A
bstract
We re-evaluate the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux, using the measured charm cross sections at RHIC and the Large Hadron Collider to constrain perturbative QCD parameters such as the ...factorization and renormalization scales, as well as modern parton distribution functions and recent estimates of the cosmic-ray spectra. We find that our result for the prompt neutrino flux is lower than previous perturbative QCD estimates and, consequently, alters the signal-to-background statistics of the recent IceCube measurements at high energies.
A
bstract
A first-order Electroweak Phase Transition (EWPT) could explain the observed baryon-antibaryon asymmetry and its dynamics could yield a detectable gravitational wave signature, while the ...underlying physics would be within the reach of colliders. The Standard Model, however, predicts a crossover transition. We therefore study the EWPT in the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) including dimension-six operators. A first-order EWPT has previously been shown to be possible in the SMEFT. Phenomenology studies have focused on scenarios with a tree-level barrier between minima, which requires a negative Higgs quartic coupling and a new physics scale low enough to raise questions about the validity of the EFT approach. In this work we stress that a first-order EWPT is also possible when the barrier between minima is generated radiatively, the quartic coupling is positive, the scale of new physics is higher, and there is good agreement with experimental bounds. Our calculation is done in a consistent, gauge-invariant way, and we carefully analyze the scaling of parameters necessary to generate a barrier in the potential. We perform a global fit in the relevant parameter space and explicitly find the points with a first-order transition that agree with experimental data. We also briefly discuss the prospects for probing the allowed parameter space using di-Higgs production in colliders.
A
bstract
We evaluate the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux at high energies using three different frameworks for calculating the heavy quark production cross section in QCD: NLO perturbative QCD,
k
T
...factorization including low-
x
resummation, and the dipole model including parton saturation. We use QCD parameters, the value for the charm quark mass and the range for the factorization and renormalization scales that provide the best description of the total charm cross section measured at fixed target experiments, at RHIC and at LHC. Using these parameters we calculate differential cross sections for charm and bottom production and compare with the latest data on forward charm meson production from LHCb at 7 TeV and at 13 TeV, finding good agreement with the data. In addition, we investigate the role of nuclear shadowing by including nuclear parton distribution functions (PDF) for the target air nucleus using two different nuclear PDF schemes. Depending on the scheme used, we find the reduction of the flux due to nuclear effects varies from 10% to 50% at the highest energies. Finally, we compare our results with the IceCube limit on the prompt neutrino flux, which is already providing valuable information about some of the QCD models.
We analyse the phenomenological implications of a light Higgs boson, h, within the CP-conserving 2-Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM) Type-I, for the detection prospects of the charged H± state at Run II of ...the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), assuming s=13 TeV as energy and O(100 fb−1) as luminosity. When sufficiently light, this h state can open up the bosonic decay channel H±→W±(⁎)h, which may have a branching ratio significantly exceeding those of the H±→τν and H±→cs channels. We perform a broad scan of the 2HDM Type-I parameter space, assuming the heavier of the two CP-even Higgs bosons, H, to be the observed SM-like state with a mass near 125 GeV. Through these scans we highlight regions in which mH±<mt+mb that are still consistent with the most recent limits from experimental searches. We find in these regions that, when the H±→W±(⁎)h decay mode is the dominant one, the h can be highly fermiophobic, with a considerably large decay rate in the γγ channel. This can result in the total cross section of the σ(pp→H±h→W±(⁎)+4γ) process reaching up to O(100 fb). We therefore investigate the possibility of observing this spectacular signal at the LHC Run II.
In models with extended Higgs sectors, it is possible that the Higgs boson discovered at the LHC is not the lightest one. We show that in a realistic model (the Type I 2-Higgs Doublet Model), when ...the sum of the masses of a light scalar and a pseudoscalar (h and A) is smaller than the Z boson mass, the Electroweak (EW) production of an hA pair can dominate over QCD production by orders of magnitude, a fact not previously highlighted. This is because in the gg-initiated process, hA production via a resonant Z in the s-channel is prohibited according to the Landau–Yang theorem, which is not the case for the qq¯-initiated process. We explore the parameter space of the model to highlight regions giving such hA solutions while being consistent with all constraints from collider searches, b-physics and EW precision data. We also single out a few benchmark points to discuss their salient features, including the hA search channels that can be exploited at Run II of the LHC.
The two-Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM) is the most minimal extension of the Standard Model (SM) containing extra Higgs doublet fields. Given the multiplicity of Higgs states in a 2HDM, its Higgs ...potential is significantly more involved than the SM one. Importantly, it contains a multitude of Higgs triple self-couplings, unlike the SM, which only has one. These interactions are key to understanding the phenomenology of the 2HDM, as they uniquely determine the form of the potential. Several studies analysing the prospects of measuring these couplings at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have found them to be quite low generally. However, such studies have largely concentrated on Higgs pair-production induced by gluon-gluon scattering, either via direct annihilation or followed by their splitting into
b
-(anti)quark pairs, which in turn annihilate leaving behind spectator
b
-(anti)quarks. Both of these channels are therefore governed by QCD dynamics. We compare here the yields of such channels to those initiated by (primarily) valence quarks, which involve Electro-Weak (EW) interactions only, for neutral multi-Higgs final states. We find that EW production can be dominant over QCD production for certain final state combinations. We also illustrate that charged final states, which can only be produced via EW modes, could serve as important probes of some
H
±
triple couplings, that are inaccessible in QCD-induced processes, during Run 2 and 3 of the LHC. Our analysis covers regions of the parameter space of the Type-I 2HDM that have escaped the most up-to-date experimental constraints coming from EW precision data, LHC measurements of the 125 GeV Higgs boson properties, searches for additional Higgs states, and flavour physics.
We investigate the phenomenology of a heavy scalar ϕ of the type involved in Bekenstein's framework for varying electromagnetic coupling theories, with the difference that the scalar in our model has ...a large mass. The model has only two free parameters, the mass Mϕ of the scalar and the scale Λ of new physics. The scalar is dominantly produced through photon–photon fusion at the LHC and leads to a diphoton final state. It can also be produced by quark–antiquark fusion in association with a photon or a fermion pair. Its dominating decay is to diphotons, but it also has a large three-body branching to a fermion pair and a photon, which can provide an interesting search channel with a dilepton–photon resonance. We derive exclusion limits on the Mϕ−Λ plane from the latest 13 TeV LHC diphoton resonance search data. For a benchmark mass of Mϕ∼1 TeV, we find a lower limit on Λ of 18 TeV. We discuss the more complex possibility of varying couplings in the full electroweak theory and comment on the possibility that the new physics is related to extra dimensions or string theory.
A
bstract
We study the collider phenomenology of a neutral gauge boson
Z
′
arising in minimal but anomalous U(1) extensions of the Standard Model (SM). To retain gauge invariance of physical ...observables, we consider cancellation of gauge anomalies through the Green-Schwarz mechanism. We categorize a wide class of U(1) extensions in terms of the new U(1) charges of the left-handed quarks and leptons and the Higgs doublet. We derive constraints on some benchmark models using electroweak precision constraints and the latest 13 TeV LHC dilepton and dijet resonance search data. We calculate the decay rates of the exotic and rare one-loop
Z
′
decays to
ZZ
and
Z
-photon modes, which are the unique signatures of our framework. If observed, these decays could hint at anomaly cancellation through the Green-Schwarz mechanism. We also discuss the possible observation of such signatures at the LHC and at future ILC colliders.
In light of the recent discovery of a neutral Higgs boson, Hobs, with a mass near 125 GeV, we reassess the LHC discovery potential of a charged Higgs boson, H±, in the W±Hobs decay channel. This ...decay channel can be particularly important for a H± heavier than the top quark, when it is produced through the pp→tH± process. The knowledge of the mass of Hobs provides an additional handle in the kinematic selection when reconstructing a Breit–Wigner resonance in the Hobs→bb¯ decay channel. We consider some extensions of the Standard Model Higgs sector, with and without supersymmetry, and perform a dedicated signal-to-background analysis to test the scope of this channel for the LHC running at the design energy (14 TeV), for 300 fb−1 (standard) and 3000 fb−1 (high) integrated luminosities. We find that, while this channel does not show much promise for a supersymmetric H± state, significant portions of the parameter spaces of several two-Higgs doublet models are testable.
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