Search for anomalous gauge couplings in semi-leptonic decays of WWγWW\gamma and WZγWZ\gamma in pp collisions at s=\sqrt{s} = 8 TeV

A study of the Standard Model (SM) three electroweak boson production, $WV\gamma$ where V = W or Z gauge boson, is presented concerning events with a leptonically decaying W boson accompanied by a photon and two or more jets. We are using the full 2012 dataset, of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 19.3 fb${}^{-1}$, collected by the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). $WV\gamma$ production final states may be sensitive to anomalous $WW\gamma\gamma$ and $WWZ\gamma$ quartic couplings. In light of the recent discovery of a Higgs-like particle, we investigate, in a model independent way, any deviation of gauge boson couplings with respect to the SM prediction by setting limits on the anomalous quartic gauge couplings (aQGC) for $WW\gamma\gamma$ and $WWZ\gamma$. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are obtained, with and without a form factor.Comment: "Presentation at the DPF 2013 Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Particles and Fields, Santa Cruz, California, August 13-17, 2013.

Prospects for γγ→H\gamma \gamma \to H and γγ→W+W−\gamma \gamma \to W^{+}W^{-} measurements at the FCC-ee

We study the possibilities for the measurement of two-photon production of the Higgs boson (in the $b \bar{b}$ decay channel), and of $W^{+}W^{-}$ pairs (decaying into four jets) in $e^{+}e^{-}$ collisions at the the Future Circular Collider (FCC-ee). The processes are simulated with the PYTHIA and MADGRAPH 5 Monte Carlo codes, using the effective photon approximation for the $e^{+}e^{-}$ photon fluxes, at center-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s} =$ 160 GeV and 240 GeV. The analyses include electron-positron tagging, realistic acceptance and reconstruction efficiencies for the final-state jets, and selection criteria to remove the backgrounds. Observation of both channels is achievable with the expected few ab$^{-1}$ integrated luminosities at FCC-ee.Comment: Proceedings of the conference PHOTON 2015: International Conference on the Structure and the Interactions of the Photon including the 21th International Workshop on Photon-Photon Collisions and the International Workshop on High Energy Photon Colliders, held at Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP), Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Science, Novosibirsk, Russia, from 15 to 19 June, 201

Sharpening the shape analysis for higher-dimensional operator searches

When the Standard Model is interpreted as the renormalizable sector of a low-energy effective theory, the effects of new physics are encoded into a set of higher dimensional operators. These operators potentially deform the shapes of Standard Model differential distributions of final states observable at colliders. We describe a simple and systematic method to obtain optimal estimations of these deformations when using numerical tools, like Monte Carlo simulations. A crucial aspect of this method is minimization of the estimation uncertainty: we demonstrate how the operator coefficients have to be set in the simulations in order to get optimal results. The uncertainty on the interference term turns out to be the most difficult to control and grows very quickly when the interference is suppressed. We exemplify our method by computing the deformations induced by the ${\cal O}_{3W}$ operator in $W^+W^-$ production at the LHC, and by deriving a bound on ${\cal O}_{3W}$ using $8$ TeV CMS data.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures. v2: Minor corrections, references added, matches journal versio

Prospects for γγ→\gamma\gamma\to Higgs observation in ultraperipheral ion collisions at the Future Circular Collider

We study the two-photon production of the Higgs boson, $\rm \gamma\gamma\to H$, at the Future Circular Collider (FCC) in ultraperipheral PbPb and pPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 39$ and 63 TeV. Signal and background events are generated with MADGRAPH 5, including $\gamma$ fluxes from the proton and lead ions in the equivalent photon approximation, yielding $\rm \sigma(\gamma\gamma\to H)$ = 1.75 nb and 1.5 pb in PbPb and pPb collisions respectively. We analyse the H$\,\to b\bar{b}$ decay channel including realistic reconstruction efficiencies for the final-state $b$-jets, showered and hadronized with PYTHIA 8, as well as appropriate selection criteria to reduce the dominant exclusive $\gamma\gamma\to b\bar{b}$ continuum background. Observation of $\rm PbPb\xrightarrow{\gamma\gamma}(Pb)\,H\,(Pb)$ is achievable in the first year with the expected PbPb integrated luminosities.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. PHOTON'17, CERN Proceedings, to appear. References adde

Measurements of \gamma \gamma \to \mbox{Higgs} and γγ→W+W−\gamma \gamma \to W^{+}W^{-} in e+e−e^{+}e^{-} collisions at the Future Circular Collider

The measurements of the two-photon production of the Higgs boson and of $W^{\pm}$ boson pairs in $e^{+}e^{-}$ collisions at the Future Circular Collider (FCC-ee) are investigated. The processes $e^{+}e^{-}\xrightarrow{\gamma \gamma}e^+\,{\rm H}\,e^-,e^+\,{\rm W^+W^-}\,e^-$ are computed using the effective photon approximation for electron-positron beams, and studied in their ${\rm H}\to b\bar{b}$ and ${\rm W^+W^-}\to 4j$ decay final-states including parton showering and hadronization, jet reconstruction, $e^\pm$ forward tagging, and realistic experimental cuts. After selection criteria, up to 75 Higgs bosons and 6600 $\rm W^{\pm}$ pairs will be reconstructed on top of controllable continuum backgrounds at $\sqrt{s} =$240 and 350 GeV for the total expected integrated luminosities, by tagging the scattered $e^\pm$ with near-beam detectors. A 5$\sigma$ observation of $\gamma \gamma \to$H is thereby warranted, as well as high-statistics studies of triple $\rm \gamma WW$ and quartic $\rm \gamma\gamma WW$ electroweak couplings, improving by at least factors of 2 and 10 the current limits on dimension-6 anomalous quartic gauge couplings.Comment: Presented at EDS Blois 2017 Conference , Prague, Czech Republic, June 26--30, 201

Higgs boson production in photon-photon interactions with proton, light-ion, and heavy-ion beams at current and future colliders

The production of the Higgs boson in photon-photon interactions with proton and nucleus beams at three planned or proposed future CERN colliders --- the high-luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), the high-energy LHC (HE-LHC), and the Future Circular Collider (FCC) --- is studied. The cross sections for the process AA$\xrightarrow{\gamma\gamma}$(A)H(A), with the ions A surviving the interaction and the Higgs scalar exclusively produced, are computed with MadGraph 5 modified to include the corresponding elastic $\gamma$ fluxes, for Pb-Pb, Xe-Xe, Kr-Kr, Ar-Ar, O-O, p-Pb, and p-p over the nucleon-nucleon collision energy range $\sqrt{s}\approx 3$--100 TeV. Simulations of the $\gamma\gamma\to H \to b\bar{b}$ decay mode --- including realistic (mis)tagging and reconstruction efficiencies for the final-state b-jets, as well as appropriate kinematical selection criteria to reduce the similarly computed $\gamma\gamma\to b\bar{b},c\bar{c},q\bar{q}$ continuum backgrounds --- have been carried out. Taking into account the expected luminosities for all systems, the yields and significances for observing the Higgs boson in ultraperipheral collisions (UPCs) are estimated. At the HL-LHC and HE-LHC, the colliding systems with larger Higgs significance are Ar-Ar(6.3 TeV) and Kr-Kr(12.5 TeV) respectively, but $3\sigma$ evidence for two-photon Higgs production would require 200 and 30 times larger integrated luminosities than those planned today at both machines. Factors of ten can be gained by running for a year, rather than the typical 1-month heavy-ion LHC operation, but the process will likely remain unobserved until a higher energy hadron collider, such as the FCC, is built. In the latter machine, the $5\sigma$ observation of Higgs production in UPCs is feasible in just the first nominal run of Pb-Pb and p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 39$ and 63 TeV respectively.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Minor mods. to match final PRD versio

Searches for axion-like particles via γγ\gamma \gamma fusion at future e+e−\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^- colliders

Opportunities for searches for axion-like particles (ALPs) coupling to photons in $\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^-$ collisions at the Future Circular Collider (FCC-ee) and International Linear Collider (ILC) are investigated. We perform a study of the photon-fusion production of ALPs decaying into two photons, $\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^- \overset{\gamma \gamma}{\longrightarrow} \mathrm{e}^{+}\;a(\gamma \gamma)\;\mathrm{e}^{-}$, over the light-by-light continuum background, for the planned FCC-ee and ILC center-of-mass energies and integrated luminosities. An analysis of the feasibility measurements is presented using parametrized simulations for two types of detectors. Upper limits at 95% confidence level (CL) on the cross section for ALP production, $\sigma(\gamma \gamma \to a \to \gamma \gamma)$, and on the ALP-photon coupling are obtained over the $m_a \approx 0.1$--1000 GeV ALP mass range, and compared to current and future collider searches. Production cross sections down to $\sigma(\gamma \gamma \to a \to \gamma \gamma) \approx 1$ fb (1 ab) will be probed at $m_a\approx 1$ (300) GeV, corresponding to constraints on the axion-photon coupling as low as $g_\mathrm{a\gamma \gamma} \approx 2\cdot10^{-3}$ TeV$^{-1}$