I discuss the scope and naturalness of the proton mass decomposition (or sum rule) published in PRL74, 1071 (1995) and answer a few criticisms that appeared recently in the literature, focusing particularly on its interpretation and the quantum anomalous energy contribution. I comment on the so-called frame-independent or invariant-mass decomposition from the trace of the energy-momentum tensor. I stress the importance of measuring the quantum anomalous energy through experiments. Finally, I point out a large discrepancy in the scalar radius of the nucleon extracted from vector-meson productions and lattice QCD calculations.
A Higgs boson mass $\sim 126$ GeV as determined by the LHC data requires a large loop correction which in turn implies a large sfermion mass. Implication of this result for the stability of the proton in supersymmetric grand unified theories is examined including other experiments constraints along with the most recent result on cold dark matter from Planck. It is shown that over the allowed parameter space of supergravity unified models, proton lifetime is highly sensitive to the Higgs boson mass and a few GeV shift in its mass can change the proton decay lifetime for the mode $p\to \bar νK^+…
The "top-down" approach to minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) phenomenology provides model-dependent indications for a natural stop mass. The approach is based on specific assumptions about the supersymmetry-breaking energy scale and parameters degeneracies. In order to determine robust predictions we update the stop-mass prediction within the MSSM with 25 parameters (MSSM-25) by including electroweak fine-tuning as "naturalness data" during the Bayesian fits of the parameters to experimental data. The approximately prior-independent results show that imposing naturalness, taken here…
In focus point supersymmetry, all squarks and sleptons, including those of the third generation, have multi-TeV masses without sacrificing naturalness. We examine the implications of this framework for low energy constraints and the light Higgs boson mass. Undesirable contributions to proton decay and electric dipole moments, generic in many supersymmetric models, are strongly suppressed. As a result, the prediction for alpha_s in simple grand unified theories is 3 to 5 standard deviations closer to the experimental value, and the allowed CP-violating phases are larger by one to two orders of …
The recent measurement of the muon anomalous magnetic moment a_μ\equiv (g-2)_μ/2 by the Fermilab Muon g-2 experiment sharpens an earlier discrepancy between theory and the BNL E821 experiment. We examine the predicted Δa_μ\equiv a_μ(exp)-a_μ(th) in the context of supersymmetry with low electroweak naturalness (restricting to models which give a plausible explanation for the magnitude of the weak scale). A global analysis including LHC Higgs mass and sparticle search limits points to interpretation within the normal scalar mass hierarchy (NSMH) SUSY model wherein first/second generation matter …
The analysis of hadronic interactions with effective field theory techniques is complicated by the appearance of a large number of low-energy constants, which are usually fitted to data. On the other hand, the large-$N_c$ limit imposes natural short-distance constraints on these low-energy constants, providing a parameter reduction. A Bayesian interpretation of the expected $1/N_c$ accuracy allows for an easy and efficient implementation of these constraints, using an augmented $χ^2$. We apply this approach to the analysis of meson-meson scattering, in conjunction with chiral perturbation theo…
We extend the recently developed formalism to extract light-front quark charge densities from nucleon form factor data to the deformations of these quark charge densities when applying an external electric field. We show that the resulting induced polarizations can be extracted from proton generalized polarizabilities. The available data for the generalized electric polarizabilitiy of the proton yield a pronounced structure in its induced polarization at large transverse distances, which will be pinned down by forthcoming high precision virtual Compton scattering experiments.
We study the contributions of supersymmetric models with a $U(1)$ horizontal symmetry and only spontaneous CP breaking to various lepton flavor observables, such as $μ\to eγ$ and the electron electric dipole moment. We show that both a horizontal symmetry and a lack of explicit CP violation can alleviate the existing bounds from such observables. The undetermined $\mathcal{O}(1)$ coefficients in such mass matrix models muddle the interpretation of the bounds from various flavor observables. To overcome this, we define a new fine-tuning measure for different observables in such setups. This all…
A study of proton-proton collisions at very high energy has revealed a "black disk," whose radius grows with the logarithm of the center-of-mass energy, surrounded by an edge of approximately constant width 1 fm. We interpret this behavior as the maximum length of a QCD string connecting the color triplet and antitriplet components of the proton, and propose further tests of this explanation.
We treat the old problem of the proton-neutron bound state (the deuteron). Using a new concept of incomplete (partial) annihilation process we derive a formula for the binding energy of the deuteron, which does not contain any new constant. Some implications of this new approach are discussed.
A proton-proton collider with center of mass energy around 100 TeV is the energy frontier machine that is likely to succeed the LHC. One of the primary physics goals will be the continued exploration of weak scale naturalness. Here we focus on the pair-production of stops that decay to a top and a neutralino. Most of the heavy stop parameter space results in highly boosted tops, populating kinematic regimes inaccessible at the LHC. New strategies for boosted top-tagging are needed and a simple, detector-independent tagger can be constructed by requiring a muon inside a jet. Assuming 20% system…
The latest experimental results from the LHC and dark matter (DM) searches suggest that the parameter space allowed in supersymmetric theories is subject to strong reductions. These bounds are especially constraining for scenarios entailing light DM particles. Previous studies have shown that light neutralino DM in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), with parameters defined at the electroweak scale, is still viable when the low energy spectrum of the model features light sleptons, in which case, the relic density constraint can be fulfilled. In view of this, we have investigated …
We use the scale of neutrino mass to derive model-independent naturalness constraints on possible contributions to muon decay Michel parameters from new physics above the electroweak symmetry-breaking scale. Focusing on Dirac neutrinos, we obtain a complete basis of effective dimension four and dimension six operators that are invariant under the gauge symmetry of the Standard Model and that contribute to both muon decay and neutrino mass. We show that -- in the absence of fine tuning -- the most stringent bounds on chirality-changing operators relevant to muon decay arise from one-loop contri…
Low-Q^2 photons do not resolve partons in the proton, which gives problems when applying the deep inelastic scattering formalism, such as an unphysical, negative gluon density extracted from data. Considering instead hadronic fluctuations of the photon, we show that the generalised vector meson dominance model (GVDM) gives a good description of the measured cross section at low Q^2, i.e. reproduces F_2(x,Q^2), using only few parameters with essentially known values. Combining GVDM and parton density functions makes it possible to obtain a good description of F_2 data over the whole range of x …
Analysis of the SUSY spectrum in supergravity unified models is given under the naturalness criterion that the universal scalar mass $(m_0)$ and the gluino mass $(m_{\tilde g})$ satisfy the constraint $m_0, m_{\tilde g}$ less than or equal to 1 TeV. The SUSY spectrum is analysed in four different scenarios: (1) minimal supergravity models ignoring proton decay from dimension five operators, (2) imposing proton stability constraint in supergravity models with SU(5) type embedding which allow proton decay via dimension five operators, (3) with inclusion of dark matter constraints in models of ty…
We present a relativistic interpretation for why the proton's ratio of electric to magnetic form factor falls and for why the ratio of the Pauli to Dirac form factor varies as 1/Q. Reproducing the observed electric form factor of the neutron then mandates the inclusion of the effects of the pion cloud.
A review is given of recent developments on the implications of supergravity grand unification with SU(5)-type proton decay under the condition $M_{H_3} /m_G < 10$ (where $M_{H_3}$ is the Higgs triplet mass) and the naturalness condition that the universal scalar mass $m_0$ and the gluino mass are $<$ 1~TeV. It is shown that the maximum achievable lifetime limits on proton lifetime at Super Kamiokande and ICARUS will exhaust the full parameter space of the model under the constraint $m_{\tilde W_1} >$~100~GeV. Thus the model predicts the observation of either a light chargino with mass $\lappe…
We study the $p-n$ Drell-Yan asymmetry, recently measured by the NA51 collaboration, and conclude that the value quoted by their experiment only sets a lower limit on the asymmetry of the proton sea. In particular, we notice that charge symmetry breaking between the proton and the neutron may produce corrections which should be taken into account.
The observation of long-range collective correlations for particles emitted in high-multiplicity pp and pPb collisions has opened up new opportunities of investigating novel high-density QCD phenomena in small colliding systems. We review experimental results related to the studies of collective phenomena in small systems from RHIC and the LHC over the past several years. Latest development in theoretical interpretations motivated by different frameworks are also reviewed, and confronted with the experimental data. Perspectives on possible future directions are discussed, with the aim of furth…
We present a `new generation' model for high energy proton-proton `soft' interactions. It allows for a full set of multi-Pomeron vertices, as well as including multichannel eikonal scattering. It describes the behaviour of the proton-proton total, sigma(total), and elastic dsigma(el)/dt, cross sections together with those for low and high mass proton dissociation. Although the model contains a comprehensive set of multi-Pomeron diagrams, it has a simple partonic interpretation. Including the more complicated multi-Pomeron vertices reduces the absorptive effects as compared to the predictions i…
We discuss a recently proposed interpretation of some model descriptions of the proton-proton elastic scattering data as a manifestation of alleged relative transparency of the central part of the interaction region in the impact parameter space. We argue that the presence of nonzero real part of the elastic scattering amplitude in the unitarity condition enables to conserve the traditional interpretation.
We demonstrate that the recent measurement of azimuthally collimated, long range rapidity ("ridge") correlations in $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV proton-proton (p+p) collisions by the ATLAS collaboration at the LHC are in agreement with expectations from the color glass condensate effective theory of high energy QCD. The observation that the integrated near side yield as a function of multiplicity is independent of collision energy is a natural consequence of the fact that multiparticle production is driven by a single semi-hard saturation scale in the color glass condensate framework. We argue further th…
We propose a new interpretation of Peccei-Quinn symmetry within the Standard Model, identifying it with the axial $B + L$ symmetry i.e. $U(1)_{PQ} \equiv U(1)_{γ_5(B+L)}$. This new interpretation retains all the attractive features of Peccei-Quinn solution to strong CP problem but in addition also leads to several other new and interesting consequences. Owing to the identification $U(1)_{PQ} \equiv U(1)_{γ_5(B+L)}$ the axion also behaves like Majoron inducing small seesaw masses for neutrinos after spontaneous symmetry breaking. Another novel feature of this identification is the phenomenon of…
Thanks to space-borne experiments of cosmic-ray (CR) detection, such as the AMS and PAMELA missions in low-Earth orbit, or the Voyager-1 spacecraft in the interstellar space, a large collection of multi-channel and time-resolved CR data has become available. Recently, the AMS experiment has released new precision data, on the proton and helium fluxes in CRs, measured on monthly basis during its first six years of mission. The AMS data reveal a remarkable long-term behavior in the temporal evolution of the proton-to-helium ratio at rigidity $R = p/Z <$ 3 GV. As we have argued in a recent work, …
The mass ordering of mean transverse momentum $\left<p_T\right>$ and of the Fourier harmonic coefficient $v_2 (p_T)$ of azimuthally anisotropic particle distributions in high energy hadron collisions is often interpreted as evidence for the hydrodynamic flow of the matter produced. We investigate an alternative initial state interpretation of this pattern in high multiplicity proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The QCD Yang-Mills equations describing the dynamics of saturated gluons are solved numerically with initial conditions obtained from the Color Glass Condensate based IP-Glasma model. …
We present a simple interpretation of the recently observed near-threshold proton-antiproton enhancement. It is described by a set of low-energy parameters deduced from the analysis of NantiN experiments at LEAR. We predict a related effect in photoproduction reaction under study by CLAS collaboration.
We discuss interpretation of the reflective scattering mode connecting its appearance with a resolution of a two--scale structure of a proton revealed in the DVCS process at Jefferson laboratory and in the differential cross--section of elastic $pp$--scattering at the LHC at the energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV.
A new interpretation of intrinsic charm phenomenon based on the assumption of pentaquark $\left| u u d c\bar{c} \right>$ mixing with a proton is offered. The structure function of the $c$-quark in the pentaquark is constructed. Mixing different states is considered theoretically and using experiment data on $D$-meson production and inclusive production of the hidden charm particles.
We discuss the interpretation of the $ep\to epρ^0$ process in terms of, on the one hand, Generalized Parton Distributions and, on the other hand, an effective hadronic model based on Regge theory.
Skew density matrices can be diagonalized to yield probability interpretation. The power-counting prediction of perturbative QCD is found consistent with recent CEBAF data on $F_2(Q^2)/F_1(Q^2)$
We update the study of the total Psi and Upsilon production cross section in proton-proton collisions at RHIC energies using the QCD-based Color-Singlet (CS) Model, including next-to-leading order partonic matrix elements. We also include charm-quark initiated processes which appear at leading order in alpha_s, but which have so far been overlooked in such studies. Contrary to earlier claims, we show that the CS yield is consistent with measurements over a broad range of J/Psi rapidities. We also find that charm-quark initiated processes, including both intrinsic and sea-like charm components,…
An interpretation is given for elastic proton scattering at ultra-high energies with impact-parameter amplitude exceeding the black disk limit. It is shown that this scattering mode can arise due to the contribution of an exceptional intermediate state that unites correlated partons of colliding protons at ultra-high energies into a single coherent system. The behavior of the real part of the amplitude in this mode is discussed.
We discuss in detail and from the geometrical point of view the issues of gauge invariance and Lorentz covariance raised by the approach proposed recently by Chen et al. to the proton spin decomposition. We show that the gauge invariance of this approach follows from a mechanism similar to the one used in the famous Stueckelberg trick. Stressing the fact that the Lorentz symmetry does not force the gauge potential to transform as a Lorentz four-vector, we show that the Chen et al. approach is Lorentz covariant provided that one uses the suitable Lorentz transformation law. We also make an atte…
We reexamine the interpretation of the annual modulation signal observed by the DAMA experiment as due to WIMPs with a spin-dependent coupling mostly to protons. We consider both axial-vector and pseudo-scalar couplings, and elastic as well as endothermic and exothermic inelastic scattering. We conclude that the DAMA signal is in strong tension with null results of other direct detection experiments, particularly PICASSO and KIMS.
The combined constraints from six early Run 2 ATLAS searches for supersymmetry are interpreted in the phenomenological minimal supersymmetric extension to the Standard Model (pMSSM). Each of the searches was based on proton-proton collision data recorded in 2015 at $\sqrt{s} =13$ TeV with 3.2 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity. Sensitivity to squarks of the first two generations and gluinos are evaluated using fast detector simulation. Results are presented in the 19-parameter R-parity conserving pMSSM with the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) being the neutralino. Considering 181.8k poi…
Many low-energy, particle-physics experiments seek to reveal new fundamental physics by searching for very rare scattering events on atomic nuclei. The interpretation of their results requires quantifying the non-linear effects of the strong interaction on the spin-independent couplings of this new physics to protons and neutrons. Here we present a fully-controlled, ab-initio calculation of these couplings to the quarks within those constituents of nuclei. We use lattice quantum chromodynamics computations for the four lightest species of quarks and heavy-quark expansions for the remaining two…
Study of polarized proton-proton elastic scattering in the Coulomb-nuclear interference region allows one to measure the forward hadronic single spin-flip amplitude including its phase. However, in a precision experimental data analysis, a phase shift correction $δ_C$ due to the long distance Coulomb interaction should be taken into account. For unpolarized scattering, $δ_C$ is commonly considered as well established. Here, we evaluate the Coulomb phase shifts for the forward elastic proton-proton single spin-flip electromagnetic and hadronic amplitudes. Only a small discrepancy between the sp…
We present a study of the inclusive J/psi cross section at 2.76 TeV and 5.5 TeV. The energy dependence of the cross section, rapidity and transverse momentum distributions are evaluated phenomenologically. Their knowledge is crucial as a reference for the interpretation of A-A and p-A J/psi results at the LHC. Our approach is the following: first, we estimate the energy evolution of the pt-integrated J/psi cross section at mid-rapidity; then, we evaluate the rapidity dependence; finally, we study the transverse momentum distribution trend. Whenever possible, both theory driven (based on pQCD p…
We develop the concept of quantum phase-space (Wigner) distributions for quarks and gluons in the proton. To appreciate their physical content, we analyze the contraints from special relativity on the interpretation of elastic form factors, and examine the physics of the Feynman parton distributions in the proton's rest frame. We relate the quark Wigner functions to the transverse-momentum dependent parton distributions and generalized parton distributions, emphasizing the physical role of the skewness parameter. We show that the Wigner functions allow to visualize quantum quarks and gluons us…
Forward-backward asymmetries $A_{FB}^t$ and $A_{FB}^\ell$ are observed in the top quark $t$ rapidity distribution and in the rapidity distribution of charged leptons $\ell$ from top quark decay at the Tevatron proton-antiproton collider, and a charge asymmetry $A_C$ is seen in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In this paper, we update our previous studies of the Tevatron asymmetries using the most recent data. We provide expectations for $A_C$ at the LHC based first on model independent extrapolations from the Tevatron, and second based on new physics models that can…
The phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking admits a physical interpretation in terms of the Bose-condensation process of elementary spinless quanta. In this picture, the broken-symmetry phase emerges as a real physical medium, endowed with a hierarchical pattern of scales, supporting two types of elementary excitations for k \to 0: a massive energy branch E_a(k) \to M_H, corresponding to the usual Higgs boson field, and a collective gap-less branch E_b(k) \to 0. This is similar to the coexistence of phonons and rotons in superfluid He-4 that, in fact, is usually considered the condensed-m…
A possible interpretation of the near-threshold enhancement in the $(p\bar{p})$-mass spectrum in $J/ψ{\to}γp{\bar p}$ is the of existence of a narrow baryonium resonance X(1860). Mesonic decays of the $(p\bar{p})$-bound state X(1860) due to the nucleon-antinucleon annihilation are investigated in this paper. Mesonic coherent states with fixed $G$-parity and $P$-parity have been constructed . The Amado-Cannata-Dedoder-Locher-Shao formulation(Phys Rev Lett. {\bf 72}, 970 (1994)) is extended to the decays of the X(1860). By this method, the branch-fraction ratios of $Br(X\to η4π)$, $Br(X\to η2π)$…
The joint study of Double Parton Scatterings, in high energy proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions, can provide a lot of information on multi-parton correlations. The multi-parton structure is in fact probed in a different way by DPS, in $p$-$p$ and in $p$-$A$ collisions. In $p$-$A$ collisions the interpretation of the experimental results may be however complicated by the presence of interference terms, which are missing in $p$-$p$. A suitable reaction channel, where interference terms are absent, is $WJJ$ production. By studying $WJJ$ production in $p$-$Pb$ collisions, we estimate that…
Contrary to what has been often claimed in the literature, we clarify that the hard photon-gluon cross section $\gg_{\rm hard}(x)$ in polarized deep inelastic scattering calculated in the gauge-invariant factorization scheme does {\it not} involve any soft contributions and hence it is genuinely {\it hard}. We show that the polarized proton structure function $g_1^p(x)$ up to the next-to-leading order of $α_s$ is independent of the factorization convention, e.g., the gauge-invariant or chiral-invariant scheme, chosen in defining $\gg_{\rm hard}(x)$ and the quark spin density. Thereby, it is no…
