Kinematic variables designed for pairwise decays to partly undetected final states -- a prominent example being $M_{T2}$ and its Lorentz-invariant version $M_2$ -- have been extensively deployed in high-$p_T$ collider searches. A new range of potential applications at flavour facilities -- where $B$ mesons or $τ$ leptons are also pairwise produced -- was recently proposed.
One general challenge in these decays arises if both the signal parent and the 'other' parent, often used as a tag, decay semi-invisibly. In such cases, which notably include semi-leptonic tags, signal identification is generally hindered by the ensuing lack of knowledge of the signal-parent boost. $M_2$ helps precisely to overcome this challenge, and allows to leverage the otherwise superior efficiency of semi-leptonic decays.
Our strategy rests on two novel constraints that can be imposed on $M_2$. The first is that of the known mass of the decaying-parent mass squared which, in connection with other constraints, gives rise to $M_{2sB}$. The second is on the flight direction of the signal parent, often well reconstructed at facilities with high vertexing capabilities such as Belle II and LHCb. This constraint gives rise to the $M_{2V}$ variable, that can be used even at facilities where the collision energy is not known.
We test these ideas in a decay of great current interest in the context of the persistent discrepancies in $B$ decays, namely $B \to K τμ$. We find that a bare-bones application of $M_{2sB}$ leads, alone, to an improvement that is already halfway between the current approach and the "truth-level" semi-leptonic case. Ceteris paribus -- in particular statistics -- our approach thus makes semi-leptonic tags competitive with fully reconstructed hadronic tags.
The theoretical calculation of pseudo-scalar leptonic decay widths into an invisible ALP, $M \to \ell\, ν_\ell\, a$, is reviewed. Assuming generic flavour-conserving ALP couplings to SM fermions and a generic ALP mass, $m_a$, the latest experimental results for pseudo-scalar leptonic decays are used to provide updated bounds on the ALP-fermion Lagrangian sector. Constrains on the ALP-quark couplings obtained from these channels are not yet competitive with the ones derived from FCNC processes, like $M\to P\,a$ decays. These leptonic decays can, however, provide the most stringent model-indepen…
One of the main neutrino oscillation parameters whose value has not been determined very precisely is the leptonic $δ_{CP}$ phase. Since neutrinos have a tiny but finite mass they can undergo decay both visibly and invisibly. The effect of invisible decay of the third mass eigen state $ν_3$ on the sensitivity to $δ_{CP}$ is analysed here using atmospheric neutrino and anti-neutrino events. Effects of detector resolutions and systematic uncertainties are studied to identify the optimum resolutions and efficiencies required by a detector to obtain a significant sensitivity even in presence of de…
Non-linearly realized supersymmetry, combined with the Standard Model field content and SU(3)XSU(2)XU(1) gauge invariance, permits local dimension-six operators involving a goldstino, a lepton doublet and a Higgs doublet. These interactions preserve total lepton number if the left-handed goldstino transforms as an antilepton. We discuss the resulting phenomenology, in the simple limit where the new couplings involve only one lepton family, thus conserving also lepton flavour. Both the Z boson and the Higgs boson can decay into a neutrino and a goldstino: the present limits from the invisible Z…
The first limit on the branching ratio of the electric charge-nonconserving invisible muon decay $Br(μ^+ \to invisible) < 5.2 \times 10^{-3}$ is obtained from the recently reported results on new determination of the Fermi constant from muon decays. The results of a feasibility study of a new proposed experiment for a sensitive search for this decay mode at the level of a few parts in 10^{11} are presented. Constrains on the $τ\to invisible$ decay rate are discussed. These leptonic charge-nonconserving processes may hold in four-dimensional world in models with infinite extra dimensions, thus …
The existence of dark matter has been established in astrophysics. However, there is no candidate for DM in the Stand Model (SM). In SM, the Higgs boson can only decay invisibly via $H\rightarrow ZZ^\ast \rightarrow ν\barνν\barν$ or DM, so any evidence of invisible Higgs decay that exceeds BR (H$\rightarrow$inv.) will immediately point to a phenomenon that is beyond the standard model (BSM). In this paper, we report on the upper limit of BR (H$\rightarrow$invisible) estimated for three channels, including two leptonic channels and one hadronic channel, under the assumption predicted by SM. Wit…
In the Standard Model there are several canonical examples of pure leptonic processes involving the muon, the electron and the corresponding neutrinos which are connected by the crossing symmetry: i) the decay of muon, ii) the inverse muon decay, and iii) the annihilation of a muon and an electron into two neutrinos. Although the first two reactions have been observed and measured since long ago, the third process, resulting in the invisible final state, has never been experimentally tested. It may go either directly, or, at low energies, via the annihilation of a muon and an electron from an …
We update our previous results by increasing the luminosity, the efficiency, and for the Ds+ the number of tags. We determine f{D+}=(205.8 +/- 8.5 +/- 2.5) MeV, and an interim preliminary value of f{Ds+}=(267.9 +/- 8.2 +/- 3.9) MeV, where both results are radiatively corrected. We agree with the recent most precise unquenched Lattice-QCD calculation for the D+, but are in disagreement for the Ds+. Several consequences are discussed, including the possibility of physics beyond the Standard Model.
We study the possibility of utilising the constrained mass variable, $M_{2Cons}$, in reconstructing the semi-invisible events originated from a resonant production at the LHC. While this proposal is effective for any similar antler type production mechanism, here we demonstrate with potentially interesting scenario, when the Higgs boson decays into a pair of third generation $τ$ leptons. Buoyed with a relatively large Yukawa coupling, the LHC has already started exploring this pair production to investigate the properties of Higgs in the leptonic sector. Dominant signatures through hadronic de…
Differences in lepton number (i.e., $ L _e - L _μ$, $ L _e - L _τ$, $ L_μ- L _τ$, or combinations thereof) are not conserved charges in the Standard Model due to the observation of neutrino oscillations. We compute the divergence of the corresponding currents in the case of Majorana or Dirac-type neutrinos and show that, in the high energy limit, the vector interactions map onto those of a light scalar coupled to neutrinos with its coupling fixed by the observed neutrino masses and mixing. This leads to amplitudes with external light vectors that scale inversely with the vector mass. By studyi…
We evaluate the potential to measure ttbar H associated production at the LHC using non-resonant multi-lepton final states in conjunction with two or more b-tags. The multi-lepton ttbar H signal arises predominantly from H to tau tau and H to WW^* alongside the semi-leptonic or fully leptonic decay of the ttbar pair. We demonstrate the power of a multi-lepton search for ttbar H associated production by recasting the CMS b-tagged multi-lepton search with 19.5 fb^-1 of 8 TeV data to obtain an observed (expected) limit of 4.7 (6.6) times the Standard Model rate, comparable to ongoing searches in …
We extend the range of possible applications of MT2 type analyses to decay chains with multiple invisible particles, as well as to asymmetric event topologies with different parent and/or different children particles. We advocate two possible approaches. In the first, we introduce suitably defined 3+1-dimensional analogues of the MT2 variable, which take into account all relevant on-shell kinematic constraints in a given event topology. The second approach utilizes the conventional MT2 variable, but its kinematic endpoint is suitably reinterpreted on a case by case basis, depending on the spec…
While the recent discovery of a Higgs-like boson at the LHC is an extremely important and encouraging step towards the discovery of the {\it complete} standard model(SM), the current information on this state does not rule out possibility of beyond standard model (BSM) physics. In fact the current data can still accommodate reasonable values of the branching fractions of the Higgs into a channel with `invisible' decay products, such a channel being also well motivated theoretically. In this study we revisit the possibility of detecting the Higgs in this invisible channel for both choices of th…
We study the $ZH$ associated production followed by the Higgs $H\to γ\barγ$ decay into a photon plus an invisible and massless dark photon, at future high-energy $e^+e^-$ facilities. Large $H\to γ\barγ$ decay rates (with branching ratios up to a few percent) are allowed, thanks to possible non-decoupling properties of the Higgs boson under specific conditions, and unsuppressed dark-photon couplings in the dark sector. Such large decay rates can be obtained in the framework of recent flavor models that aim to naturally explain the observed spread in the fermion mass spectrum. We analyze the exp…
Leptoquarks with mass in the region of $550-650$ GeV are a possible candidate for the recent excess seen by CMS in the $eejj$ and $e νjj$ channels. We discuss models where leptoquarks decay primarily to dark matter and jets, thereby giving a branching to charged lepton and jet final states that can match data. The confluence of proton decay constraints, dark matter indirect and direct detection data, and Higgs invisible decay bounds results in a handful of predictive models that will be conclusively verified or excluded in upcoming direct detection experiments. Along the way, we present robust…
Given the elusive nature of neutrinos, their self-interaction is particularly difficult to probe. Nevertheless, upper limits on the strength of such an interaction can be set by using data from terrestrial experiments. In this work we focus on additional contributions to the invisible decay width of $Z$ boson as well as the leptonic $τ$ decay width in the presence of a neutrino coupling to a relatively light scalar. For invisible $Z$ decays we derive a complete set of constraints by considering both three-body bremsstrahlung as well as the loop correction to two-body decays. While the latter i…
Charged lepton flavor violating decays with a pair of light dark matter and muonium invisible decay
South China Normal University（华南师范大学）；Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Structure and Fundamental Interactions of Matter, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Nuclear Science（广东省基础与应用基础研究基金委物质结构与基本相互作用卓越中心，广东省核科学重点实验室）
Anomalies in several short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments suggest the possible existence of sterile neutrinos at about eV scale having appreciable mixing with the already known three neutrinos. We find that if such a light sterile neutrino exists, through a combined study of the leptonic decays of $μ^-$, $τ^-$, $π^-$ and $K^-$, some semi-leptonic decays of $τ^-$ and the invisible decay width of the $Z$ boson, it is possible to constrain the relevant mixing matrix elements. Furthermore, we compare the constraints, derived by using the method presented here, with the experimental resu…
We analyze the one loop corrections to leptonic W and Z decays in an R-parity violating extension to the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). We find that lepton universality violation in the Z line-shape variables alone would strengthen the bounds on the magnitudes of the lambda' couplings, but a global fit on all data leaves the bounds virtually unchanged at |lambda'_{33k}| < 0.42 and |lambda'_{23k}| < 0.50 at the 2 sigma level. Bounds from W decays are less stringent: |lambda'_{33k}| < 2.4 at 2 sigma, as a consequence of the weaker Fermilab experimental bounds on lepton universalit…
In compressed supersymmetry, a light top squark naturally mediates efficient neutralino pair annihilation to govern the thermal relic abundance of dark matter. I study the LHC signal of same-sign leptonic top-quark decays from gluino and squark production, which follows from gluino decays to top plus stop followed by the stop decaying to a charm quark and the LSP in these models. Measurements of the numbers of jets with heavy-flavor tags in the same-sign lepton events can be used to confirm the origin of the signal. Summed transverse momentum observables provide an estimate of an effective sup…
