Do electroweak precision data and Higgs-mass constraints rule out a scalar bottom quark with mass of O(5 GeV)?

We investigate the phenomenological implications of a light scalar bottom quark, with a mass of about the bottom quark mass, within the minimal supersymmetric standard model. The study of such a scenario is of theoretical interest, since, depending on their production and decay modes, light sbottoms may have escaped experimental detection up to now and, in addition, may naturally appear for large values of \tan\beta. In this article we show that such a light sbottom cannot be ruled out by the constraints from the electroweak precision data and the present bound on the lightest CP-even Higgs boson mass at LEP. It is inferred that a light sbottom scenario requires in general a relatively light scalar top quark whose mass is typically about the top-quark mass. It is also shown that under these conditions the lightest CP-even Higgs boson decays predominantly into scalar bottom quarks in most of the parameter space and that its mass is restricted to m_h ~< 123 GeV.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, LateX. Discussion about fine tuning and low-energy experiments enlarged. Version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Properties of 125 GeV Higgs boson in non-decoupling MSSM scenarios

Tantalizing hints of the Higgs boson of mass around 125 GeV have been reported at the LHC. We explore the MSSM parameter space in which the 125 GeV state is identified as the heavier of the CP even Higgs bosons, and study two scenarios where the two photon production rate can be significantly larger than the standard model (SM). In one scenario, $\Gamma(H\to \gamma\gamma)$ is enhanced by a light stau contribution, while the $WW^{\ast}$ ($ZZ^{\ast}$) rate stays around the SM rate. In the other scenario, $\Gamma(H\to b\bar{b})$ is suppressed and not only the $\gamma\gamma$ but also the $WW^{\ast}$ ($ZZ^{\ast}$) rates should be enhanced. The $\tau\bar{\tau}$ rate can be significantly larger or smaller than the SM rate in both scenarios. Other common features of the scenarios include top quark decays into charged Higgs boson, single and pair production of all Higgs bosons in $e^+e^-$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}\lesssim 300$ GeV.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, accepted version for publication in JHE

Uplifted supersymmetric Higgs region

We show that the parameter space of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model includes a region where the down-type fermion masses are generated by the loop-induced couplings to the up-type Higgs doublet. In this region the down-type Higgs doublet does not acquire a vacuum expectation value at tree level, and has sizable couplings in the superpotential to the tau leptons and bottom quarks. Besides a light standard-like Higgs boson, the Higgs spectrum includes the nearly degenerate states of a heavy spin-0 doublet which can be produced through their couplings to the $b$ quark and decay predominantly into \tau^+\tau^- or \tau\nu.Comment: 14 pages; Signs in Eqns. (3.1) and (4.2) corrected, appendix include

Electroweak Precision Observables in the MSSM with Non-Minimal Flavor Violation

The leading corrections to electroweak precision observables in the MSSM with non-minimal flavor violation (NMFV) are calculated and the effects on M_W and sin^2 theta_eff are analyzed. The corrections are obtained by evaluating the full one-loop contributions from the third and second generation scalar quarks, including the mixing in the scalar top and charm, as well as in the scalar bottom and strange sector. Furthermore the leading corrections to the mass of the lightest MSSM Higgs boson, m_h, is obtained. The electroweak one-loop contribution to M_W can amount up to 140 MeV and up to 70x10^{-5} for sin^2 theta_eff, allowing to set limits on the NMFV parameters. The corrections for m_h are not significant for moderate generation mixing.Comment: LaTeX, 21 pages, 8 figures. Complete one-loop effects from scalar quark generation mixing (beyond Delta rho) included for M_W and sin^2 theta_ef

Resonant sneutrino production at Tevatron Run II

We consider the single chargino production at Tevatron $p \bar p \to \tilde \nu_i \to \tilde \chi^{\pm}_1 l_i^{\mp}$ as induced by the resonant sneutrino production via a dominant \RPV coupling of type \l'_{ijk} L_i Q_j D_k^c. Within a supergravity model, we study the three leptons final state. The comparison with the expected background demonstrate that this signature allows to extend the sensitivity on the \susyq mass spectrum beyond the present LEP limits and to probe the relevant \RPV coupling down to values one order of magnitude smaller than the most stringent low energy indirect bounds. The trilepton signal offers also the opportunity to reconstruct the neutralino mass in a model independent way with good accuracy.Comment: 4 page

Bulk fields with general brane kinetic terms

We analyse the effect of general brane kinetic terms for bulk scalars, fermions and gauge bosons in theories with extra dimensions, with and without supersymmetry. We find in particular a singular behaviour when these terms contain derivatives orthogonal to the brane. This is brought about by $\delta(0)$ divergences arising at second and higher order in perturbation theory. We argue that this behaviour can be smoothed down by classical renormalization.Comment: 31 pages, v2 few typos correcte

Quark contact interactions at the LHC

Quark contact interactions are an important signal of new physics. We introduce a model in which the presence of a symmetry protects these new interactions from giving large corrections in flavor changing processes at low energies. This minimal model provides the basic set of operators which must be considered to contribute to the high-energy processes. To discuss their experimental signature in jet pairs produced in proton-proton colllisions, we simplify the number of possible operators down to two. We show (for a representative integrated luminosity of 200 pb^-1 at \surd s = 7 TeV) how the presence of two operators significantly modifies the bound on the characteristic energy scale of the contact interactions which is obtained by keeping a single operator.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Discrete regularisation of localised kinetic terms

We investigate the behaviour of 5d models with general brane kinetic terms by discretising the extra dimension. We show that in the continuum limit the Kaluza-Klein masses and wave functions are in general nonanalytic in the coefficients of brane terms.Comment: Presented at the 7th DESY Workshop on Elementary Particle Theory ``Loops and Legs in Quantum Field Theory'', Zinnowitz, April 25-30, 200

Evaluation of Non-Linear Interference in Uncompensated Links using Raman Amplification

We extend a model for nonlinear propagation over lumped-amplified uncompensated links to setups using Raman amplification. We compare theoretical to simulative results for PM-16QAM Nyquist-WDM on PSCF links, showing an excellent agreement. We also show that Raman NLI enhancement gives limited practical impairments in realistic setup

Flavour physics constraints in the BMSSM

We study the implications of the presence of the two leading-order, non-renormalizable operators in the Higgs sector of the MSSM to flavour physics observables. We identify the constraints of flavour physics on the parameters of the BMSSM when we: a) focus on a region of parameters for which electroweak baryogenesis is feasible, b) use a CMSSM-like parametrization, and c) consider the case of a generic NUHM-type model. We find significant differences as compared to the standard MSSM case.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure