We sift the impact of the recent Higgs precise measurements, and recent dark matter direct detection results, on the dark sector of an electroweak extension of the Standard Model that has a complex scalar as dark matter. We find that in this model the Higgs decays with a large branching ratio into dark matter particles, and charged scalars when these are kinematically available, for any coupling strength differently from the so called Higgs portal. Moreover, we compute the abundance and spin-independent WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section, which are driven by the Higgs and $Z^{\prime}$ boson processes. We decisively exclude the $1-500$~GeV dark matter window and find the most stringent lower bound in the literature on the scale of symmetry breaking of the model namely $10$~TeV, after applying the LUX-2013 limit. Interestingly, the projected XENON1T constraint will be able to rule out the entire $1$~GeV-$1000$~GeV dark matter mass range. Lastly, for completeness, we compute the charged scalar production cross section at the LHC and comment on the possibility of detection at current and future LHC runnings.
We argue that the current experimental data in conjunction with perturbative unitarity considerations exclude the possibility that the LHC 125-126 GeV resonance is a generic massive spin-2 particle of either parity. We analyse tree-level Z-spin-2 elastic scattering and demonstrate that perturbative unitarity breaks down at energies $Λ\sim 600$ GeV. Furthermore, we find that W,Z-spin-2 interactions contribute to the electroweak oblique parameters in a way that is in gross disagreement with observations.
The signature at the LHC of many Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) scenarios is events with large missing energy. If the forward outgoing protons are measured, we show that the production and decay of BSM particles in the central rapidity interval, with gaps in rapidity either side, offers certain advantages over inclusive production, to search for signals (a) with missing longitudinal 4-momentum (typical of invisible Higgs production), and (b) for new light pseudoscalar bosons.
An elementary review of models and phenomenology for physics beyond the Standard Model (excluding supersymmetry). The emphasis is on LHC physics. Based upon a talk given at the Physics at LHC conference, Vienna, 13-17 July 2004.
In the context of the MSSM the Light Stop Scenario (LSS) is the only region of parameter space that allows for successful Electroweak Baryogenesis (EWBG). This possibility is very phenomenologically attractive, since it allows for the direct production of light stops and could be tested at the LHC. The ATLAS and CMS experiments have recently supplied tantalizing hints for a Higgs boson with a mass of ~ 125 GeV. This Higgs mass severely restricts the parameter space of the LSS, and we discuss the specific predictions made for EWBG in the MSSM. Combining data from all the available ATLAS and CMS…
Many extensions of the Standard Model contain (pseudo)scalar bosons with masses in the TeV range. At hadron colliders, such particles would predominantly be produced in gluon fusion and would decay into top quark pair final sates, a signal that interferes with the large QCD background $gg \to t\bar t$. This phenomenon is of interest for searches for by the LHC experiments. Here, we consider the signal and background interference in this process and study it in various benchmark scenarios, including models with extra singlet (pseudo)scalar resonances, two-Higgs doublet models, and the minimal s…
Top squark (stop) plays a key role in the radiative stability of the Higgs boson mass in supersymmetry (SUSY). The LHC searches for stop have made a great progress and tightly constrained the stop mass during Run-1. In this work, we use the LHC Run-1 data to determine the lower mass limit of the right-handed stop in a natural SUSY scenario, where the higgsinos $\tildeχ^0_{1,2}$ and $\tildeχ^\pm_{1}$ are light and nearly degenerate. We find that the stop mass has been excluded up to 430 GeV for $m_{\tildeχ^0_1} \lesssim 250$ GeV and to 540 GeV for $m_{\tildeχ^0_1} \simeq 100$ GeV by the Run-1 S…
The ATLAS and CMS experiments will take first data soon. I consider here the prospects for new physics (excluding SUSY) with a few inverse fb of data. This means processes with signal cross sections of a few 100 fb or less, with clear and fairly simple signatures - precision comparison of data to Standard Model tails will take longer, needing more luminosity and very good understanding of detector calibrations, resolutions and trigger efficiencies. The approach I take here is signature rather than model based, but examples of models will be given.
The addition of the QCD axion to the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) not only solves the strong CP problem but also modifies the dark sector with new dark matter candidates. While SUSY axion phenomenology is usually restricted to searches for the axion itself or searches for the ordinary SUSY particles, this work focuses on scenarios where the axion's superpartner, the axino, may be detectable at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the decays of neutralinos displaced from the primary vertex. In particular, we focus on the KSVZ axino within the hadronic axion window. The decay lengt…
We present a detailed investigation to establish that lepton-number (L) violating supersymmetry (SUSY) can be effectively probed at the LHC in the practically background-free same-sign trilepton (SS3l) and same-sign four-lepton (SS4l) channels. With this in view, we extend our earlier analysis of SS3l and SS4l signals by considering situations based on minimal supergravity as well as a phenomenological SUSY model. We find that the R-parity violating scenario predicts large event rates, for both the 7 and 14 TeV runs. Furthermore, we show that it is extremely unlikely to ever achieve similar ra…
The recent discovery of a SM-like Higgs boson at the LHC, with a mass around 125-126 GeV, together with the absence of results in the direct searches for supersymmetry, is pushing the SUSY scale ($m_\text{SUSY}$) into the multi-TeV range. This discouraging situation from a low-energy SUSY point of view has its counterpart in indirect SUSY observables which present a non-decoupling behavior with $m_\text{SUSY}$. This is the case of the one-loop lepton flavor violating Higgs decay rates induced by SUSY, which are shown here to remain constant as $m_\text{SUSY}$ grows, for large $m_\text{SUSY} >$…
The strongly intense quantities and robust variances in processes of multi-particle production in pp and AA interactions at LHC energies was studied. The Monte Carlo and analytic modelling of these quantities in the framework of a quark-gluon string model were implies. The string fusion effects were also taken into account by implementing of a lattice (grid) in the impact parameter plane. Strongly intensive variable $Σ(n_F,\ n_B)$ was calculated for different energies for two values of the width of the observation rapidity windows as a function of the distance between the centres of this windo…
We study a two Higgs doublet model augmented by a scalar dark matter particle that provides an excellent fit to the LHC Higgs data and the Fermi-LAT 135 GeV line. The heavy CP-even Higgs boson, which predominantly mediates annihilation and scattering, must have a coupling to weak gauge bosons at or below percent level to suppress the continuum gamma-ray spectrum below the limit from the Fermi-LAT data and the anti-proton spectrum constrained by the PAMELA data. Discovering or excluding this CP-even Higgs boson at the LHC with a mass between 265 and 280 GeV and an enhanced diphoton branching ra…
The LHC has delivered several fb-1 of data in spring and summer 2011, opening new windows of opportunity for discovering phenomena beyond the Standard Model. A summary of the searches conducted by the ATLAS and CMS experiments based on about 1 fb-1 of data is presented.
In recent years the Tsallis statistics is gaining popularity in describing charged particle produc- tion and their properties, in particular pT spectra and the multiplicities in high energy particle collisions. Motivated by its success, an analysis of the LHC data of proton-proton collisions at ener- gies ranging from 0.9 TeV to 7 TeV in different rapidity windows for charged particle multiplicities has been done. A comparative analysis is performed in terms of the Tsallis distribution, the Gamma distribution and the shifted-Gamma distribution. An interesting observation on the inapplicability…
Both ATLAS and CMS have published results of SUSY searches putting limits on SUSY parameters and masses. A non-discovery of SUSY in the next two years would push these limits further. On the other hand, precision data of low energy measurements and the dark matter relic density favor a light scale of supersymmetry. Therefore we investigate if supersymmetry -- more specifically the highly constraint model mSUGRA -- does at all agree with precision data and LHC exclusions at the same time, and whether the first two years of LHC will be capable of excluding models of supersymmetry. We consider th…
In the Next-to-Minimal SuperSymmetric Model (NMSSM) the lightest CP-odd Higgs bosons (a1) can be very light. As a consequence, in addition to the standard charged Higgs boson (h+) decays considered in the MSSM for a light charged Higgs (m_h+ < m_t), the branching fraction for h+ to a1 W can be dominant. We investigate how this signal can be searched for in t tbar production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the case that m_a1 \gtrsim 2m_B with the a1 giving rise to a single b bbar-jet and discuss to what extent the LHC experiments are able to discover such a scenario with an integrated lum…
In canonical left-right symmetric models the lower mass bounds on the charged gauge bosons are in the ballpark of $3-4$ TeV, resulting into much stronger limits on the neutral gauge boson $Z_R$, making its production unreachable at the LHC. However, if one evokes different patterns of left-right symmetry breaking the $Z_R$ might be lighter than the $W_R^\pm$ motivating an independent $Z_R$ collider study. In this work, we use the 8 TeV ATLAS $20.3$ fb$^{-1}$ luminosity data to derive robust bounds on the $Z_R$ mass using dilepton data. %because they provide the most restrictive limits due to t…
We investigate simplified models of dark matter with scalar mediators at hadron colliders using the final state topology with 2 jets and missing energy. These models can arise in a wide variety of BSM scenarios including the possibility of the mediator mixing with the Higgs. Our aim is first to determine the projected reach of the LHC and the future circular hadron collider for excluding such models. Secondly, we use the kinematic distributions to extract information on mediator masses. At the 13 TeV LHC we can probe mediator masses up to 750 GeV, and at a 100 TeV collider the reach is increas…
The top forward-backward asymmetry (tAFB) measured at the Tevatron remains one of the most puzzling outstanding collider anomalies. After two years of LHC running, however, few models for tAFB remain consistent with LHC data. In this paper we take a detailed look at the most promising surviving class of models, namely light (m_G' <~ 450 GeV), broad axigluons. We show which models simultaneously satisfy constraints from Tevatron and LHC top measurements, hadronic resonance searches, and LEP precision electroweak (PEW) observables. We consider three flavor structures: flavor-universal; down-type…
Probing displaced (dark)photons from low reheating freeze-in at the LHC
Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad San Sebastián（塞巴斯蒂安大学工程学院）；Millennium Institute for Subatomic Physics at the High-Energy Frontier (SAPHIR)（高能前沿亚原子物理千年研究所（SAPHIR））；Instituto de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile（智利天主教大学物理研究所）；Instituto de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República（共和国大学理学院物理研究所）；Sección Física, Departamento de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú（秘鲁天主教大学科学院物理组）
We outline a strategy of how to search for QCD instantons of invariant mass 20 -- 60 GeV in diffractive events in low luminosity runs at the LHC. We show that by imposing appropriate selection criteria on the final states, one can select the kinematic regime where the instanton signal exceeds the background by a factor of at least 8. In spite of the relatively strong cuts that we impose on the total transverse energy and the number of charged tracks, $\sum_i E_{T,i}>15$ GeV, $N_{\rm ch}>20$ measured within the $0<η<2$ interval and excluding events with high $p_{T}$ particles, the expected cros…
Charged-particle multiplicity and summed values of the transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) have been utilized for estimating forward-backward (FB) correlation strength for EPOS3 simulated proton-proton ($pp$) events with and without hydrodynamical evolution of particles at center-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s}$ = 0.9, 2.76, and 7 TeV for different pseudorapidity window width ($δη$) and gap ($η_{gap}$) between the FB windows. We have studied the variation of FB correlation strength with $η_{gap}$, $δη$, $\sqrt{s}$, $p_{\rm T}$ cuts and multiplicity classes. Results are compared with the corresponding…
This brief review grew out from the HEP Concluding Talk of the {\it 25th Anniversary of the Rencontres du Vietnam}, held August 2018 in Quy Nhon. The first two-thirds gives a Summary and Highlights, or snapshot, of High Energy Physics at the end of Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Run 2. It can be view as the combined effort of the program organizers, the invited plenary speakers, and finally filtered into the present mosaic. It certainly should not be viewed as comprehensive. In the second one-third, a more personal Perspective and Outlook is given, including my take on the flavor anomalies, and w…
Searches for Higgs boson at the LHC have excluded standard model (SM) Higgs boson mass in the range between 127 GeV to 600 GeV. With a fourth generation, the excluded range is wider. To close the windows between 114 GeV to 127 GeV, the mode $H \to γγ$ plays an important role. There are evidences that the Higgs boson mass is about 126 GeV from LHC data. $H\to γγ$ can occur at one loop level in the SM. In the SM with three generations (SM3), the dominant contribution is from W boson with some cancellation from top quark in the loop. With SM4, the large mass of the fourth generation quarks and ch…
We present the first version of a new tool to scan the parameter space of generic scalar potentials, ScannerS. The main goal of ScannerS is to help distinguish between different patterns of symmetry breaking for each scalar potential. In this work we use it to investigate the possibility of excluding regions of the phase diagram of several versions of a complex singlet extension of the Standard Model, with future LHC results. We find that if another scalar is found, one can exclude a phase with a dark matter candidate in definite regions of the parameter space, while predicting whether a third…
We propose a new model independent technique for constructing background data templates for use in searches for new physics processes at the LHC. This method, called CURTAINs, uses invertible neural networks to parametrise the distribution of side band data as a function of the resonant observable. The network learns a transformation to map any data point from its value of the resonant observable to another chosen value. Using CURTAINs, a template for the background data in the signal window is constructed by mapping the data from the side-bands into the signal region. We perform anomaly detec…
We study the prospects of measuring the CP property of the Higgs ($h$) coupling to tau leptons using the vector boson fusion (VBF) production mode at the high-luminosity LHC. Utilizing the previously proposed angle between the planes spanned by the momentum vectors of the $(π^+π^0)$ and $(π^- π^0)$ pairs originating in $τ^\pm$ decays as the CP-odd observable, we perform a detailed Monte Carlo analysis, taking into account the relevant standard model backgrounds, as well as detector resolution effects. We find that excluding a pure CP-odd coupling hypothesis requires $\mathcal{O}(400 {~\rm fb}^…
A heavy Standard Model Higgs boson is not only disfavored by electroweak precision observables but is also excluded by direct searches at the 7 TeV LHC for a wide range of masses. Here, we examine scenarios where a heavy Higgs boson can be made consistent with both the indirect constraints and the direct null searches by adding only one new particle beyond the Standard Model. This new particle should be a weak multiplet in order to have additional contributions to the oblique parameters. If it is a color singlet, we find that a heavy Higgs with an intermediate mass of 200 - 300 GeV can decay i…
We use LHC dijet data to derive constraints on neutrinoless double beta decay. Upper limits on cross sections for the production of "exotic" resonances, such as a right-handed W boson or a diquark, can be converted into lower limits on the double beta decay half-life for fixed choices of other parameters. Constraints derived from run-I data are already surprisingly strong and complementary to results from searches using same-sign dileptons plus jets. For the case of the left-right symmetric model, in case no new resonance is found in future runs of the LHC and assuming $g_L=g_R$, we estimate a…
The pseudoscalar resonance or "A-funnel" in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model~(MSSM) is a widely studied framework for explaining dark matter that can yield interesting indirect detection and collider signals. The well-known Galactic Center excess (GCE) at GeV energies in the gamma ray spectrum, consistent with annihilation of a $\lesssim 40$ GeV dark matter particle, has more recently been shown to be compatible with significantly heavier masses following reanalysis of the background. In this paper, we explore the LHC and direct detection implications of interpreting the GCE in this e…
We investigate a scenario that the top quark is the only window to the dark matter particle. We use the effective Lagrangian approach to write down the interaction between the top quark and the dark matter particle. Requiring the dark matter satisfying the relic density we obtain the size of the effective interaction. We show that the scenario can be made consistent with the direct and indirect detection experiments by adjusting the size of the effective coupling. Finally, we calculate the production cross section for $t\bar t + χ\bar χ$ at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which will give rise…
We show that both flavor-conserving and flavor-violating Yukawa couplings of the Higgs boson to first- and second-generation quarks can be probed by measuring rare decays of the form h->MV, where M denotes a vector meson and V indicates either gamma, W or Z. We calculate the branching ratios for these processes in both the Standard Model and its possible extensions. We discuss the experimental prospects for their observation. The possibility of accessing these Higgs couplings appears to be unique to the high-luminosity LHC and future hadron colliders, providing further motivation for those mac…
On-going Higgs searches in the light mass window are of vital importance for testing the Higgs mechanism and probing new physics beyond the standard model (SM). The latest ATLAS and CMS searches for the SM Higgs boson at the LHC (7TeV) found some intriguing excesses of events in the γγ/VV^* channels (V=Z,W) around the mass-range of 124-126 GeV. We explore a possible explanation of the γγand VV^* signals from the light CP-odd Higgs A^0 or CP-even Higgs h^0 from the general two-Higgs-doublet model with fourth-family fermions. We demonstrate that by including invisible decays of the Higgs boson A…
Extra light electroweak singlets can dramatically alter Higgs decays by introducing additional decay modes, $h\to aa$. In scenarios where cascade decays $h\to aa\to 4X, X\ne b,\bar b$ dominate, the Higgs will escape conventional searches and may be as light as $82 \gev$. In this paper we investigate the discovery potential of the mode $h\to aa\to 2γ2g$ through direct ($pp\to h$) and associated ($pp \to W^{\pm}h$) Higgs production at the LHC. Our search covers all kinematically allowed singlet masses for $\sim 80 \gev \le m_h < 160 \gev$ and assumes an integrated luminosity $\CL = 300 {\rm fb}^…
Multi-Higgs production provides a phenomenologically clear window to the electroweak symmetry breaking sector. We perform a comprehensive and comparative analysis of new electroweak physics effects in di-Higgs and di-Higgs+jet production. In particular, we discuss resonant di-Higgs phenomenology, which arises in the Higgs portal model and in the MSSM at small tan beta, and non-resonant new physics contributions to di-Higgs production in models where the newly discovered Higgs candidate is interpreted as a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson. We show that, for all these scenarios, a measurement of the…
A light pseudo-scalar that is copiously produced at the LHC may still be allowed by present searches. While masses above 65 GeV are effectively covered by di-photon searches, the lower mass window can be tested by a new search for boosted di-tau resonances. We test this strategy on a set of composite Higgs models with top partial compositeness, where most models can be probed with an integrated luminosity below 300 fb$^{-1}$.
The installation of forward proton detectors at the LHC will provide the possibility to perform new high-precision measurements, opening a novel window on physics beyond the Standard Model. We review recent simulations and theoretical developments about the measurement of anomalous light-by-light scattering. The search for this process is expected to provide bounds on a wide range of new particles. Future perspectives for precision QED at the LHC are also briefly discussed.
In this talk I argue that a light techni-dilaton exists in models of walking technicolor near the conformal window. The light techni-dilaton then mixes with the composite Higgs, which is predicted to be narrow and light in walking technicolor models. It is an interesting possibility that the newly discovered boson at LHC might be a mixed state of techni-dilaton and the composite Higgs.
Precision gauge coupling unification is one of the primary quantitative successes of low energy or split supersymmetry. Preserving this success puts severe restrictions on possible matter and gauge sectors that might appear at collider-accessible energies. In this work we enumerate new gauge sectors which are compatible with unification, consisting of horizontal gauge groups acting on vector-like matter charged under the Standard Model. Interestingly, almost all of these theories are in the supersymmetric conformal window at high energies and confine quickly after the superpartners are decoupl…
The installation of forward proton detectors at the LHC will provide the possibility to observe central exclusive processes, opening a novel window on physics beyond the Standard Model. We review recent developments on the discovery potential from central exclusive light-by-light scattering. The search for this process is expected to provide bounds on a wide range of particles, and turns out to be complementary from new physics searches in inclusive channels.
The recent results of the LHC search for electroweak production of supersymmetric (SUSY) particles at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV have shown improved lower limits for their masses. In addition, the projected experiment E989 will be able to measure the muon anomalous magnetic moment precisely so that the experimental uncertainty can be reduced by a factor of four. It was pointed out that if the center value of the muon $g-2$ remains unchanged the deviation between the standard model (SM) prediction and the experimental value will be as large as 7.0$σ$. Such a large deviation will be solid evidence for ne…
Thanks to the recent careful revisit of the theoretical prediction of the $B_c$ meson lifetime, the conservative upper bound on the branching ratio (BR) of $τν$ mode is found to be $\simeq 63\%$ due to the large charm quark mass uncertainty. Although it is well known that a charged Higgs ($H^-$) interpretation of the $R_{D^{(*)}}$ anomaly is excluded by the previously proposed bounds, BR$(B_c\toτν)\le 30\%$ and $\le10\%$, $H^-$ can still explain the anomaly within $1σ$ if we adopt the 63$\%$ one. The scalar contribution is also favored by the polarization data $F_L^{D^*}$ measured at the Belle…
A light vector boson, Z_d, associated with a "dark sector" U(1)_d gauge group has been introduced to explain certain astrophysical observations as well as low energy laboratory anomalies. In such models, the Higgs boson may decay into X+Z_d, where X=Z, Z_d or γ. Here, we provide estimates of those decay rates as functions of the Z_d coupling through either mass-mixing (e.g. via an enlarged Higgs mechanism) or through heavy new fermion loops and examine the implied LHC phenomenology. Our studies focus on the higher m_{Z_d} case, > several GeV, where the rates are potentially measurable at the L…
We show that a right-handed stop in the 200-400 GeV mass range, together with a nearly degenerate neutralino and, possibly, a gluino below 1.5 TeV, follows from reasonable assumptions, is consistent with present data, and offers interesting discovery prospects at the LHC. Triggering on an extra jet produced in association with stops allows the experimental search for stops even when their mass difference with neutralinos is very small and the decay products are too soft for direct observation. Using a razor analysis, we are able to set stop bounds that are stronger than those published by ATLA…
LHC-7 has narrowed down the mass range of the light Higgs boson. This result is consistent with the supergravity unification framework, and the current Higgs boson mass window implies a rather significant loop correction to the tree value pointing to a relatively heavy scalar sparticle spectrum with universal boundary conditions. It is shown that the largest value of the Higgs boson mass is obtained on the Hyperbolic Branch of radiative breaking. The implications of light Higgs boson in the broader mass range of 115 GeV to 131 GeV and a narrower range of 123 GeV to 127 GeV are explored in the …
Gravitino dark matter, together with thermal leptogenesis, implies an upper bound on the masses of superparticles. In the case of broken R-parity the constraints from primordial nucleosynthesis are naturally satisfied and decaying gravitinos lead to characteristic signatures in high energy cosmic rays. We analyse the implications for supergravity models with universal boundary conditions at the grand unification scale. Together with low-energy observables one obtains a window of superparticle masses, which will soon be probed at the LHC, and a range of allowed reheating temperatures.
Large Hadron Collider (LHC) searches for the SM Higgs boson provide a powerful limit on models involving Universal Extra Dimensions (UED) where the Higgs production is enhanced. We have evaluated all one-loop diagrams for Higgs production from gluon fusion and decay to two photons within "minimal" UED (mUED), independently confirming previous results, and we have evaluated enhancement factors for Higgs boson production and decay over the mUED parameter space. Using these we have derived limits on the parameter space, combining data from both ATLAS and CMS collaborations for the most recent 7 T…
In the natural realization of the Next-to-minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, Higgsinos tend to be lighter than about several hundred GeVs, which can induce detectable leptonic signals at the LHC as well as large DM-nucleon scattering cross section. We explore the constraints from the direct searches for electroweakino and slepton at the LHC Run II and the latest DM direct detection experiments on the scenario with low fine tuning indicator $Δ_{Z/h} \leq 50$. We find that these experiments are complementary to each other in excluding the scenario, and as far as each kind of experiment is co…
The Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model NMSSM provides an attractive extension to the minimal supersymmetric model by including an extra Higgs singlet superfield. This extension allows one to link the Higgs-higgsino mass parameter to a vacuum expectation value of the new scalar field, thus providing a solution to the mu-problem of the MSSM. It this report, presented within the context of the LHC / LC Study Group, we examine a particularly interesting NMSSM scenario where the extra Higgs scalar is rather light. We determine LHC production cross-sections and branching ratios for the li…
