I perform a combined analysis of the ATLAS and CMS diphoton data, using both Run-I and Run-II results, including those released at the 2016 Moriond conference. I find combining the ATLAS and CMS results from Run-II increases the statistical significance of the reported 750 GeV anomaly, assuming a spin-0 mediator coupling to gluons or heavy quarks with a width much smaller than the detector resolution. This significance does not decrease when the 8 TeV data is included. A spin-2 mediator is disfavored compared to the spin-0 case. The cross section required to fit the ATLAS anomaly is in tension with the aggregate data, all of which prefers a smaller value. The best fit for all models I consider is a $4.0σ$ local significance for a 750 GeV spin-0 mediator coupling to gluons with a cross section of 4 fb at 13 TeV (assuming narrow width) or 10~fb (assuming $Γ=45$ GeV).
We develop the analysis of diphoton exclusive photoproduction in the kinematics where a collinear QCD factorization framework applies, namely nearly forward large invariant mass diphoton production. We work at the leading twist level and at the next-to-leading order (NLO) in the strong coupling constant $α_S$. We compare our predictions for cross-sections with Born order calculations for the experimental conditions accessible to JLab experiments and show the interesting sensitivity of our results to various models of generalized parton distributions (GPDs). The NLO corrections are rather large…
A framework is proposed to describe resonant diphoton phenomenology at hadron colliders in full generality. It can be employed for a comprehensive model-independent interpretation of the experimental data. Within the general framework, few benchmark scenarios are defined as representative of the various phenomenological options and/or of motivated new physics scenarios. Their usage is illustrated by performing a characterization of the 750 GeV excess, based on a recast of available experimental results. We also perform an assessment of which properties of the resonance could be inferred, after…
We discuss some consistency tests that must be passed for a successful explanation of a diphoton excess at larger mass scales, generated by a scalar or pseudoscalar state, possibly of a composite nature, decaying to two photons. Scalar states at mass scales above the electroweak scale decaying significantly into photon final states generically lead to modifications of Standard Model Higgs phenomenology. We characterise this effect using the formalism of Effective Field Theory (EFT) and study the modification of the effective couplings to photons and gluons of the Higgs. The modification of Hig…
We discuss different $\rm SU(5)$ low-energy realizations and illustrate their use with the diphoton excess and Higgs flavor violation, which require new physics at the TeV scale. In particular, we study two scenarios for a $750$ GeV resonance: in the first one the resonance belongs to the adjoint of $\rm SU(5)$, being either an $\rm SU(2)_L$ singlet or a triplet, while in the second case the signal is due to the CP-even and CP-odd states of a new $\rm SU(2)_L$ Higgs doublet belonging to a ${\bf 45}_H$ or a ${\bf 70}_H$ representations, giving rise to a two-Higgs doublet model at low energies. …
ATLAS and CMS have each reported a modest diphoton excess consistent with the decay of a broad resonance at ~ 750 GeV. We show how this signal can arise in a weakly coupled theory comprised solely of narrow width particles. In particular, if the decaying particle is produced off-shell, then the associated diphoton resonance will have a broad, adjustable width. We present simplified models which explain the diphoton excess through the three-body decay of a scalar or fermion. Our minimal ultraviolet completion is a weakly coupled and renormalizable theory of a singlet scalar plus a heavy vector-…
A generic prediction of scenarios with extra dimensions accessible in TeV-scale collisions is the existence of Kaluza-Klein excitations of the graviton. For a broad class of strongly-warped scenarios one expects to initially find an isolated resonance, whose phenomenology in the simplest cases is described by a simplified model with two parameters, its mass, and a constant $Λ$ with units of mass parameterizing its coupling to the Standard Model stress tensor. These parameters are in turn determined by the geometrical configuration of the warped compactification. We explore the possibility that…
We discuss the collider phenomenology of Universal Extra Dimension models with gravity mediated decays. We concentrate on diphoton associated with large missing transverse energy signature. At the collider, level-1 Kaluza-Klein (KK) particles are produced in pairs due to the conservation of KK-parity. Subsequently, KK-particles decay via cascades involving lighter KK-particles until reaching the lightest KK-particle (LKP). Finally, gravity induced decay of the LKP into photons gives rise to the diphoton signature. The search for diphoton events with large missing transverse energy was recently…
We investigate the 750 GeV diphoton excess in terms of supersymmetric models which preserve grand unification in the ultraviolet. We show that minimal extensions of the MSSM by a singlet and a vector-like 5-plet or 10-plet of SU(5) can explain the observed signal while remaining perturbative up to the GUT scale. Different from previous analyses we rely on light sfermions in the loops which - compared to the analog non-supersymmetric models - enhance the diphoton cross section by up to a factor of seven. While the resonance decay width is narrow, mass splitting of the scalar and pseudoscalar co…
We consider the phenomenology of a resonance that couples to photons but not gluons, and estimate its production rate at the LHC from photon-photon fusion in elastic pp scattering using the effective photon and narrow width approximations. The rate is sensitive only to the mass, the spin, the total width of the resonance, and its branching fraction to photons. Production cross sections of 5-10 fb at 13 TeV can be easily accommodated for a 750 GeV resonance with partial photon width of 15 GeV. This provides the minimal explanation of the reported diphoton anomaly in the early LHC Run II data.
We study the recently reported excess in the diphoton resonance search by ATLAS and CMS. We investigate the available parameter space in the combined run-1 and run-2 diphoton data and study its interpretation in terms of a singlet scalar field which possibly mixes with the Standard Model Higgs boson. We show that the mixing angle is already strongly constrained by high-mass Higgs searches in the diboson channel, and by Higgs coupling measurements. While a broad resonance is slightly favored, we argue that the signal is consistent with a narrow-width singlet which couples to colored and electro…
The hints for a new resonance at 750 GeV from ATLAS and CMS have triggered a significant amount of attention. Since the simplest extensions of the standard model cannot accommodate the observation, many alternatives have been considered to explain the excess. Here we focus on several proposed renormalisable weakly-coupled models and revisit results given in the literature. We point out that physically important subtleties are often missed or neglected. To facilitate the study of the excess we have created a collection of 40 model files, selected from recent literature, for the Mathematica pack…
A diphoton excess with an invariant mass of about 750 GeV has been recently reported by both ATLAS and CMS experiments at LHC. While the simplest interpretation requires the resonant production of a 750 GeV (pseudo)scalar, here we consider an alternative setup, with an additional heavy parent particle which decays into a pair of 750 GeV resonances. This configuration improves the agreement between the 8 TeV and 13 TeV data. Moreover, we include a dark matter candidate in the form of a Majorana fermion which interacts through the 750 GeV portal. The invisible decays of the light resonance help …
We study models with heavy exotics that account for the LHC $750$ GeV diphoton excess in light of current vector-like quark bounds. Utilizing only exotics that may appear in three-stack and four-stack D-brane models, we show that a narrow width diphoton excess can be accounted for while evading existing bounds if multiple exotics are added, with vector-like leptons of mass $M_L\lesssim 375$ GeV and vector-like quarks with masses up to $\simeq 3$ TeV. However, a large width $(Γ/M \sim 0.06)$, as suggested by the ATLAS data, cannot be easily accommodated in this framework. Renormalization group …
We discuss the discrimination of the 125 GeV spin-parity 0^+ Higgs-like boson observed at the LHC, decaying into two photons, H\toγγ, against the hypothesis of a minimally coupled J^{P}=2^+ narrow diphoton resonance with the same mass and giving the same total number of signal events under the peak. We apply, as the basic observable of the analysis, the center-edge asymmetry A_{CE} of the cosine of the polar angle of the produced photons in the diphoton rest frame to distinguish between the tested spin hypotheses. We show that the center-edge asymmetry A_{CE} should provide strong discriminati…
The ATLAS and CMS experiments at the LHC have found significant excess in the diphoton invariant mass distribution near 750 GeV. We interpret this excess in a predictive nonsupersymmetric SU(5) grand unified framework with a singlet scalar and light adjoint fermions. The 750 GeV resonance is identified as a gauge singlet scalar. Both its production and decays are induced by 24 dimensional adjoint fermions predicted within SU(5). The adjoint fermions are assumed to be odd under $Z_2$ symmetry which forbids their direct coupling to the standard model fermions. We show that the observed diphoton …
We study the 2010 specific version of the 2002 proposed $U(1)_X$ extension of the supersymmetric standard model, which has no $μ$ term and conserves baryon number and lepton number separately and automatically. We consider in detail the scalar sector as well as the extra $Z_X$ gauge boson, and their interactions with the necessary extra color-triplet particles of this model, which behave as leptoquarks. We show how the diphoton excess at 750 GeV, recently observed at the LHC, may be explained within this context. We identify a new fermion dark-matter candidate and discuss its properties. An im…
The top/bottom seesaw model, which extends the top seesaw in order to accomodate a 125 GeV Higgs boson, predicts vector-like top/bottom partners and these partners can be bounded to form several neutral and charged singlet composite scalars by some new strong dynamics. In this letter, we use such a singlet scalar to interpret the 750 GeV diphoton reseanance. This singlet scalar is dominantly produced through the gluon fusion process induced by the partners and its diphoton decay is induced by both the partners and the charged singlet scalars. We show that this scenario can readily account for …
Motivated by the recently reported diphoton resonance at 750 GeV, we study a new axion-like bosonic portal model of dark matter physics. When the resonance particle is identified as the pseudo-scalar mediator, via which the standard model sector would interact with the dark matter sector, the data from collider physics would provide profound implications to dark matter phenomenology. In this paper, we first identify the preferred parameter space of the suggested portal model from the results of the LHC run with $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV, and then we examine the dark matter signature taking into accoun…
The diphoton excess around $m_S=750$ GeV observed at ATLAS and CMS can be interpreted as coming from $S=H$ and $A$, the neutral components of a second Higgs doublet. If so, then the consistency of the light Higgs decays with the Standard Model predictions provides upper bounds on the rates of $S\to VV, hZ, hh$ decays. On the other hand, if $h\toτμ$ decay is established, then a lower bound on the rate of $S\toτμ$ decay arises. Requiring that $Γ_S\lesssim45$ GeV gives both an upper and a lower bound on the rotation angle from the Higgs basis $(Φ_v,Φ_A)$ to the mass basis $(Φ_h,Φ_H)$. The charged…
We show that low-mass-scale string compactifications, with a generic D-brane configuration that realizes the standard model by open strings, can explain the relatively broad peak in the diphoton invariant mass spectrum at 750 GeV recently reported by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. Under reasonable assumptions, we demonstrate that the excess could originate from a closed string (possibly axionic) excitation φthat has a coupling with gauge kinetic terms. We estimate the φproduction rate from photon-photon fusion in elastic pp scattering, using the effective photon and narrow width approximati…
Motivated by the recent update on LHC searches for narrow and broad resonances decaying into diphotons we reconsider the possibility that the observed peak in the invariant mass spectrum at M_{γγ} = 750 GeV originates from a closed string (possibly axionic) excitation φ(associated with low mass scale string theory) that has a coupling with gauge kinetic terms. We reevaluate the production of φby photon fusion to accommodate recent developments on additional contributions to relativistic light-light scattering. We also study the production of φvia gluon fusion. We show that for both a narrow an…
In a supersymmetry model with an axino as the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) and a Bino as the next LSP (NLSP), supersymmetry particles produced in pair at a high energy collider end up with including two Binos, followed by each Bino's decay into a photon and an axino. Final states are diphoton with large missing energy. We have comprehensively studied the implication of $γγ+$MET data from the ALEPH, CDF II, and recent ATLAS and CMS experiments. No excess over the standard model backgrounds can be explained in this model if the NLSP Bino decays outside the detector, which happens when …
We consider the possibility that the recently observed excess in the diphoton invariant mass spectrum around 750 GeV is due to two narrow scalars. We demonstrate that there is no need to introduce invisible decay modes to enlarge the widths as long as the two scalars exhibit an appropriate mass splitting. Nevertheless we investigate the possible connection of these two scalars to the dark matter in a toy model with a Majorana fermionic dark matter candidate. We explore how large the widths of the two scalar widths could be taking into account various constraints from collider and dark matter e…
The newly discovered resonance at 125 GeV has properties consistent with the Standard Model (SM) Higgs particle, although some production and/or decay channels currently exhibit O(1) deviations. We consider scenarios with a new scalar singlet field with couplings to electrically charged vector-like matter, focusing particularly on the case when the singlet mass lies within a narrow ~ few GeV window around the Higgs mass. Such a `singlet neighbor' presents novel mechanisms for modifying the observed properties of the Higgs boson. For instance, even a small amount of the Higgs-singlet mixing can…
We discuss the implications of the significant excesses in the diphoton final state observed by the LHC experiments ATLAS and CMS around a diphoton invariant mass of 750 GeV. The interpretation of the excess as a spin-zero s-channel resonance implies model-independent lower bounds on both its branching ratio and its coupling to photons, which stringently constrain dynamical models. We consider both the case where the excess is described by a narrow and a broad resonance. We also obtain model-independent constraints on the allowed couplings and branching fractions to final states other than dip…
We propose that the 750 GeV resonance, presumably observed in the early LHC Run 2 data, could be a heavy composite axion that results from condensation of a hypothetical quark in a high-colour representation of conventional QCD. The model, motivated by a recently proposed solution to the strong CP problem, is very economical and is essentially defined by the properties of the additional quark - its colour charge, hypercharge and mass. The axion mass and its coupling to two photons (via axial anomaly) can be computed in terms of these parameters. The axion is predominantly produced via photon f…
We construct a weakly-coupled renormalizable model to explain the $750\mbox{GeV}$ diphoton excess. The $750\mbox{GeV}$ resonance (denoted as $X(750)$) is interpreted as a pseudoscalar coming from a complex singlet. The model also naturally provides a dark matter candidate. One most attractive feature of the model is that decays of $X(750)$ are all loop-induced so the diphoton rate is not diluted by unwanted tree level branching fractions. Relevant Yukawa interactions need not to be tuned to near non-perturbative region to explain the rate. The model is highly predictive, including the pseudosc…
We interpret the di-photon excess recently reported by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations as a new resonance arising from the sgoldstino scalar, which is the superpartner of the Goldstone mode of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking, the goldstino. The sgoldstino is produced at the LHC via gluon fusion and decays to photons, with interaction strengths proportional to the corresponding gaugino masses over the supersymmetry breaking scale. Fitting the excess, while evading bounds from searches in the di-jet, $Zγ$, $ZZ$ and $WW$ final states, selects the supersymmetry breaking scale to be a few TeV, …
A separable potential model of three coupled channels (pion-pion, kaon-antikaon and an effective four pion) has been constructed and applied in the analysis of the isoscalar S-wave pion-pion and kaon-antikaon phase shifts and inelasticities .A relatively narrow scalar resonance of mass 1400-1460 MeV has been found. This resonance is consistent with the recent CERN observation of an eventual scalar glueball at 1500 MeV. Other resonances at lower energies like a wide sigma meson and a narrow f0(980) have been confirmed.
We discuss non-standard interpretations of the 750 GeV diphoton excess recently reported by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations which do not involve a new, relatively broad, resonance with a mass near 750 GeV. Instead, we consider the sequential cascade decay of a much heavier, possibly quite narrow, resonance into two photons along with one or more invisible particles. The resulting diphoton invariant mass signal is generically rather broad, as suggested by the data. We examine three specific event topologies - the antler, the sandwich, and the 2-step cascade decay, and show that they all can pr…
Models in which the 750 GeV resonance ($S$) decays to two light axion-like particles (ALPs $a$), which in turn decay to collimated photons mimicking the observed signal, are motivated by Hidden Valley scenarios and could also provide a mechanism by which a $S \to γγ$ signal persists while $S \to Z γ,\; ZZ$ and $WW$ remain subdued in the near future. We point out that these Hidden Valley like models invoking $S \to aa \to 4 γ$ must also contend with $Z \to a (\to γγ) γ$ constraints coming from CDF and ATLAS. Within an effective field theory framework, we work out the constraints on the coupling…
Perturbative supersymmetric gauge coupling unification is possible in six theories where complete SU(5) TeV-scale multiplets of vector matter account for the size of the reported $750~{\rm GeV}$ diphoton resonance, interpreted as a singlet multiplet $S = (s+ia)/\sqrt{2}$. One of these has a full generation of vector matter and a unified gauge coupling $α_G \sim 1$. The diphoton signal rate is enhanced by loops of vector squarks and sleptons, especially when the trilinear $A$ couplings are large. If the $SH_u H_d$ coupling is absent, both $s$ and $a$ can contribute to the resonance, which may t…
We study the effective field theory obtained by extending the Standard Model field content with two singlets: a 750 GeV (pseudo-)scalar and a stable fermion. Accounting for collider productions initiated by both gluon and photon fusion, we investigate where the theory is consistent with both the LHC diphoton excess and bounds from Run 1. We analyze dark matter phenomenology in such regions, including relic density constraints as well as collider, direct, and indirect bounds. Scalar portal dark matter models are very close to limits from direct detection and mono-jet searches if gluon fusion do…
Pair production of colored particles is in general accompanied by production of QCD bound states (onia) slightly below the pair-production threshold. Bound state annihilation leads to resonant signals, which in some cases are easier to see than the decays of the pair-produced constituents. In a previous paper (arXiv:1204.1119) we estimated the bound state signals, at leading order and in the Coulomb approximation, for particles with various spins, color representations and electric charges, and used 7 TeV ATLAS and CMS resonance searches to set rough limits. Here we update our results to inclu…
The collider phenomenology of models with Universal Extra Dimensions (UED) is surprisingly similar to that of supersymmetric (SUSY) scenarios. For each level-1 bosonic (fermionic) Kaluza-Klein (KK) state, there is a fermionic (bosonic) analog in SUSY and thus UED scenarios are often known as bosonic supersymmetry. The minimal version of UED (mUED) gives rise to a quasi-degenerate particle spectrum at each KK-level and thus, can not explain the enhanced Higgs to diphoton decay rate hinted by the ATLAS collaboration of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment. However, in the non-minimal versi…
We consider the immediate or near-term experimental opportunities offered by some scenarios that could explain the new diphoton excess at the LHC. If the excess is due to a new particle $X_s$ at 750 GeV, additional new particles are required, providing further signals. If connected with naturalness, the $X_s$ may be produced in top partner decays. Then a $t'\bar t'$ signal, with $t'\to t X_s$ and $X_s\to gg$ dominantly, might be discovered by reinterpreting 13 TeV SUSY searches in multijet events with low MET and/or a lepton. If $X_s$ is a bound state of quirks, the signal events may be accomp…
String consistency conditions are stronger than anomaly cancellation and can require the addition of exotics in the visible sector. We study such exotics and demonstrate that they may account for the modest excess at $750$ GeV in recent diphoton resonance searches performed by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. In a previous analysis of type II MSSM D-brane quivers we systematically added up to five exotics for the sake of satisfying string consistency conditions. Using this dataset, we demonstrate that 89780 of the 89964 quivers have exotics, 78155 of which include singlets that may couple to …
This article summarises the status of the solar neutrino oscillation phenomenology at the end of 2002 in the light of the SNO and KamLAND results. We first present the allowed areas obtained from global solar analysis and demonstrate the preference of the solar data towards the Large-Mixing-Angle (LMA) MSW solution. A clear confirmation in favor of the LMA solution comes from the \kl reactor neutrino data. The \kl spectral data in conjunction with the global solar data further narrows down the allowed LMA region and splits it into two allowed zones -- a low $Δm^2$ region (low-LMA) and high $Δm…
It has been recently proposed that, besides the known resonance with mass $m_h\sim$ 125 GeV, the Higgs field could exhibit a new excitation with a larger mass $M_h$ related by $M^2_h\sim m^2_h \ln (Λ_s/M_h)$, where $Λ_s$ is the ultraviolet cutoff of the scalar sector. Lattice simulations of the propagator performed in the 4D Ising limit of the theory are consistent with this two-mass picture and lead to the estimate $M_h\sim 700$ GeV. In spite of its large mass, however, this heavier state would couple to longitudinal vector bosons with the same typical strength of the low-mass state and would…
Low energy phenomenology of the unparticle physics associated with an exact scale invariant sector possessing a non-trivial infrared fixed point at a higher energy scale is explored for both electron-positron and hadronic colliders. Feynman rules for a spin 0, 1 or 2 unparticle coupled to a variety of standard model gauge invariant operators that are relevant to many low energy processes involving either real emissions of unparticles or their virtual propagator effects are presented. Missing energy and/or recoil mass distributions of the unparticle in the associated production of unparticle to…
We extend previous calculations of leading-order correlation functions of spin-0 and spin-1 light quarkonium hybrids to include QCD condensates of dimensions five and six, with a view to improving the stability of QCD sum-rules analyses in previously unstable channels. Based on these calculations, prior analyses in the literature, and its phenomenological importance, we identify the exotic $J^{PC}=0^{+-}$ channel as the most promising for detailed study. Using Gaussian sum-rules constrained by the Hölder inequality, we calculate masses of light (nonstrange and strange) quarkonium hybrid mesons…
Recently, the ATLAS and CMS detectors have discovered a bosonic particle which, to a reasonable degree of statistical uncertainty, fits the profile of the Standard Model Higgs. One obvious implication is that models which predict a significant departure from Standard Model phenomenology, such as large exotic (e.g., invisible) Higgs decay or mixing with a hidden sector scalar, are already ruled out. This observation threatens the viability of electroweak baryogenesis, which favors, for example, a lighter Higgs and a Higgs coupled to or mixed with light scalars. To assess the broad impact of the…
A new boson around 125 GeV without specific spin has been observed by both ATLAS and CMS at the LHC. Since its decay into a diphoton excludes the spin-1 case by the Landau-Yang theorem,it leaves 0 or 2 as the possible lowest spin for the new boson. Instead of the well-established spin-0 Higgs-like boson, we take this new boson to be a spin-2 massive Graviton-like particle denoted as $G$, which exists copiously in extra-dimension theories, and concentrate on its phenomenology. In particular, we calculate the three-body decays of $G\rightarrow V f\bar{f}'$ with $V$ and $f^{(\prime)}$ the gauge b…
Run 2 LHC data show hints of a new resonance in the diphoton distribution at an invariant mass of 750 GeV. We analyse the data in terms of a new boson, extracting information on its properties and exploring theoretical interpretations. Scenarios covered include a narrow resonance and, as preliminary indications suggest, a wider resonance. If the width indications persist, the new particle is likely to belong to a strongly-interacting sector. We also show how compatibility between Run 1 and Run 2 data is improved by postulating the existence of an additional heavy particle, whose decays are pos…
Motivated by ATLAS diboson excess around 2 TeV, we investigate a phenomenology of spin-1 resonances in a model where electroweak sector in the SM is weakly coupled to strong dynamics. The spin-1 resonances, W' and Z', are introduced as effective degrees of freedom of the dynamical sector. We explore several theoretical constraints by investigating the scalar potential of the model as well as the current bounds from the LHC and precision measurements. It is found that the main decay modes are V' -> VV and V' -> Vh, and the V' width is narrow enough so that the ATLAS diboson excess can be explai…
