In models with extended Higgs sectors, it is possible that the Higgs boson discovered at the LHC is not the lightest one. We show that in a realistic model (the Type I 2-Higgs Doublet Model), when the sum of the masses of a light scalar and a pseudoscalar ($h$ and $A$) is smaller than the $Z$ boson mass, the Electroweak (EW) production of an $hA$ pair can dominate over QCD production by orders of magnitude, a fact not previously highlighted. This is because in the $gg$-initiated process, $hA$ production via a resonant $Z$ in the $s$-channel is prohibited according to the Landau-Yang theorem, which is not the case for the $q\bar{q}$-initiated process. We explore the parameter space of the model to highlight regions giving such $hA$ solutions while being consistent with all constraints from collider searches, $b$-physics and EW precision data. We also single out a few benchmark points to discuss their salient features, including the $hA$ search channels that can be exploited at Run II of the LHC.
We investigate the electroweak form factors and semileptonic decay rates of pseudoscalar and vector mesons using the light-front constituent quark model. Our method of analytic continuation in the Drell-Yan-West (q^+=q^0+q^3=0) frame to obtain the weak form factors avoids the difficulty associated with the contributions from the nonvalence quark-antiquark pair creation. This method seems to provide a promising step forward to handle the exclusive processes in the timelike region. Our calculation reveals that the zero mode contribution is crucial to obtaining the correct values of the light-fro…
We analyze and compute, within a number of standard model (SM) extensions, the cross sections $σ_{A\to VV'}$ for the production of a heavy neutral pseudoscalar Higgs boson/spin-zero resonance at the LHC and its subsequent decays into electroweak gauge bosons. For comparison we calculate also the corresponding cross sections for a heavy scalar. The SM extensions we consider include a type-II two-Higgs doublet model (2HDM), a 2HDM with 4 chiral fermion generations, the minimal supersymmetric extension of the SM (MSSM), and top-color assisted technicolour models. Presently available phenomenologi…
We study the effects of electroweak penguin (EWP) amplitudes in $B$ meson decays into two charmless pseudoscalars in the approximation of retaining only the dominant EWP operators $Q_9$ and $Q_{10}$. Using flavor SU(3) symmetry, we derive a set of model-independent relations between EWP contributions and tree-level decay amplitudes one of which was noted recently by Neubert and Rosner. Two new applications of these relations are demonstrated in which uncertainties due to EWP corrections are eliminated in order to determine a weak phase. Whereas the weak angle $α$ can be obtained from $B\toππ$ …
Motivated by excess diphoton events reported by ATLAS and CMS, we show that composite pseudoscalars, bound states of heavy fermions under a new confining gauge theory, can be pair-produced by Drell-Yan production if the constituent particles are electrically charged. The decays of these pion-like bound states into two photons can explain the observed events near 750 GeV. The model predicts that there should be significant numbers of 4-photon events from decays of the pseudoscalar pairs, as well as same-sign dilepton pairs at a somewhat lower invariant mass, or multijet signals, coming from dec…
We study the scalar and pseudoscalar sector in a five-dimenional model describing chiral symmetry breaking. We calculate the scalar and pseudoscalar two-point correlator, the mass spectrum and interactions. We also obtain the scalar and pseudoscalar contributions to the coefficients of the chiral lagrangian and determine the scalar form factor of the pseudo-Goldstone bosons. Most quantities show a good agreement with QCD.
We present the dominant two-loop electroweak corrections to the partial decay widths to gluon jets and prompt photons of the neutral CP-odd Higgs boson A^0, with mass M_{A^0} < 2 M_W, in the two-Higgs-doublet model for low to intermediate values of the ratio tan(beta) = v_2/v_1 of the vacuum expectation values. They apply as they stand to the production cross sections in hadronic and two-photon collisions, at the Tevatron, the LHC, and a future photon collider. The appearance of three gamma_5 matrices in closed fermion loops requires special care in the dimensional regularization of ultraviole…
The high momentum components generated in the wave function of pseudoscalar mes* by the one-gluon-exchange interaction are investigated within a relativistic constituent quark model. Adopting the light-cone formalism, the sensitivity of the weak decay constant and the charge form factor to hard constituent quarks is illustrated.
I study phenomenological aspects of the SU(2)L x U(1) electroweak physics of a Higgs boson transforming like a quark-antiquark pair. A correspondence is established between its flavour content, the hierarchy of quark condensates, and the leptonic decay constants f of pseudoscalar mesons; the Higgs-mesons couplings coming from the symmetry-breaking scalar potential can then be expressed in terms of the f's, of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa mixing angles, and of the mass of the Higgs boson. Application is made to the decays of a Z boson into two leptons and two charged pseudoscalar mesons, more …
In model independent way we consider the possibility of the existence of fermion-antifermion, fermion-fermion bound states which appear due to $γ, Z^0(W^{\pm}$-bosons and scalar, pseudoscalars exchanges including radiative corrections. Our consideration includes the case where at least one particle in the bound state is Majorana fermion or scalar.This paper considers various types of bound states of particles contained in various extensions of the Glashow-Weinberg -Salam model. We calculate long-range forces induced by photonic, gluonic and fermionic loop corrections in scalar (pseudoscalar) e…
If, in addition to the standard model fields, a new pseudoscalar field exists and couples to hypercharge topological number density, it can exponentially amplify hyperelectric and hypermagnetic fields in the symmetric phase of the electroweak plasma, while coherently rolling or oscillating. We present the equations describing the coupled system of a pseudoscalar field and hypercharge electromagnetic fields in the electroweak plasma at temperatures above the electroweak phase transition, discuss approximations to the equations, and their validity. We then solve the approximate equations using a…
A new weak-isospin triplet of scalar bosons is introduced to the Standard Model in order to ensure the electroweak symmetry for a conjectured new weak coupling between a hidden sector of the Universe, responsible for cold dark matter, and the Standard-Model sector (involving now the new triplet). The considered coupling may be called "electroweak portal" to the structure of hidden sector. After spontaneously breaking the electroweak symmetry by the Standard-Model Higgs mechanism, it includes the so called "photonic portal" introduced by us previously.
A weak photon interaction with the hidden sector of the Universe, introduced recently to realize a "photonic portal", (to such a hypothetic sector responsible for cold dark matter), is conjectured to be embedded in a more extended weak interaction displaying electroweak symmetry spontaneously broken by the Standard-Model Higgs mechanism. This is a hypothetic new weak interaction between hidden and Standard-Model sectors of the Universe, appearing in our model in addition to the conventional electroweak interaction acting in the Standard-Model sector.
The small background and the sensitivity to charged particles via a leading order loop coupling make the diphoton channel a privileged experimental test for new physics models. We propose a simple archetypal scenario to generate a sharp di-photon resonance as a result of threshold enhancements in the effective coupling between a heavy pseudoscalar particle and new vector-like leptons. We therefore study three different scenarios consistent with the current experimental limits and deviating from the Standard Model at the 2~$σ$ level. The model also introduces a natural dark matter candidate abl…
In this comment we present an analysis of electroweak neutral triple gauge boson couplings projected out of the gauge sector of the extended non-commutative standard model. A brief overview of the current experimental situation is given.
We study the electroweak baryogenesis in a fermionic dark matter scenario with a (pseudo)scalar being the mediator in the Higgs portal. It is discussed that the electroweak phase transition turns to be first-order after taking into account the role of the (pseudo)scalar in the thermal effective potential in our extended standard model. Imposing the relic density constraint from the WMAP/Planck and the bounds from the direct detection experiments XENON100/LUX, we show that the dark matter scenario with a scalar mediator is hardly capable of explaining the baryogenesis while the same model with …
These three lectures review the state of our understanding of electroweak interactions and the search for the agent of electroweak symmetry breaking. The themes of the lectures are (i) the electroweak theory and its experimental status, (ii) the standard-model Higgs boson, and (iii) aspects of electroweak theory beyond the standard SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y model.
The Higgs boson offers a unique window to hidden sector fields S_i, singlets under the Standard Model gauge group, via the renormalizable interactions |H|^2 S_i^2. We prove that such interactions can provide new patterns for electroweak breaking, including radiative breaking by dimensional transmutation consistent with LEP bounds, and trigger the strong enough first order phase transition required by electroweak baryogenesis.
In this review we discuss theories of the electroweak symmetry breaking sector in which the $W$ and $Z$ interactions become strong at an energy scale not larger than a few TeV.
Energy-growing electroweak corrections in the Standard Model are potentially relevant for LHC physics, for Next generation of Linear Colliders (NLCs) and for ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. I present here the results of recent work in which electroweak evolution equations (the analogous of DGLAP equations in QCD) have been derived. The main features of these effects, mainly related to the fact that the electroweak sector is spontaneously broken, are pointed out.
The neutral component of a real pseudoscalar electroweak (EW) triplet can produce a diphoton excess at 750 GeV, if it is somewhat mixed with an EW singlet pseudoscalar. This triplet-singlet mixing allows for greater freedom in the diboson branching ratios than the singlet-only case, but it is still possible to probe the parameter space extensively with 300 fb$^{-1}$. The charged component of the triplet is pair-produced at the LHC, which results in a striking signal in the form of a pair of $Wγ$ resonances with an irreducible rate of 0.27 fb. Other signatures include multiboson final states fr…
The one-loop renormalizability of the electroweak sector of the Standard Model Extension with Lorentz violation is studied. Functional determinants are used to calculate the one-loop contributions of the higgs, gauge bosons and fermions to the one-loop effective action. The results are consistent with multiplicative renormalization of the SME coupling constants. Conventional Electroweak symmetry breaking is effectively unaltered relative to the standard case as the renormalized SME parameters are sufficient to absorb all infinite contributions.
Models of electroweak symmetry breaking with more than a single doublet of Higgs scalars contain a neutral pseudoscalar boson. The production of such a pseudoscalar in hadron collisions proceeds primarily via gluon fusion through a top-quark loop (except for those models in which the pseudoscalar coupling to bottom quarks is strongly enhanced). We compute the QCD corrections to this process in the heavy-quark limit, using an effective Lagrangian derived from the axial anomaly.
We consider a hidden sector with new vectorlike confining gauge theories like QCD. Then a scale $Λ_H$ would be generated in the hidden sector by dimensional transmutation, and chiral symmetry breaking occurs in the hidden sector. Then this scale $Λ_H$ can play a role of the SM Higgs mass parameter, triggering electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB). Thus all the mass scales of the SM sector can arise from the hidden sector. Furthermore the lightest hadrons in the hidden sector is stable by the flavor conservation of the hidden sector strong interaction, and could be the cold dark matter (CDM). We…
We consider a minimal extension of the Standard Model which advocates a dark neutrino sector charged under a hidden $U(1)^\prime$. We show that neutrino masses can arise radiatively in this model. The observed values are compatible with a light dark sector below the electroweak scale and would imply new heavy fermions which may be testable in the next generation of beam dump searches at DUNE, NA62 and SHIP.
Condensates of colored fermions driving electroweak symmetry breaking could give rise to a light pseudoscalar that would show up in the Higgs search at the LHC. The branching ratios of its decay will distinguish it from the Higgs and illuminate its origin. In particular the colored fermions may be the techniquarks of a one family technicolor theory or the quarks of a strongly interacting fourth family. The former has more difficulties in this context.
We study a model with an exotic new sector strongly coupled to the Higgs boson, in which supersymmetry is introduced to protect the quartic coupling from a large running and avoid potential vacuum stability problem. The fermionic components present vector like mass terms, through which the Higgs diphoton decay branching ratio can be tuned. The bosonic components trigger a strongly first order electroweak phase transition. We find a large parameter region of effective Yukawa coupling $y\gtrsim2$ and mass parameters $m_f\sim m_s$ of a few hundred GeV, that can simultaneously accommodate the diph…
We consider models with a vectorlike confining gauge theory in the hidden sector, and demonstrate that the origin of the electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) is due to the dimensional transmutation in the hidden sector gauge theory, and the lightest mesons in the hidden sector could be a good cold dark matter (CDM) candidate. There would be more than one neutral Higgs-like scalar bosons, and they could decay mainly into the CDM pair, if that decay channel is kinemtically allowed.
The framework of the electroweak chiral Lagrangian with a light Higgs is extended by an additional scalar and then generalized to N scalars in the Higgs sector. Divergences from scalar fluctuations are renormalized up to one loop using the background field method. The results are crosschecked against the case of one scalar. A subset of the divergences is demonstrated and crosschecked diagrammatically. Together with the complete one-loop renormalization of the electroweak chiral theory with one light Higgs conducted previously, this constitutes a renormalization framework of any pure scalar ext…
Adding radion perturbations (up to second order) to the static (RS) metric allows us to calculate the general first and second order interactions of the radion field with the electroweak vector bosons. We use these interactions to compute precision electroweak observables in the case of Higgs-radion mixing and compare with experiment.
A new representation of electroweak lepton sector is proposed. It consists of two Weyl spinors per one lepton family. It is shown that proposed representation is fully equivalent to the conventional left-handed iso-doublet. New type of plane wave solutions can be found under certain additional assumptions.
The phenomenology at future hadron colliders of a model with strong interacting vector and axial vector bosons possessing a discrete symmetry demanding mass degeneracy is presented.
In this work we have studied the phenomenological properties at future e+e- linear colliders of two models of strong electroweak symmetry breaking, characterized by the presence of new spin one strong interacting resonances.
By extending the scalar sector of the Standard Model (SM) by a U(1) singlet, we show that the electroweak symmetry breaking enables the formation of a stable, electrically neutral, colorless Q-ball which couples to the SM particle spectrum solely through the Higgs boson. This Q-ball has mainly weak and gravitational interactions, and behaves as a collection of weakly interacting massive particles. Therefore, it can be a candidate for the dark matter in the universe.
We study the process $e^+ e^- \to γγν\barν$ in the context of a strong electroweak symmetry breaking model, which can be a source of events with two photons and missing energy at LEP2. We investigate bounds on the model assuming that no deviation is observed from the Standard Model within a given experimental error.
We consider a hidden sector with a vectorlike confining gauge theory like QCD with $N_{h,c}$ colors and $N_{h,f}$ light quarks ${\cal Q}_h$ in the hidden sector. Then a scale $Λ_H$ would be generated by dimensional transmutation, and chiral symmetry breaking occurs in the hidden sector. This scale $Λ_H$ can play a role of the SM Higgs mass parameter, triggering electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB). Furthermore the lightest mesons in the hidden sector is stable by flavor conservation of the hidden sector strong interaction, and could be a good cold dark matter (CDM). We study collider phenomeno…
We discuss a novel approach to renormalize the Electroweak Sector of the Standard Model, in which \sin^2θ_{eff}, measured at the Z^0 peak, is identified with the basic renormalized electroweak mixing parameter. This approach shares the desirable convergence properties of the MS scheme and provides a framework for calculations that are strictly independent of the electroweak scale in finite orders of perturbation theory. We illustrate the method with updated precise calculations of \sin^2θ_{eff} and M_W, as functions of M_H, and comment on the implications of these calculations for the Higgs bo…
We study the pseudoscalar glueball candidates in a chiral effective Lagrangian model proposed by 't hooft, motived by taking into account the instanton effects, which can describe not only the chiral symmetry breaking, but also the solution of $U_A(1)$. We study the parameter space allowed by constraints from vacuum conditions and unitary bounds. By considering two scenarios in $0^{++}$ sector, we find that parameter space which can accommodate the $0^{-+}$ sector is sensitive to the conditions in $0^{++}$ sector. From our analysis, it is found that three $η$ states, i.e. $η(1295)$, $η(1405)$,…
An effective lagrangian describing a strong interacting electroweak sector is considered. It contains new vector and axial-vector resonances all degenerate in mass and mixed with $W$ and $Z$. The model, for large mass of these degenerate gauge bosons, becomes identical to the standard model in the classical limit of infinite Higgs mass. The limits on the parameter space of this model from future $e^+e^-$ colliders are presented.
In this article we review the electroweak charged and neutral currents in the Non-Commutative Standard Model (NCSM) and compute the Higgs and Yukawa parts of the NCSM action. With the aim to make the NCSM accessible to phenomenological considerations, all relevant expressions are given in terms of physical fields and Feynman rules are provided.
If there are no light Higgs bosons found below $\cal O$(800 GeV) or so, the interactions among longitudinally-polarized vector bosons ($\wl$) will become strong at the TeV region, and new physics that is responsible for the electroweak symmetry breaking must emerge at this energy scale. We discuss the phenomenological prospects of the Strongly-interacting Electro-Weak Sector (SEWS) at future TeV linear colliders and hadronic supercolliders.
The object of this thesis is the study of some open problems in the electroweak matter sector from an effective theory perspective. The topics studied include: General aspects of dynamical symmetry breaking models, studying what traces these mechanisms may leave at low energies. A treatment of CP violation and family mixing in the framework of an effective theory and the determination of some of the effective couplings involved. Theoretical issues connecting the renormalization group, gauge invariance, CP, CPT and physical observables. The possibility of experimentally constraining some of the…
We consider the possibility of observing a parity violating but $CP$ conserving interaction in the symmetry breaking sector of the electroweak theory. We find that the best probe for such an interaction is a forward-backward asymmetry in $W^+W^-$ production from polarized $e^-_R e^+_L$ collisions. An observable asymmetry would be strong evidence against a custodial $SU(2)$ symmetry. We also discuss the effects of such an interaction in future $e^- γ$ colliders as well as in rare decays of $K$ and $B$ mesons.
In these proceedings we present the latest developments in our effort to include vector boson scattering (VBS) measurements into global SMEFT fits of LHC data. We present some updates to our initial study of arXiv:2101.03180 as well as comment on a possible road map for the inclusion of higher orders beyond dimension 6 in the SMEFT and on the interpretation of VBS data in other EFT frameworks.
Higgs sector extensions beyond the Standard Model (BSM) provide additional sources of CP violation and further scalar states that help to trigger a strong first order electroweak phase transition (SFOEWPT) required to generate the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe through electroweak baryogenesis. We investigate the CP-violating 2-Higgs-Doublet Model (C2HDM) and the Next-to-Minimal 2-Higgs-Doublet Model (N2HDM) with respect to their potential to generate an SFOEWPT while being compatible with all relevant and recent theoretical and experimental constraints. The implications of an SFOEW…
We present a unified analysis of the two main production processes of vector boson pairs at the LHC, VV-fusion and qqbar annihilation, in a minimal strongly interacting electroweak symmetry breaking sector. Using a unitarized electroweak chiral Lagrangian formalism and modeling the final V_L V_L strong rescattering effects by a form factor, we describe qqbar annihilation processes in terms of the two chiral parameters that govern elastic V_L V_L scattering. Depending on the values of these two chiral parameters, the unitarized amplitudes may present resonant enhancements in different angular m…
The interaction of QCD and electroweak sector with gravity is characterized by the generation of a massless pole in a specific form factor present in the 1-loop effective action. We briefly illustrate how to single out this behaviour in perturbation theory, by taking as an example the $TJJ$ vertex, with $T$ denoting the energy momentum tensor of the Standard Model. The breaking of scale invariance, due to the trace anomaly, is then related to the appearance of a local degree of freedom in the effective action, which is of dilaton type.
We discuss the prospects for detecting at a muon collider the massive new vector resonances V and light pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons P of a typical strongly interacting electroweak sector (as represented by the BESS model). Expected sensitivities to V's at a high energy collider are evaluated and the excellent prospects for discovering P's via scanning at a low energy collider are delineated.
We discuss spectra of gravitational waves which are originated by the strongly first order phase transition at the electroweak symmetry breaking, which is required for a successful scenario of electroweak baryogenesis. Such spectra are numerically evaluated without high temperature expansion in a set of extended scalar sectors with additional N isospin-singlet fields as a concrete example of renormalizable theories. We find that the produced gravitational waves can be significant, so that they are detectable at future gravitational wave interferometers such as DECIGO and BBO. Furthermore, sinc…
We study the expected phenomenology at present (Tevatron) and future (Tevatron Upgrade, LHC) hadronic colliders of a model describing a strong electroweak symmetry breaking sector with both vector and axial vector strong interacting bosons degenerate in mass. Due to decoupling, this model at low energies is almost indistinguishable from the Standard Model, passing therefore all low energy precision tests at LEPI. We will show that it gives quite visible signals at forthcoming hadronic accelerators. The new charged vector bosons can be detected more easily than the neutral ones.
We overview the structure of the effective action involving a dilaton and a Higgs in the Standard Model, which has been computed recently for the neutral currents sector. We discuss the role of the dilatation current ($J_D$) and of an effective degree of freedom appearing in the $J_D V V'$ correlator, with $V$ any neutral current, which can be interpreted as a Nambu-Goldstone mode generated by the anomalous breaking of the dilatation symmetry.
The effects of the electroweak symmetry breaking sector in rare $B$ and $K$ decays are considered in the presence of new strong dynamics at a large energy scale. In the context of the low energy effective lagrangian of the symmetry breaking sector, we focus on the contributions that are not constrained by bounds on oblique corrections or anomalous triple gauge boson vertices. We find that these have very little effect in $b\to sγ$, but potentially large contributions appear in $b\to s\ell^+\ell^-$ and $b\to sν\barν$ as well as in $b\to s g$ processes. Deviations from the standard model in rare…
The study of the scattering at high energy of the gauge bosons W and Z, in particular longitudinally polarized W and Z, can clarify the mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking in the Standard Model of the electroweak interactions. Different models of strong electroweak sector, based on the effective lagrangian approach are briefly reviewed. They include models with no resonance, with scalar resonance, additional vector and axial-vector resonances. The effective Lagrangians are derived from the chiral symmetry of the symmetry breaking sector. Limits on these models from existing measurements…
We consider pair-production of electroweakinos promptly decaying to light gravitinos in general gauge mediation scenarios within the minimal supersymmetric standard model. Typically the presence of photons and missing transverse momentum is the key signature for this kind of scenarios. We highlight where LHC analyses which have originally been designed to probe different scenarios provide complementary constraints with respect to the dedicated searches and we present the constraints on the parameter space.
We explore the use of the Inverse Amplitude Method for unitarization of scattering amplitudes to derive the existence and properties of possible new heavy states associated with perturbative extensions of the electroweak breaking sector of the Standard Model starting from the low energy effective theory. We use a toy effective theory generated by integrating out a heavy singlet scalar and compare the pole mass and width of the unitarized amplitudes with those of the original model. Our results show that the Inverse Amplitude Method reproduces correctly the singlet mass up to factors of O(1-3),…
