We describe recent developments of the public computer code HiggsBounds. In particular, these include the incorporation of LHC Higgs search results from Run 2 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, and an updated and extended framework for the theoretical input that accounts for improved Higgs cross section and branching ratio predictions and new search channels. We furthermore discuss an improved method used in HiggsBounds to approximately reconstruct the exclusion likelihood for LHC searches for non-standard Higgs bosons decaying to $ττ$ final states. We describe in detail the new and updated functionalities of the new version HiggsBounds-5.
We review the program HiggsBounds that tests theoretical predictions of models with arbitrary Higgs sectors against the exclusion bounds obtained from the Higgs searches at LEP and the Tevatron. We explicitly list the bounds that have been added after the first release of HiggsBounds.
HiggsBounds is a computer code that tests theoretical predictions of models with arbitrary Higgs sectors against the exclusion bounds obtained from the Higgs searches at LEP and the Tevatron. The included experimental information comprises exclusion bounds at 95% C.L. on topological cross sections. In order to determine which search topology has the highest exclusion power, the program also includes, for each topology, information from the experiments on the expected exclusion bound, which would have been observed in case of a pure background distribution. Using the predictions of the desired …
HiggsBounds 2.0.0 is a computer code which tests both neutral and charged Higgs sectors of arbitrary models against the current exclusion bounds from the Higgs searches at LEP and the Tevatron. As input, it requires a selection of model predictions, such as Higgs masses, branching ratios, effective couplings and total decay widths. HiggsBounds 2.0.0 then uses the expected and observed topological cross section limits from the Higgs searches to determine whether a given parameter scenario of a model is excluded at the 95% C.L. by those searches. Version 2.0.0 represents a significant extension …
HiggsBounds is a computer code which tests the Higgs sectors of new models against the current exclusion bounds from the Higgs searches at LEP and the Tevatron. As input, it requires a selection of model predictions, such as Higgs masses, branching ratios, effective couplings and total decay widths. HiggsBounds then uses the expected and observed topological cross section limits from the Higgs searches to determine which points in the parameter space have already been excluded at 95% CL. HiggsBounds will be updated to include new results as they become available.
We introduce version 2.0.0 of the computer program HiggsBounds. The program tests neutral and charged Higgs sectors of new models against the current exclusion bounds from LEP and the Tevatron. As input, it requires a selection of model predictions, such as Higgs masses, branching ratios, effective couplings and total decay widths. The program then uses the expected and observed topological cross section limits from the Higgs searches to determine whether a given parameter scenario of a model is excluded at the 95% C.L. by those searches. Version 2.0.0 includes 39/53 LEP/Tevatron Higgs search …
We report on recent developments in the public computer code HiggsBounds, which confronts arbitrary Higgs sector predictions with 95% C.L. exclusion limits from Higgs searches at the LEP, Tevatron and LHC experiments. We discuss in detail the performance of the Standard Model (SM) likeness test as implemented in the latest version HiggsBounds-3.8.0, whose outcome decides whether a search for a SM Higgs boson can be applied to a model beyond the SM. Furthermore, we give a preview of features in the upcoming version HiggsBounds-4.0.0 and the new program HiggsSignals, which performs a chi-squared…
We describe the new developments in version 4 of the public computer code HiggsBounds. HiggsBounds is a tool to test models with arbitrary Higgs sectors, containing both neutral and charged Higgs bosons, against the published exclusion bounds from Higgs searches at the LEP, Tevatron and LHC experiments. From the model predictions for the Higgs masses, branching ratios, production cross sections and total decay widths - which are specified by the user in the input for the program - the code calculates the predicted signal rates for the search channels considered in the experimental data. The si…
The program HiggsBounds is a well-established tool for testing Beyond-the-Standard Model (BSM) theories with an extended Higgs sector against experimental limits from collider searches at LEP, Tevatron and LHC. Thus far, it could be applied to any neutral or charged Higgs bosons originating from the modified Higgs sector. Implicitly, these particles were assumed to exhibit a somewhat hierarchical Yukawa structure as present in the Standard Model, where in particular the couplings to first generation fermions could be neglected. In this work, we extend the HiggsBounds functionalities to go beyo…
LHC searches for non-standard Higgs bosons decaying into tau lepton pairs constitute a sensitive experimental probe for physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM), such as Supersymmetry (SUSY). Recently, the limits obtained from these searches have been presented by the CMS collaboration in a nearly model-independent fashion - as a narrow resonance model - based on the full 8 TeV dataset. In addition to publishing a 95% C.L. exclusion limit, the full likelihood information for the narrow resonance model has been released. This provides valuable information that can be incorporated into global BSM…
HiggsSignals is a Fortran90 computer code that allows to test the compatibility of Higgs sector predictions against Higgs rates and masses measured at the LHC or the Tevatron. Arbitrary models with any number of Higgs bosons can be investigated using a model-independent input scheme based on HiggsBounds. The test is based on the calculation of a chi-squared measure from the predictions and the measured Higgs rates and masses, with the ability of fully taking into account systematics and correlations for the signal rate predictions, luminosity and Higgs mass predictions. It features two complem…
The program HiggsSignals confronts the predictions of models with arbitrary Higgs sectors with the available Higgs signal rate and mass measurements, resulting in a likelihood estimate. A new version of the program, HiggsSignals-2, is presented that contains various improvements in its functionality and applicability. In particular, the new features comprise improvements in the theoretical input framework and the handling of possible complexities of beyond-the-SM Higgs sectors, as well as the incorporation of experimental results in the form of Simplified Template Cross Section (STXS) measurem…
The top quark is the heaviest of the six quarks of the Standard Model. Precise knowledge of its mass is important for imposing constraints on a number of physics processes, including interactions of the as yet unobserved Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is the only missing particle of the Standard Model, central to the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism and generation of particle masses. In this Review, experimental measurements of the top quark mass accomplished at the Tevatron, a proton-antiproton collider located at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, are described. Topologies of to…
We perform an up-to-date global fit of top quark effective theory to experimental data from the Tevatron, and from LHC Runs I and II. Experimental data includes total cross-sections up to 13 TeV, as well as differential distributions, for both single top and pair production. We also include the top quark width, charge asymmetries, and polarisation information from top decay products. We present bounds on the coefficients of dimension six operators, and examine the interplay between inclusive and differential measurements, and Tevatron / LHC data. All results are currently in good agreement wit…
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Heidelberg（海德堡大学理论物理研究所）；Instituto de Física Teórica UAM/CSIC（马德里自治大学/西班牙高等科学研究理事会理论物理研究所）；Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY（德国电子同步加速器中心）；II. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Hamburg（汉堡大学第二理论物理研究所）
本文对面向LHC的HiggsTools框架的三个子包进行改进，新增能量截面预测、多顶末态搜索复现等功能，使其适配LHC Run 3及HL-LHC研究需求。
The LHC has not discovered any New Physics beyond the anticipated $h(125)$ boson, and new ideas abound for out-of-the-box searches, or Effective Field Theories with multi-TeV cutoff. But, have we exhausted dimension-4 operators involving sub-TeV particles that are {\it not} exotic (non-XLP)? We advocate the existence of an extra Higgs doublet that carry extra Weinberg couplings, where {\it emergent} mass-mixing hierarchies {\it and} alignment have hidden their effects very well so far. ${\cal O}(1)$ Higgs quartics can induce first order electroweak phase transition and imply sub-TeV $H, A, H^\…
We study the interplay between a soft muon Yukawa coupling generated radiatively with the trilinear A-terms of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) and the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. In the absence of a tree-level muon Yukawa coupling the lightest smuon mass is predicted to be in the range between 750 GeV and 2700 GeV at 2 sigma, if the bino mass M_1 is below 1 TeV. Therefore, a detection of a smuon (in conjunction with a sub-TeV bino) at the LHC would directly imply a non-zero muon Yukawa coupling in the MSSM superpotential. Inclusion of slepton flavor mixing could in …
We discuss the current status of theoretical and experimental constraints on the real Higgs singlet extension of the Standard Model. For the second neutral (non-standard) Higgs boson we consider the full mass range from 1 GeV to 1 TeV accessible at past and current collider experiments. We separately discuss three scenarios, namely, the case where the second Higgs boson is lighter than, approximately equal to, or heavier than the discovered Higgs state at around 125 GeV. We investigate the impact of constraints from perturbative unitarity, electroweak precision data with a special focus on hig…
We update the global fit to electroweak precision observables, including the effect of the latest measurements at hadron colliders of the $W$ and top-quark masses and the effective leptonic weak mixing angle. We comment on the impact of these measurements in terms of constraints on new physics. We also update the bounds derived from the fit to the Higgs-boson signal strengths, including the observables measured at the LHC Run 2, and compare the improvements with respect to the 7 and 8 TeV results.
We present models of the extragalactic background light (EBL) based on several scenarios of galaxy formation and evolution. We have treated galaxy formation with the Press-Schecter approximation for both cold dark matter (CDM) and cold+hot dark matter (CHDM) models. Galaxy evolution has been treated by considering a variety of stellar types, different initial mass functions and star formation histories, and with an accounting of dust absorption and emission. We find that the dominant factor influencing the EBL is the epoch of galaxy formation. A recently proposed method for observing the EBL u…
A simple covariant formalism to describe flavor and CP violation in the left-handed quark sector in a model independent way is provided. The introduction of a covariant basis, which makes the standard model approximate symmetry structure manifest, leads to a physical and transparent picture of flavor conversion processes. Our method is particularly useful to derive robust bounds on models with arbitrary mechanisms of alignment. Known constraints on flavor violation in the K and D systems are reproduced in a straightforward manner. Assumptions-free limits, based on top flavor violation at the L…
With the LHC up and running, the focus of experimental and theoretical high energy physics will soon turn to an interpretation of LHC data in terms of the physics of electroweak symmetry breaking and the TeV scale. We present here a broad review of models for new TeV-scale physics and their LHC signatures. In addition, we discuss possible new physics signatures and describe how they can be linked to specific models of physics beyond the Standard Model. Finally, we illustrate how the LHC era could culminate in a detailed understanding of the underlying principles of TeV-scale physics.
While the properties of the signal that was discovered in the Higgs searches at the LHC are consistent so far with the Higgs boson of the Standard Model (SM), it is crucial to investigate to what extent other interpretations that may correspond to very different underlying physics are compatible with the current results. We use the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) as a well-motivated theoretical framework with a sufficiently rich Higgs phenomenology to address this question, making use of the public tools HiggsBounds and HiggsSignals in order to take into account comprehen…
I briefly review the progress in perturbative QCD calculations in LEP era and discuss the prospects for the extension of their accuracy to higher orders.
In this review, we summarize tests of standard electroweak (EW) theory at the highest available energies as a precursor to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) era. Our primary focus is on the published results (as of March 2010) from proton- antiproton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron collected using the CDF and D0 detectors. This review is very timely since the LHC scientific program is nearly underway with the first high-energy ($\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV) collisions about to begin. After presenting an overview of the EW sector of the standard model, we provide a summary of curre…
We present LO, NLO and NNLO sets of parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton determined from global analyses of the available hard scattering data. These MMHT2014 PDFs supersede the `MSTW2008' parton sets, but are obtained within the same basic framework. We include a variety of new data sets, from the LHC, updated Tevatron data and the HERA combined H1 and ZEUS data on the total and charm structure functions. We also improve the theoretical framework of the previous analysis. These new PDFs are compared to the `MSTW2008' parton sets. In most cases the PDFs, and the predictions, are …
In TeV-scale gravity, scattering of particles with center-of-mass energy of the order of a few TeV can lead to the creation of nonperturbative, extended, higher-dimensional gravitational objects: Branes. Neutral or charged, spinning or spinless, Einsteinian or supersymmetric, low-energy branes could dramatically change our picture of high-energy physics. Will we create branes in future particle colliders, observe them from ultra high energy cosmic rays, and discover them to be dark matter?
We report on EPPS16, the first global analysis of nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs) to include LHC data. Also for the first time, a full flavour dependence of nPDFs is allowed. While the included Z and W data are found to have insufficient statistics to yield stringent constraints, the CMS 5.02 TeV proton-lead dijet data prove crucial in setting the shape of nuclear gluon modifications. With these and other observables being measured in proton-lead runs, we are experiencing a shift of nPDFs to the LHC precision era.
We derive the latest constraints on various simplified models of natural SUSY with light higgsinos, stops and gluinos, using a detailed and comprehensive reinterpretation of the most recent 13 TeV ATLAS and CMS searches with $\sim 15$ fb$^{-1}$ of data. We discuss the implications of these constraints for fine-tuning of the electroweak scale. While the most "vanilla" version of SUSY (the MSSM with $R$-parity and flavor-degenerate sfermions) with 10% fine-tuning is ruled out by the current constraints, models with decoupled valence squarks or reduced missing energy can still be fully natural. H…
Data taking at the LHC is the beginning of a new era in particle physics which will lead us towards understanding the completion of the Standard Model at and beyond the TeV scale. I discuss different approaches to new physics searches: driven by experimental anomalies, driven by model building, or driven by new analysis ideas. All of them have their place as long as we keep an open mind and see their opportunities as well as their limitations.
We investigate the possibility of testing supergravity unified models with scalar masses in the range 50-100 TeV and much lighter gaugino masses at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis is carried out under the constraints that models produce the Higgs boson mass consistent with experiment and also produce dark matter consistent with WMAP and PLANCK experiments. A set of benchmarks in the supergravity parameter space are investigated using a combination of signal regions which are optimized for the model set. It is found that some of the models with scalar masses in the 50-100 TeV mass range…
The discovery of the Higgs boson at $\sim 125$ GeV indicates that the scale of weak scale supersymmetry is higher than what was perceived in the pre-Higgs boson discovery era and lies in the several TeV region. This makes the discovery of supersymmetry more challenging and argues for hadron colliders beyond LHC at $\sqrt s=14$ TeV. The Future Circular Collider (FCC) study at CERN is considering a 100 TeV collider to be installed in a 100 km tunnel in the Lake Geneva basin. Another 100 km collider being considered in China is the Super proton-proton Collider (SppC). A third possibility recently…
I argue that TeV neutrino physics might become an exciting frontier of particle physics in the era of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The origin of non-zero but tiny masses of three known neutrinos is probably related to the existence of some heavy degrees of freedom, such as heavy Majorana neutrinos or heavy Higgs bosons, via a TeV-scale seesaw mechanism. I take a few examples to illustrate how to get a balance between theoretical naturalness and experimental testability of TeV seesaws. Besides possible collider signatures at the LHC, new and non-unitary CP-violating effects are also expecte…
We present a detailed phenomenological analysis of single-inclusive hadron production at the CERN-LHC in both proton-proton and proton-lead collisions. First data from the LHC experiments on charged hadron spectra are compared to next-to-leading order QCD expectations, and predictions are made for identified pion, kaon, and proton distributions differential in transverse momentum and rapidity for LHC energies from 900 GeV to 14 TeV. The results are obtained with the latest sets of vacuum fragmentation functions based on global QCD analyses, and recently proposed medium modified fragmentation f…
More evidences have now been collected at the Large Hadron Collider suggesting the new 125 - 126 GeV boson is likely the long sought Higgs boson in the standard model. One pressing question continued being asked by theorists is whether this Higgs boson is a lone player responsible for the full electroweak symmetry breaking. Current data still allow room for additional Higgs bosons or some other UV physics that may play a partial role in electroweak symmetry breaking as well. We use the WW scattering to investigate such a possibility, using the two-Higgs-doublet model as a prototype. The WW sca…
When a research infrastructure is funded and implemented, new information and new publications are created. This new information is the measurable output of discovery process. In this paper, we describe the impact of infrastructure for physics experiments in terms of publications and citations. In particular, we consider the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments (ATLAS, CMS, ALICE, LHCb) and compare them to the Large Electron Positron Collider (LEP) experiments (ALEPH, DELPHI, L3, OPAL) and the Tevatron experiments (CDF, D0). We provide an overview of the scientific output of these projects …
After the discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC, it is natural to start the research program on the precision study of the Higgs-boson couplings to various standard model (SM) particles. We provide a generic framework for the deviations of the couplings from their SM values by introducing a number of parameters. We show that a large number of models beyond the SM can be covered, including two-Higgs-doublet models, supersymmetric models, little-Higgs models, extended Higgs sectors with singlets, and fourth generation models. We perform global fits to the most updated data from CMS, ATLAS, and…
New fermions, strongly coupled to the Standard Model Higgs boson provide a well motivated extension of the Standard Model (SM). In this work we show that, once new physics at heavier scales is added to stabilize the Higgs potential, such an extension of the SM can strengthen the first order electroweak phase transition and make the electroweak baryogenesis mechanism feasible. We propose a SM extension with TeV Higgsinos, Winos and Binos that satisfy the following properties: a) The electroweak phase transition is strong enough to avoid sphaleron erasure in the broken phase for values of the Hi…
Direct and indirect searches of the Higgs boson suggest that 113 GeV $\lesssim m_H \lesssim$ 170 GeV is likely. With the LEP era over and the Tevatron Run II search via $p\bar p \to WH+X$ arduous, we revisit a case where $WH$ or $ZH +$ jets could arise via strong $b^\prime\bar b^\prime$ pair production. In contrast to 10 years ago, the tight electroweak constraint on $t^\prime$--$b^\prime$ (hence $t^\prime$--$t$) splitting reduces FCNC $b^\prime\to bZ$, $bH$ rates, making $b^\prime\to cW$ naturally competitive. Such a "cocktail solution" is precisely the mix that could evade the CDF search for…
The recent successes of the SM do not weaken the arguments in favour of New Physics residing at the TeV scale. Finding and identifying it represents the prime challenge for a generation of high energy physicists. To differentiate between different scenarios of New Physics we need to analyze their impact on flavour dynamics. A continuing comprehensive program of heavy flavour studies instrumentalizing the high sensitivity of \cp analyses is intrinsically connected to LHC's core mission. In B decays we can typically expect no more than moderate deviations from SM predictions. $B_s$ transitions p…
The supersymmetry preserving mu parameter in SUSY theories is naively expected to be of order the Planck scale while phenomenology requires it to be of order the weak scale. This is the famous SUSY mu problem. Its solution involves two steps: 1. first forbid mu, perhaps via some symmetry, and then 2. re-generate it of order the scale of soft SUSY breaking terms. However, present LHC limits suggest the soft breaking scale m_{soft} lies in the multi-TeV regime whilst naturalness requires mu~ m_{W,Z,h}~ 100 GeV so that a Little Hierarchy (LH) appears with mu << m_{soft}. We review twenty previous…
The little Higgs mechanism produces a light 100 GeV Higgs while raising the natural cutoff from 1 TeV to 10 TeV. We attempt an iterative little Higgs mechanism to produce multiple factors of 10 between the cutoff and the 100 GeV Higgs mass in a perturbative theory. In the renormalizable sector of the theory, all quantum corrections to the Higgs mass proportional to mass scales greater than 1 TeV are absent -- this includes quadratically divergent, log-divergent, and finite loops at all orders. However, even loops proportional to scales just a factor of 10 above the Higgs (or any other scalar) …
We re-evaluate prospects for supersymmetry at the proposed International Linear e^+e^- Collider (ILC) in light of the first two years of serious data taking at LHC: LHC7 with ~5 fb^{-1} of pp collisions at sqrt{s}=7 TeV and LHC8 with ~20 fb^{-1} at \sqrt{s}=8 TeV. Strong new limits from LHC8 SUSY searches, along with the discovery of a Higgs boson with m_h~125 GeV, suggest a paradigm shift from previously popular models to ones with new and compelling signatures. After a review of the current status of supersymmetry, we present a variety of new ILC benchmark models, including: natural SUSY, ra…
We re-evaluate prospects for supersymmetry at the proposed International Linear $e^+e^-$ Collider (ILC) in light of the first year of serious data taking at LHC with $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and $\sim 5$ fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions (LHC7). Strong new limits from LHC SUSY searches, along with a hint of a Higgs boson signal around $m_h\sim 125$ GeV, suggest a paradigm shift from previously popular models to ones with new and compelling signatures. We present a variety of new ILC benchmark models, including: natural SUSY, hidden SUSY, NUHM2 with low $m_A$, non-universal gaugino mass (NUGM) model, pMSSM,…
[Background:] A significant quenching of high energy jets was observed in the heavy ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) facility, and is now confirmed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) facility. The RHIC plus LHC era provides a unique opportunity to study the jet-medium interaction that leads to the jet quenching, and the medium itself at different collision energies (medium temperatures). [Purpose:] We study the azimuthal anisotropy of jet quenching, to seek constraints on different models featuring distinct path-length and density dependences for jet energy loss, an…
The left-right symmetric model may present evidence of new physics at the era of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We use its framework to investigate the lepton number violating process $pp \to e^\pm e^\pm jj+X$ at the $\unit[14]{TeV}$ LHC. We show that for an integrated luminosity of $\unit[300]{fb^{-1}}$, the discovery contour of the right-handed boson $W_R$ and the right-handed electron neutrino $N_e$ as a result of the $pp \to W^\pm_R \to e^\pm N \to e^\pm e^\pm jj$ process can be expanded upon considering an additional channel mediated by the right-handed doubly charged Higgs $δ^{\pm\pm}_…
