Thermal corrections in classically conformal models typically induce a strong first-order electroweak phase transition, thereby resulting in a stochastic gravitational wave background that could be detectable at gravitational wave observatories. After reviewing the basics of classically conformal scenarios, in this paper we investigate the phase transition dynamics in a thermal environment and the related gravitational wave phenomenology within the framework of scalar conformal extensions of the Standard Model. We find that minimal extensions involving only one additional scalar field struggle to reproduce the correct phase transition dynamics once thermal corrections are accounted for. Next-to-minimal models, instead, yield the desired electroweak symmetry breaking and typically result in a very strong gravitational wave signal.
By use of the AdS/CFT correspondence on orbifolds, models are derived which can contain the standard model of particle phenomenology. It will be assumed that the theory becomes conformally invariant at a renormalization-group fixed-point in the TeV region.
Bardeen has argued that once the classically conformal invariance and its minimal violation by quantum anomalies are imposed on the SM, it can be free from the quadratic divergences and hence the gauge hierarchy problem. Under the hypothesis, We investigated the minimal B-L extended SM with a flat Higgs potential at the Planck scale. In this model, the B-L symmetry is radiatively broken at TeV scale. We studied phenomenology and detectability of the model at LHC and the ILC.
After preamble about Darwin, my talk described the conformality approach to extending the standard model of particle phenomenology using an assumption of no conformal anomaly at high energy. Topics included quiver gauge theory, the conformality approach to phenomenology, strong-electroweak unification at 4 TeV, cancellation of quadratic divergences, cancellation of U(1) anomalies, and a dark matter candidate.
We propose the existence of a non-supersymmetric conformal field theory softly broken at the TeV scale as a new mechanism for solving the hierarchy problem. We find the imposition of conformal invariance to be very restrictive with many predictive consequences, including severe restrictions on the field content, the number of families as well as on the structure of inter-family Yukawa couplings. A large class of potentially conformal non-supersymmetric theories are considered and some general predictions are made about the existence of a rich spectrum of color and weak multiplets in the TeV ra…
My talk described the conformality approach to extending the standard model of particle phenomenology using an assumption of no conformal anomaly at high energy. Topics included quiver gauge theory, the conformality approach to phenomenology, strong-electroweak unification at 4 TeV, cancellation of quadratic divergences, cancellation of U(1) anomalies, and a dark matter candidate.
We study the dynamics of electroweak bubbles in the scenario of a strong first order inverse electroweak phase transition at the TeV scale involving the global structure of the nonlinear sigma field in the littlest Higgs model with T parity. Employing the one-loop order finite temperature effective potential, we find that the pressure in the symmetric phase i.e., inside the bubble is always greater than that in the asymmetric phase i.e., outside the bubble, so that the bubbles are expanding. By calculating the fluid velocities in the two phases we arrive at the condition of a supersonic deflag…
The understanding of black holes in loop quantum gravity is becoming increasingly accurate. This review focuses on the possible experimental or observational consequences of the underlying spinfoam structure of space-time. It adresses both the aspects associated with the Hawking evaporation and the ones due to the possible existence of a bounce. Finally, consequences for dark matter and gravitational waves are considered.
New gauge symmetries often appear in theories beyond the Standard Model. Here we study a model where lepton number is promoted to a gauge symmetry. Anomaly cancellation requires the introduction of additional leptons, the lightest of which is a natural leptophilic dark matter candidate. We perform a comprehensive study of both collider and dark matter phenomenology. Furthermore we find that the model exhibits a first order lepton number breaking phase transition in large regions of parameter space. The corresponding gravitational wave signal is computed, and its detectability at LISA and other…
We consider a conformal complex singlet extension of the Standard Model with a Higgs portal interaction. Two different scenarios depending on whether the global U(1) symmetry is broken or not have been studied. In the unbroken phase, the decay of the complex singlet is protected by the global U(1) symmetry which leads to an ideal cold dark matter candidate. In the broken phase, we are able to provide a second Higgs at $554\,\rm{GeV}$. In addition, gauging the global U(1) symmetry, we can construct an asymptotically safe U(1)' leptophobic model. We combine the notion of asymptotic safety with c…
The properties of singlet fields in supergravity background are discussed. Particularly, it is shown that the ${\cal{O}}(Λ^{2})$ contributions to their one-point function lead to novel derivations of effective scales such as the $μ$ parameter, a messenger scale, an intermediate symmetry-breaking scale, and the unification scale, in terms of the scale of spontaneous supersymmetry-breaking in a hidden sector.The singlet one-point function effectively serves as a messenger of supersymmetry breaking.
This review describes the conformality approach to extending the standard model of particle phenomenology using an assumption of no conformal anomaly at high energy. Topics include quiver gauge theory, the conformality approach to phenomenology, strong-electroweak unification at 4 TeV, cancellation of quadratic divergences, cancellation of U(1) anomalies, and a dark matter candidate.
Use of the AdS/CFT correspondence to arrive at phenomenological gauge field theories is discussed, focusing on the orbifolded case without supersymmetry. An abelian orbifold with the finite group Z_p can give rise to a G = U(N)^p gauge group with chiral fermions and complex scalars in different bi-fundamental representations of G. The naturalness issue is discussed, particularly the absence of quadratic divergences in the scalar propagator at one loop. This requires that the scalars all be in bi-fundamentals with no adjoints, coincident with the necessary and sufficient condition for presence …
Continuum supersymmetry is a class of models in which the supersymmetric partners together with part of the standard model come from a conformal sector, broken in the IR near the TeV scale. Such models not only open new doors for addressing the problems of the standard model, but also have unique signatures at hadron colliders, which might explain why we have not yet seen any superpartners at the LHC. Here we use gauge-gravity duality to model the conformal sector, generate collider simulations, and finally analyze continuum gluino signatures at the LHC. Due to the increase in the number of je…
If the fundamental scale of gravity is of the order of 1 TeV, black holes might be produced at the Large Hadron Collider. This work presents simulations of black holes and other exotic models of physics beyond the Standard Model - supersymmetry, extra dimensional models and string theory. Isolated leptons with high transverse momenta can be used to distinguish black holes from supersymmetry and models of extra dimensions. Z0 bosons and photons with high transverse momenta allow the discrimination of black holes and string resonances. The analysis of visible and missing energy/momenta and event…
We use the results from a recent investigation of hard parton-parton gravitational scattering in the ADD scenario to make semi-quantitative predictions for a few standard high-ET jet observables at the LHC. By implementing these gravitational scattering results in the Pythia event generator and combining it with the Charybdis generator for black holes, we investigate the effects of large extra dimensions and find that, depending on the width of the brane, the relative importance of gravitational scattering and black hole production may change significantly. For the cases where gravitational sc…
A general coupling of the Goldstino to the matter field and the weak gravitational field is constructed based on the standard and the nonlinear Volkov-Akulov realization of SUSY. The resulting Lagrangian, which is invariant under SUSY transformations, can give rise to explicit interactions which couple the helicity +-1/2 states of the gravitino with the gravitational field as well as the matter field.
We review recent work on the effective field theory description and the phenomenology of axion-like and scalar particles in models characterized by gauge and/or conformal anomalies.
Zhejiang Normal University（浙江师范大学）；Khazar University（阿塞拜疆大学）；Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS)（俾路支信息技术、工程与管理科学大学）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), sez. di Napoli（意大利国家核物理研究所那不勒斯分部）；Scuola Superiore Meridionale（南方高等学院）；Inha University in Tashkent（塔什干延世大学）
We make use of the language of non-linear realizations to analyze electro-weak symmetry breaking scenarios in which a light dilaton emerges from the breaking of a nearly conformal strong dynamics, and compare the phenomenology of the dilaton to that of the well motivated light composite Higgs scenario. We argue that -- in addition to departures in the decay/production rates into massless gauge bosons mediated by the conformal anomaly -- characterizing features of the light dilaton scenario (as well as other scenarios admitting a light CP-even scalar not directly related to the breaking of the …
We discuss the theory and phenomenology of the interplay between the massless graviton and its massive Kaluza-Klein modes in the Randall-Sundrum two-brane model. The equations of motion of the transverse traceless degrees of freedom are derived by means of a Green function approach as well as from an effective nonlocal action. The second procedure clarifies the extraction of the particle content from the nonlocal action and the issue of its diagonalization. The situation discussed is generic for the treatment of two-brane models if the on-brane fields are used as the dynamical degrees of freed…
We study the cosmological history of the classical conformal $B-L$ gauge extension of the standard model, in which the physical scales are generated via the Coleman-Weinberg-type symmetry breaking. Especially, we consider the thermal phase transition of the U$(1)_{B-L}$ symmetry in the early universe and resulting gravitational-wave production. Due to the classical conformal invariance, the phase transition tends to be a first-order one with ultra-supercooling, which enhances the strength of the produced gravitational waves. We show that, requiring (1) U$(1)_{B-L}$ is broken after the reheatin…
The detection and characterization of primordial gravitational waves through their impact on the polarization anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is a primary science goal of current and future observations of the CMB. An ancillary dataset that will become accessible with the great leaps in sensitivity of CMB experiments is the polarized Sunyaev Zel'dovich (pSZ) effect, small-scale CMB polarization anisotropies induced by scattering from free electrons in the post-reionization Universe. The cross correlation of the pSZ effect with galaxy surveys, a technique known as pSZ tomo…
I discuss various ways in which CPT symmetry may be violated, and their phenomenology in current or immediate future experimental facilities, both terrestrial and astrophysical. Specifically, I discuss first violations of CPT symmetry due to the impossibility of defining a scattering matrix as a consequence of the existence of microscopic or macroscopic space-time boundaries, such as Planck-scale Black-Hole (event) horizons, or cosmological horizons due to the presence of a (positive) cosmological constant in the Universe. Second, I discuss CPT violation due to breaking of Lorentz symmetry, wh…
Recently, conceptually new physics beyond the Standard Model has been proposed, where a hidden conformal sector provides ``unparticle'' which couples to the Standard Model sector through higher dimensional operators in low energy effective theory. Among several possibilities, we focus on operators involving unparticle, the Higgs doublet and the gauge bosons. Once the Higgs doublet develops the vacuum expectation value, the conformal symmetry is broken and as a result, the mixing between unparticle and Higgs boson emerges. We find that this mixing can cause sizable shifts for the couplings betw…
We show that a previously proposed new mechanism to eliminate quadratic divergences for scalar masses is self-consistently compatible with corrections induced by perturbative quantum gravity, provided the theory embeds consistently into a UV completion at the Planck scale.
The Standard Model of Fundamental Interactions (SM) represents one of the most precise theories in physics. Among the predictions of the SM we find, for instance, the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron $a_e = 0.001159652181643(764)$. This prediction agrees with the experimental results to more than ten significant digits, the most accurate prediction in the history of physics. However, nowadays we have several evidences that the SM only explains $5 \%$ of the matter content of the Universe. The other $95 \%$ are composed by the so-called Dark Energy and Dark Matter. As their names sugge…
We consider the electroweak phase transition in the conformal extension of the standard model known as SU(2)cSM. Apart from the standard model particles, this model contains an additional scalar and gauge field that are both charged under the hidden SU(2)$_X$. This model generically exhibits a very strong phase transition that proceeds after a large amount of supercooling. We estimate the gravitational wave spectrum produced in this model and show that its amplitude and frequency fall within the observational window of LISA. We also discuss potential pitfalls and relevant points of improvement…
Dark sectors with purely gravitational couplings to the Standard Model are unavoidably populated from the SM plasma by graviton exchange, and naturally provide DM candidates. We examine the production in the relativistic regime where the dark sector is approximately scale invariant, providing general analytical formulas that depend solely on the central charge of the dark sector. We then assess the relevance of interactions that can lead to a variety of phenomena including thermalisation, nonperturbative mass gaps, out-of-equilibrium phase transitions and cannibalism in the dark sector. As an …
We present results for higher order perturbative corrections to Compton scattering in the generalized Bjorken kinematics. The approach we have used is based on the combination of two techniques: conformal operator product expansion on the one side, and resummation of the fermion vacuum insertions with consequent restoration of the full QCD beta-function via the naive nonabelianization assumption, on the other. These are terms which are lost in the former approach. Due to the presence of the infrared renormalon poles in the Borel transform of the resummed amplitude the latter suffers from ambig…
The detection of a stochastic background of gravitational waves can reveal details about first-order phase transitions (FOPTs) at a time of $10^{-13}s$ of the early universe. We specifically discuss quiver-type GUTs which avoid both proton decay and a desert hypothesis. A quiver based on $SU(3)^{12}$ which breaks at a $E=4000$ GeV to trinification $SU(3)^3$ has a much larger ($g_*=1,272$) number of effective massless degrees of freedom than the Standard Model. Assuming a FOPT for this model we investigate the strain sensitivity of this model for a wide range of FOPT parameters.
The low $x$ limit of deep inelastic electron proton scattering is considered using methods of perturbative QCD. In the first part we investigate the phenomenological consequences of the resummation of leading logarithms in $1/x$ given by the BFKL pomeron. We apply the BFKL pomeron to the inclusive structure function $F_2$, to the diffractive production of vector mesons at large momentum transfer, to inclusive photon diffractive dissociation in DIS and to quark-antiquark production with large transverse momenta in DIS diffractive dissociation. For the last process we perform extensive numerical…
We compute in linearized gravity all the contributions to the gravitational effective action due to a virtual Dirac fermion, related to the conformal anomaly. This requires, in perturbation theory, the identification of the gauge-gauge-graviton vertex off mass shell, involving the correlator of the energy-momentum tensor and two vector currents ($TJJ$), which is responsible for the generation of the gauge contributions to the conformal anomaly in gravity. We also present the anomalous effective action in the inverse mass of the fermion as in the Euler-Heisenberg case.
This work presents a first study of a radiative calculation for the gravitational axial anomaly in the massless Abelian Higgs model. The two loop contribution to the anomalous correlation function of one axial current and two energy-momentum tensors, <A_alpha(z) T_μν(y) T_ρσ(x)>, is computed at an order that involves only internal matter fields. Conformal properties of massless field theories are used in order to perform the Feynman diagram calculations in the coordinate space representation. The two loop contribution is found not to vanish, due to the presence of two independent tensor struct…
General Relativity predicts that the passage of matter or radiation from an asymmetrically-emitting source should cause a permanent change in the local space-time metric. This phenomenon, called the \emph{gravitational memory effect}, has never been observed, however supernova neutrinos have long been considered a promising avenue for its detection in the future. With the advent of deci-Hertz gravitational wave interferometers, observing the supernova neutrino memory will be possible, with important implications for multimessenger astronomy and for tests of gravity. In this work, we develop a …
Conformal versus non-conformal two-Higgs-doublet model: phase transitions and gravitational waves
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China（电子科技大学）；University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学）；Lund University（隆德大学）；University of Saskatchewan（萨斯喀彻温大学）
We continue the study of model-independent constraints on the unitary Conformal Field Theories in 4-Dimensions, initiated in arXiv:0807.0004. Our main result is an improved upper bound on the dimension Δof the leading scalar operator appearing in the OPE of two identical scalars of dimension d. In the interval 1<d<1.7 this universal bound takes the form Δ<2+0.7(d-1)^{1/2}+2.1(d-1)+0.43(d-1)^{3/2}. The proof is based on prime principles of CFT: unitarity, crossing symmetry, OPE, and conformal block decomposition. We also discuss possible applications to particle phenomenology and, via a 2-D ana…
We postulate an exact permutation symmetry acting on 10^32 Standard Model copies as the largest possible symmetry extension of the Standard Model. This setup automatically lowers the fundamental gravity cutoff down to TeV, and thus, accounts for the quantum stability of the weak scale. We study the phenomenology of this framework and show that below TeV energies the copies are well hidden, obeying all the existing observational bounds. Nevertheless, we identify a potential low energy window into the hidden world, the oscillation of the neutron into its dark copies. At the same time, proton dec…
We present a method to calculate the nonrelativistic hamiltonian for the minimal Standard-Model Extension matter sector in a uniform gravitational field. The resulting hamiltonian coincides with earlier results in the corresponding limits but it also includes spin-dependent terms that were previously unknown. The phenomenology associated with this hamiltonian is briefly discussed.
We calculate the number density and the energy density of a massive scalar particle conformally coupled to gravity produced by gravitational particle creation in the case the kination stage follows inflation. In this model, mode functions are derived in terms of exact or numerical solutions of the equation of motion without using the adiabatic approximation. We define the adiabatic vacuum in each stage and calculate the produced number density and the energy density. The resultant power spectra show that even the superheavy particle which is as heavy as or much heavier than the Hubble scale du…
The instability of (quasi) de Sitter spacetime from quantum gravitational effects has been discussed in many works. Especially, the gravitational backreaction from quantum energy momentum tensor is crucial for understanding the low-energy description of quantum gravity and sometimes destabilize the spacetime. In this paper we discuss the (quasi) de Sitter instability from gravitational backreaction involving quantum conformal anomaly. The conformal or trace anomaly corresponds to the quantum gravitational contributions of the massless conformal fields and affects the spacetime homogeneously. F…
