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Simulation-based anomaly detection for multileptons at the LHC

Decays of Higgs boson-like particles into multileptons is a well-motivated process for investigating physics beyond the Standard Model (SM). A unique feature of this final state is the precision with which the SM is known. As a result, simulations are used directly to estimate the background. Current searches consider specific models and typically focus on those with a single free parameter to simplify the analysis and interpretation. In this paper, we explore recent proposals for signal model agnostic searches using machine learning in the multilepton final state. These tools can be used to simultaneously search for many models, some of which have no dedicated search at the Large Hadron Collider. We find that the machine learning methods offer broad coverage across parameter space beyond where current searches are sensitive, with a necessary loss of performance compared to dedicated searches by only about one order of magnitude.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Di-Higgs Signatures in Neutral Naturalness

The Higgs boson was the last fundamental piece of the Standard Model to be experimentally confirmed. LHC is embarked in a quest to probe the possibility that this particle provides a portal to new physics. One front of this quest consists in measuring the interactions of the Higgs with itself and with other SM particles to a high precision. In a more exotic front, the LHC is searching for the possibility that a pair of Higgses (HH) is the evidence of a new resonance. Such resonances are predicted in models with extended Higgs sectors, extra dimensions, and in models with exotic bound states. In this paper we show how scalar quirks in Folded Supersymmetry can give rise to HH resonances. We point out a viable sector of the parameter space in which HH is the dominant decay channel for these {\it squirkonium} bound states. We found that future runs of the LHC could discover HH resonances in the range of 0.5 - 1.6 TeV under reasonable assumptions. Furthermore, for a given mass and width of the HH signal, the model predicts the branching ratio of the subsequent decay modes of the heavy resonance. Finding the extra decay modes in the predicted pattern can serve as a smoking gun to confirm the model.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

The new physics case for beam-dump experiments with accelerated muon beams

As the field examines a future muon collider as a possible successor to the LHC, we must consider how to fully utilize not only the high-energy particle collisions, but also any lower-energy staging facilities necessary in the R&D process. An economical and efficient possibility is to use the accelerated muon beam from either the full experiment or from cooling and acceleration tests in beam-dump experiments. Beam-dump experiments are complementary to the main collider as they achieve sensitivity to very small couplings with minimal instrumentation. We demonstrate the utility of muon beam-dump experiments for new physics searches at energies from 10 GeV to 5 TeV. We find that, even at low energies like those accessible at staging or demonstrator facilities, it is possible to probe new regions of parameter space for a variety of generic BSM models, including muonphilic, leptophilic, L μ − L τ , and dark photon scenarios. Such experiments could therefore provide opportunities for discovery of new physics well before the completion of the full multi-TeV collider.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Resonant anomaly detection with multiple reference datasets

An important class of techniques for resonant anomaly detection in high energy physics builds models that can distinguish between reference and target datasets, where only the latter has appreciable signal. Such techniques, including Classification Without Labels (CWoLa) and Simulation Assisted Likelihood-free Anomaly Detection (SALAD) rely on a single reference dataset. They cannot take advantage of commonly available multiple datasets and thus cannot fully exploit available information. In this work, we propose generalizations of CWoLa and SALAD for settings where multiple reference datasets are available, building on weak supervision techniques. We demonstrate improved performance in a number of settings with realistic and synthetic data. As an added benefit, our generalizations enable us to provide finite-sample guarantees, improving on existing asymptotic analyses.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Implications of Large- N c QCD for the NN Interaction

We present a method for ordering two-nucleon interactions based upon their scaling with the number of QCD colors, N c , in the limit that N c becomes large. Available data in the two-nucleon sector show general agreement with this ordering, indicating that the method may be useful in other contexts where data are less readily available. However, several caveats and potential pitfalls can make the large-N c ordering fragile and/or vulnerable to misinterpretation. We discuss the application of the large-N c analysis to two- and three-nucleon interactions, including those originating from weak and BSM (beyond the Standard Model) interactions, as well as two-nucleon external currents. Finally, we discuss some open questions in the field.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

BSM Studies Using Long-baseline Neutrino Experiment

The standard model of particle physics cannot account for the various physical phenomena present in nature. For instance, the visible matter constitutes only about 5$\%$ of the whole universe, and the remaining content is believed to be dark matter and dark energy. Unfortunately, the standard model does not provide us with a good candidate for dark matter. The leading dark matter candidate is weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) having a mass of less than 1 GeV. We will require a broad, fixed target neutrino experiment to probe the vast parameter space for the light-dark matter particle. NOvA is a high luminosity long-baseline fixed-target accelerator neutrino experiment at Fermilab. It can provide a potentially exciting probe in searching for signatures of DM scattering with electrons in its near detectors. We aim to search for the MeV-scale dark matter particles that might be generated within the NuMI beam and produce detectable electron scattering signals in the NOvA Near Detector. Not only in the dark matter sector, the standard model cannot explain the neutrino mass and mixings. The neutrino propagation in matter can be affected by non-standard interactions (NSI), which is beyond the standard model phenomena. The constraints coming from the NSI sectors can affect the standard oscillation parameters like atmospheric mixing angle $\theta_{23}$ and CP-phase $\delta_{CP}$.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

A Right-handed neutrino portal to the hidden sector: active neutrinos and their twins in an F-theory model

We analyze the neutrino phenomenology in an SU(5) F-theory model with both a visible sector and a twin hidden sector. At low energies, the strong and weak scales of the two sectors may differ but the spectrum of states is described by the MSSM (MSSM') in the visible (twin) sectors. What is special about the model is that there are right-handed neutrinos which couple to both sectors via Yukawa couplings. As a result, assuming 3 right-handed neutrinos with a large mass much greater than the weak scale, at tree-level the seesaw mechanism results in 3 massive Majorana neutrinos and 3 massless ones. The massless neutrinos acquire mass via radiative corrections. In our analysis, the massless neutrinos are predominantly active neutrinos, while the massive neutrinos are predominantly sterile neutrinos. We fit the active neutrino masses and mixing angles and discuss the phenomenology of the lightest sterile neutrino. Finally we consider some possible scenarios for cosmology.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Recent progress in low energy neutrino scattering physics and its implications for the standard and beyond the standard model physics

Neutrinos continue to provide a testing ground for the structure of the standard model of particle physics as well as hints towards the physics beyond the standard model. Neutrinos of energies spanning over several orders of magnitude, originating in many terrestrial and astrophysical processes, have been detected via various decay and interaction mechanisms. At MeV scales, there has been one elusive process, until a few years ago, known as coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS) that was theoretically predicted over five decades ago but was never observed experimentally. The recent experimental observation of the CEvNS process by the COHERENT collaboration at a stopped pion neutrino source has inspired physicists across many subfields. This has vital implications for nuclear physics, high-energy physics, astrophysics, and beyond. CEvNS, being a low-energy process, provides a natural window to study light, weakly-coupled, new physics in the neutrino sector. In this review, we intend to provide the current status of low energy neutrino scattering physics and its implications for the standard and beyond the standard model physics. We discuss the general formalism of calculating the tree-level CEvNS cross section and present estimated theoretical uncertainties on the CEvNS cross section stemming from different sources. We also discuss the inelastic scattering of tens of MeV neutrinos that have implications for supernova detection in future neutrino experiments. We discuss how the CEvNS experiments can be used as a testing ground for the Standard Model (SM) weak physics as well as in searching for the Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics signals. Any deviation from the SM predicted event rate either with a change in the total event rate or with a change in the shape of the recoil spectrum, could indicate new contributions to the interaction cross-section. The SM implications include the study of weak nuclear form factor and weak mixing angle. The BSM studies include non-standard interactions, neutrino electromagnetic properties, and sterile neutrino searches. In conclusion, stopped pion facilities are also a copious source of neutral and changed mesons that allow study of several dark sector physics scenarios such as vector portal models, leptophobic dark matter as well as axion-like particle searches.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Multi-component Dark Matter and small scale structure formation

We consider the evolution of non-thermal dark matter perturbations in models which contain both Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) and axions. Using constraints from existing observations we examine the percentage of WIMPs and axions that may comprise the cosmological dark matter budget in models with an Early Matter Dominated Epoch (EMDE) — where entropy production is important. After carefully tracking the thermal evolution of the various species by solving the Boltzmann equations, we consider the enhancement of perturbations that may have led to early structure formation for axions and WIMPs. We investigate the impact of enhanced perturbations on the parameter space of both species, after imposing existing constraints from indirect detection experiments. Given these constraints we establish the feasibility of axions to form miniclusters in the early universe in EMDEs for a given percentage of allowed WIMPs. We find that EMDEs with low reheat temperatures near the BBN limit are preferred for axion minicluster formation. When the EMDE is caused by string moduli, the WIMP contribution to the relic density is set by the moduli branching to dark matter at the level of ≲ $\mathcal{O}$ (10 −4 ).

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗