corrections. After validating the implementation we perform a complete study of the tri-lepton signature, including a realistic estimate of the backgrounds, for the present LHC energy and luminosity. We also derive the expected LHC discovery reach for different luminosities, at centre-of-mass energies of both 7 TeV and 8 TeV.
We examine the observed diphoton excess at 750 GeV in the framework of constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (cMSSM). The consistency of cMSSM with the discovery of a 125 GeV Higgs boson and PLANCK/WMAP data for dark matter relic density (RD) demands large mixing in the scalar top (stop) sector and consequently, the existence of a light stop quasi-degenerate with the lightest neutralino. Small decay width due to kinematic and loop suppression of such a stop allows for the existence of stop-antistop bound states (stoponia). Identifying the particular part of cMSSM parameter space co…
Inelastic pp collisions are dominated by soft (low momentum transfer) physics where perturbative QCD cannot be fully applied. A deep understanding of both soft and semi-hard processes is crucial for predictions of minimum bias and underlying events of the now coming on line pp Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Moreover, the interaction of cosmic ray particles entering in the atmosphere is extremely sensitive to these soft processes and consequently cannot be formulated from first principles. Because of this, air shower analyses strongly rely on hadronic interaction models, which extrapolate collide…
We examine the reach of the CERN LHC pp collider for supersymmetric models where the dominant contribution to soft SUSY breaking parameters arises from the superconformal anomaly. In the simplest viable anomaly mediated SUSY breaking (AMSB) model, tachyonic slepton squared masses are made positive by adding a universal contribution m_0^2 to all scalars. We use the event generator ISAJET to generate AMSB signal events as a function of model parameter space. Assuming an integrated luminosity of 10 fb-1, the LHC can reach to values of $m_{\tg}\sim 2.3$ TeV for low values of $m_0$, where the dilep…
We will outline our recent efforts aimed at analysing a class of models known as orbifold GUTs and their phenomenology in a variety of minimal and non-minimal settings. We examine the minimal SU(5) models, rule them out, and proceed by extending them with an additional scalar field along with a gauge extension via SU(5)xU(1) models. We end up by commenting on the future improvements needed to more accurately handle exclusions along with tracing the U(1) gauge extensions to more complete 6D theories.
Recent data on the nuclear modification of W and Z boson production measured by the ATLAS collaboration in PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm nn}}=5.02$ TeV show an enhancement in peripheral collisions, seemingly contradicting predictions of the Glauber model. The data were previously explained by arguing that the nucleon-nucleon cross section may be shadowed in nucleus-nucleus collisions, and hence suppressed compared to the proton-proton cross section at the same collision energy. This interpretation has quite significant consequences for the understanding of heavy-ion data, in particular in t…
