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At least 1,369 records · Page 76

A collider observable QCD axion

Here, we present a model where the QCD axion is at the TeV scale and visible at a collider via its decays. Conformal dynamics and strong CP considerations account for the axion coupling strongly enough to the standard model to be produced as well as the coincidence between the weak scale and the axion mass. The model predicts additional pseudoscalar color octets whose properties are completely determined by the axion properties rendering the theory testable.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Research in Lattice Gauge Theory and in the Phenomenology of Neutrinos and Dark Matter

Research in theoretical elementary particle physics was performed by the PI Yannick Meurice and co-PI Mary Hall Reno. New techniques designed for precision calculations of strong interaction physics were developed using the tensor renormalization group method. Large-scale Monte Carlo simulations with dynamical quarks were performed for candidate models for Higgs compositeness. Ab-initio lattice gauge theory calculations of semileptonic decays of B-mesons observed in collider experiments and relevant to test the validity of the standard model were performed with the Fermilab/MILC collaboration. The phenomenology of strong interaction physics was applied to new predictions for physics processes in accelerator physics experiments and to cosmic ray production and interactions. A research focus has been on heavy quark production and their decays to neutrinos. The heavy quark contributions to atmospheric neutrino and muon fluxes have been evaluated, as have the neutrino fluxes from accelerator beams incident on heavy targets. Results are applicable to current and future particle physics experiments and to astrophysical neutrino detectors such as the IceCube Neutrino Observatory.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Detector-size upper bounds on dark hadron lifetime from cosmology

We show that in a confining hidden valley model where the lightest hidden particles are dark hadrons that have mass splittings larger than \( \mathcal{O}(0.1) \) GeV, if the lightest dark hadron is either stable or decays into Standard Model (SM) hadrons/charged leptons during the big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), at least one of the heavier dark hadrons needs to decay into SM particles within \( \mathcal{O}(10) \) nanosec. Once being produced at collider experiments, this heavier dark hadron is likely to decay within \( \mathcal{O}(10) \) meter distance, which strengthens the motivation of searching for long-lived particles with sub-meter scale decay lengths at colliders. To illustrate the idea, we study the lifetime constraint in scenarios where the lightest dark particle is a pseudo-scalar meson, and dark hadrons couple to SM particles either through kinetic mixing between the SM and dark photons or by mixing between the SM and dark Higgs. We study the annihilation and decay of dark hadrons in a thermal bath and calculate upper bounds on the lightest vector meson (scalar hadron) lifetime in the kinetic mixing (Higgs portal) scenario. We discuss the application of these lifetime constraints in long-lived particle searches that use the LHCb VELO or the AT-LAS/CMS inner detectors.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Toward UV models of kinetic mixing and portal matter. VII. A light dark photon in the 3 𝑐 ⁢3 𝐿 ⁢1 𝐴 ⁢1 𝐵 model

The kinetic mixing (KM) portal, by which the Standard Model (SM) photon mixes with a light dark photon arising from a new 𝑈⁢(1) 𝐷 gauge group, allows for the possibility of viable scenarios of sub-GeV thermal dark matter with appropriately suppressed couplings to the SM. This KM can only occur if particles having both SM and dark quantum numbers, here termed portal matter, also exist. The presence of such types of states and the strong suggestion of a need to embed 𝑈⁢(1) 𝐷 into a non-Abelian gauge structure not too far above the TeV scale based on the renormalization-group equation running of the 𝑈⁢(1)𝐷 gauge coupling is potentially indicative of an enlarged group linking together the visible and dark sectors. The gauge group 𝐺 = 𝑆⁢𝑈⁢(3) 𝑐 × 𝑆⁢𝑈⁢(3) 𝐿 × 𝑈⁢(1) 𝐴 × 𝑈⁢(1) 𝐵 = 3 𝑐 ⁢3 𝐿 ⁢1 𝐴 ⁢1 𝐵 is perhaps the simplest setup wherein the SM and dark interactions are partially unified in a non-Abelian fashion that is not a simple product group of the form 𝐺 = 𝐺 SM × 𝐺 𝐷 encountered frequently in earlier work. The present paper describes the implications and phenomenology of this type of setup.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Towards UV-Models of Kinetic Mixing and Portal Matter VII: A Light Dark Photon in the 3c3L1A1B Model

The kinetic mixing (KM) portal, by which the Standard Model (SM) photon mixes with a light dark photon arising from a new U(1)DU(1)D​ gauge group, allows for the possibility of viable scenarios of sub-GeV thermal dark matter (DM) with appropriately suppressed couplings to the SM. This KM can only occur if particles having both SM and dark quantum numbers, here termed portal matter (PM), also exist. The presence of such types of states and the strong suggestion of a need to embed U(1)DU(1)D​ into a non-abelian gauge structure not too far above the TeV scale based on the RGE running of the U(1)DU(1)D​ gauge coupling is potentially indicative of an enlarged group linking together the visible and dark sectors. The gauge group G=SU(3)c×SU(3)L×U(1)A×U(1)B=3c3L1A1BG=SU(3)c​×SU(3)L​×U(1)A​×U(1)B​=3c​3L​1A​1B​ is perhaps the simplest setup wherein the SM and dark interactions are partially unified in a non-abelian fashion that is not a simple product group of the form G=GSM×GDG=GSM​×GD​ encountered frequently in earlier work. The present paper describes the implications and phenomenology of this type of setup.

Rizzo, Thomas G. [SLAC National Accelerator Labora↗

TF08 Snowmass Report: BSM Model Building

We summarize the state of Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) model building in particle physics for Snowmass 2021, focusing mainly on several whitepaper contributions to BSM model building (TF08) and closely related areas.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Probing extended scalar sectors with precision e + e - → Zh and Higgs diphoton studies

We compute the one-loop corrections to σ(e + e - → Zh) arising from representative extended Standard Model scalar sector scenarios. According to the new scalar SU(2)L representations, we consider the inert doublet, real and complex triplet, quintuplet, and septuplet models. With the sub-percent level precision expected for prospective future e + e - collider measurements of σ(e + e - → Zh), studies of the Higgsstrahlung process will probe extended scalar sector particle spectrum and interactions in a manner complementary to direct searches at the Large Hadron Collider and possible future pp colliders. We also compare with the sensitivity of future Higgs diphoton decay rate measurements. We find that the σ(e + e - → Zh) and Γ(h → γγ) complementarity is particularly pronounced for the complex triplet model.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Curvaton as dark matter with secondary inflation

We consider a novel cosmological scenario in which a curvaton is long-lived and plays the role of cold dark matter (CDM) in the presence of a short, secondary inflation. Non-trivial evolution of the large scale cosmological perturbation in the curvaton scenario can affect the duration of the short term inflation, resulting in the inhomogeneous end of inflation. Non-linear parameters of the curvature perturbation are predicted to be f {sub NL} ≈ 5/4 and g {sub NL} ≈ 0. The curvaton abundance can be well diluted by the short-term inflation and accordingly, it does not have to decay into the Standard Model particles. Then the curvaton can account for the present CDM with the isocurvature perturbation being sufficiently suppressed because both the adiabatic and CDM isocurvature perturbations have the same origin. As an explicit example, we consider the thermal inflation scenario and a string axion as a candidate for this curvaton-dark matter. We further discuss possibilities to identify the curvaton-dark matter with the QCD axion.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Search for heavy neutrinos or third-generation leptoquarks in final states with two hadronically decaying $\tau$ leptons and two jets in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=13 $ TeV

A search for new particles has been conducted using events with two high transverse momentum (p$_{T}$) τ leptons that decay hadronically, at least two high-p$_{T}$ jets, and missing transverse energy from the τ lepton decays. The analysis is performed using data from proton-proton collisions, collected by the CMS experiment in 2015 at $ \sqrt{s}=13 $ TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.1 fb$^{−1}$. The results are interpreted in two physics models. The first model involves heavy right-handed neutrinos, N$_{ℓ}$ (ℓ = e, μ, τ), and right-handed charged bosons, W$_{R}$, arising in a left-right symmetric extension of the standard model. Masses of the W$_{R}$ boson below 2.35 (1.63) TeV are excluded at 95% confidence level, assuming the N$_{τ}$ mass is 0.8 (0.2) times the mass of the W$_{R}$ boson and that only the N$_{τ}$ flavor contributes to the W$_{R}$ decay width. In the second model, pair production of third-generation scalar leptoquarks that decay into ττbb is considered. Third-generation scalar leptoquarks with masses below 740 GeV are excluded, assuming a 100% branching fraction for the leptoquark decay to a τ lepton and a bottom quark. This is the first search at hadron colliders for the third-generation Majorana neutrino, as well as the first search for third-generation leptoquarks in the final state with a pair of hadronically decaying τ leptons and jets.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Flavor constraints in a generational three-Higgs-doublet model

We propose a three-Higgs-doublet model (3HDM) that goes beyond natural flavor conservation and in which each of the three Higgs doublets couples mainly to a single generation of fermions via nonstandard Yukawa structures. A hierarchy in the vacuum expectation values of the three Higgs doublets can partially address the Standard Model flavor puzzle. In light of the experimentally observed 125 GeV Higgs boson, we primarily work within a 3HDM alignment limit such that a Standard Model-like Higgs is recovered. In order to reproduce the observed Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa mixing among quarks, the neutral Higgs bosons of the theory necessarily mediate flavor changing neutral currents at the tree level. We consider constraints from neutral kaon, B meson, and D meson mixing as well as from the rare leptonic decays B s / B 0 / K L → μ + μ − / e + e − . We identify regions of parameter space in which the new physics Higgs bosons can be as light as a TeV or even lighter. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

Altmannshofer, Wolfgang (ORCID:0000000316212561)↗

Search for dark matter production in association with bottom quarks and a lepton pair in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV

A search is performed for dark matter produced in association with bottom quarks and a pair of electrons or muons in data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to 138 fb −1 of integrated luminosity of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. For the first time at the LHC, the associated production of a bottom quark-antiquark pair and a new heavy neutral Higgs boson (H) that subsequently decays into a leptonically decaying Z boson and a pseudoscalar (a) is explored. The latter acts as a dark matter mediator in the context of the two Higgs doublet model plus a pseudoscalar (2HDM+a). Multivariate techniques that target a wide range of mass configurations for the H and a particles are used. The observations are consistent with the expectations from standard model processes. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the product of cross section and branching fraction of the new particles, ranging from 10 −2 pb for an H mass of 400 GeV to 10 −3 pb for an H mass of 2000 GeV. Constraints on the parameter space of a benchmark 2HDM+a model are derived and compared with expectations in the context of cosmological predictions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Electroweak baryogenesis with vector-like leptons and scalar singlets

We investigate the viability of electroweak baryogenesis in a model with a first order electroweak phase transition induced by the addition of two gauge singlet scalars. A vector-like lepton doublet is introduced in order to provide CP violating interactions with the singlets and Standard Model leptons, and the asymmetry generation dynamics are examined using the vacuum expectation value insertion approximation. We find that such a model is readily capable of generating sufficient baryon asymmetry while satisfying electron electric dipole moment and collider phenomenology constraints.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Ghost inflation and de Sitter entropy

In the setup of ghost condensation model the generalized second law of black hole thermodynamics can be respected under a radiatively stable assumption that couplings between the field responsible for ghost condensate and matter fields such as those in the Standard Model are suppressed by the Planck scale. Since not only black holes but also cosmology are expected to play important roles towards our better understanding of gravity, we consider a cosmological setup to test the theory of ghost condensation. In particular we shall show that the de Sitter entropy bound proposed by Arkani-Hamed, et al. is satisfied if ghost inflation happened in the early epoch of our universe and if there remains a tiny positive cosmological constant in the future infinity. We then propose a notion of cosmological Page time after inflation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

A light scalar explanation of (g - 2) μ and the KOTO anomaly

The KOTO experiment has recently performed a search for neutral Kaons decaying into neutral pions and a pair of neutrinos. Three events were observed in the KOTO signal region, with an expected background of about 0.05. Since no clear signal of systematic errors have been found, the excess of events in the decay K-L → π 0 v$\overline{v}$ is quite intriguing. One possibility to explain this anomaly would be the presence of a scalar $\phi$ with mass of the order of the pion mass and inducing decays K-L → π 0 $\phi$ which mimic the observed signal. A scalar with mass of the order of the pion mass and a coupling to muons of the order of the Standard Model Higgs coupling could also explain the muon anomalous magnetic moment anomaly (g - 2) μ . We built on these facts to show that a light singlet scalar with couplings to the leptons and quarks as the ones induced by mixing with Higgs states in two Higgs doublet models may lead to an explanation of both anomalies. More specifically, we show that this is the case in the so-called type-X models in which leptons and quarks couple to two different Higgs doublets, and for scalar masses that are in the range between 40 and 70 MeV. Due to the relatively large coupling to leptons required to fit (g - 2) μ , the scalar lifetime accidentally falls into the sub-nanosecond range which is essential to evade the severe proton beam dump experiments and astrophysical constraints, though it becomes sensitive to constraints from electron beam dump experiments. The additional phenomenological properties of this model are discussed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Review on Composite Higgs Models

Composite Higgs Models explore the possibility that the Higgs boson is an excitation of a new strongly interacting sector giving rise to electro-weak symmetry breaking. After describing how this new sector can be embedded into the Standard Model of elementary particle physics meeting experimental constraints, I will review efforts by the community to explore the physics of the new strong interaction using methods of lattice field theory. Challenges in understanding the numerical results are discussed and an outlook is given on possible future directions allowing to confirm or reject the composite Higgs hypothesis.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

A search for R-parity-violating supersymmetry in final states containing many jets in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for R-parity-violating supersymmetry in final states with high jet multiplicity is presented. The search uses 140 fb –1 of proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. The results are interpreted in the context of R-parity-violating supersymmetry models that feature prompt gluino-pair production decaying directly to three jets each or decaying to two jets and a neutralino which subsequently decays promptly to three jets. No significant excess over the Standard Model expectation is observed and exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level are extracted. Gluinos with masses up to 1800 GeV are excluded when decaying directly to three jets. In the cascade scenario, gluinos with masses up to 2340 GeV are excluded for a neutralino with mass up to 1250 GeV.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Higgs-portal dark matter in Brane-world cosmology

Abstract The Higgs-portal scalar dark matter (DM) model is a simple extension of the Standard Model (SM) to incorporate a DM particle to the SM, where a $$Z_2$$ Z 2 -odd real scalar field is introduced as a DM candidate. We consider this DM model in the context of 5-dimensional brane-world cosmology, where our 3-dimensional space is realized as a hyper-surface embedded in 4-dimensional space. In the setup, all the SM and DM fields reside on the hyper-surface while graviton lives in the bulk. We consider two well-known brane-world cosmologies, namely, the Randall–Sundrum (RS) and the Gauss–Bonnet (GB) brane-world cosmologies, in which the standard Big Bang cosmology is reproduced at low temperatures below the so-called “transition temperature” while at high temperatures the expansion law of the universe is significantly modified. Such a non-standard expansion law directly impacts the prediction for the relic density of the Higgs-portal DM. We investigate the brane-world cosmological effects and identify the allowed model parameter region by combining the constraints from the observed DM relic density, and the direct and indirect DM detection experiments. It is well-known that only DM masses in the vicinity of half the Higgs boson mass are allowed in the Higgs-portal scalar DM model. We find that the allowed parameter region becomes more severely constrained and even disappears in the RS cosmology, while the GB cosmological effect significantly enlarges the allowed region. Upon discovering Higgs-portal DM, we can determine transition temperature in the GB brane-world cosmology.

Liu, Taoli↗

The photophobic ALP

We investigate models and phenomenology of a photophobic axion-like particle (ALP), an axion whose coupling to photons is maximally suppressed without fine-tuning of the underlying parameters. We demonstrate that photophobia can be a natural UV property of ALP models and determine the irreducible coupling of photophobic ALPs to photons induced by violations of the axion shift symmetry. The signatures of photophobic axions are radically different from those of typical ALPs and are of particular interest for collider-based experiments, for which Standard Model triboson measurements provide a significant probe at higher masses. A variety of terrestrial and astrophysical measurements constrain the parameter space of photophobic ALPs, though bounds are typically much weaker compared to typical ALPs. We propose implications for particle production relaxion models based on photophobic ALPs, finding that they are in mild tension with existing experimental constraints.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗