Higgsino-like Dark Matter From Sneutrino Late Decays

We consider Higgsino-like dark matter (DM) in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) with additional right-handed neutrino chiral superfields, and propose a new non-thermal way of generating the right amount of relic DM via sneutrino late decays. Due to the large DM annihilation cross-section, decays must occur at lower temperatures than the freeze-out temperature $T_d\ll T_{F,\tilde{\chi}^0_1}\sim \mu/25$, implying a mostly right-handed lightest sneutrino with very small Yukawa interactions. In that context, the right amount of Higgsino-like DM relic density can be accounted for if sneutrinos are produced via thermal freeze-in in the early Universe.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. Final version PL

Implications of diphoton searches for a Radion in the Bulk-Higgs Scenario

In this work we point out that the apparent diphoton excess initially presented by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations could have originated from a radion in the bulk Higgs scenario within a warped extra dimension. In this scenario the couplings of the radion to massive gauge bosons are suppressed, allowing it to evade existing searches. In the presence of mixing with the Higgs, due to the strong constraints from diboson searches, only points near what we denominate the alignment region were able to explain the diphoton signal and evade other experimental constraints. In light of the new measurements presented at ICHEP 2016 by both LHC collaborations, which do not confirm the initial diphoton excess, we study the current and future collider constraints on a radion within the bulk-Higgs scenario. We find that searches in the diphoton channel provide the most powerful probe of this scenario and already exclude large regions of parameter space, particularly for smaller warp factors. The radion has a sizeable branching ratio into top pairs and this channel may also give competitive constraints in the future. Finally, diHiggs searches can provide a complementary probe in the case of non-zero radion-Higgs mixing but strong alignment.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures. Several changes including consequences from ICHEP2016. Final version accepted by journa

Radion/Dilaton-Higgs Mixing Phenomenology in Light of the LHC

Motivated by the bulk mixing $\xi R_5 H^{\dagger}H$ between a massive radion and a bulk scalar Higgs in warped extra dimensions, we construct an effective four dimensional action that---via the AdS/CFT correspondence---describes the most general mixing between the only light states in the theory, the dilaton and the Higgs. Due to conformal invariance, once the Higgs scalar is localized in the bulk of the extra-dimension the coupling between the dilaton and the Higgs kinetic term vanishes, implying a suppressed coupling between the dilaton and massive gauge bosons. We comment on the implications of the mixing and couplings to Standard Model particles. Identifying the recently discovered 125 GeV resonance with the lightest Higgs-like mixed state $\phi_{-}$, we study the phenomenology and constraints for the heaviest radion-like state $\phi_{+}$. In particular we find that in the small mixing scenario with a radion-like state $\phi_{+}$ in the mass range [150,250] GeV, the diphoton channel can provide the best chance of discovery at the LHC if the collaborations extend their searches into this energy range.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures; v2: version published in JHE

Novel Collider and Dark Matter Phenomenology of a Top-philic Z'

We consider extending the Standard Model by including an additional Abelian gauge group broken at low energies under which the right-handed top quark is the only effectively charged Standard Model fermion. The associated gauge boson $(Z')$ is then naturally top-philic and couples only to the rest of the SM particle content at loop-level or via kinetic mixing with the hypercharge gauge boson which is assumed to be small. Working at the effective theory level, we demonstrate that such a minimal extension allows for an improved fitting of the $\sim 2\sigma$ excess observed in $t\bar{t}h$ searches at the LHC in a region of parameter space that satisfies existing collider constraints. We also present the reach of the LHC at 13 TeV in constraining the relevant region of parameter space. Additionally we show that within the same framework a suitably chosen fermion charged only under the exotic Abelian group can, in the region of parameter space preferred by the $\bar{t}th$ measurements, simultaneously explain the dark matter relic density and the $\gamma$-ray excess at the galactic center observed by the Fermi-LAT experiment.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figures; v2: version published in JHE

The price of being SM-like in SUSY

We compute the tuning in supersymmetric models associated with the constraints from collider measurements of the Higgs couplings to fermions and gauge bosons. In supersymmetric models, a CP-even state with SM Higgs couplings mixes with additional, heavier CP-even states, causing deviations in the Higgs couplings from SM values. These deviations are reduced as the heavy states are decoupled with large soft masses, thereby exacerbating the tuning associated with the electroweak scale. This new source of tuning is different from that derived from collider limits on stops, gluinos and Higgsinos. It can be offset with large tan beta in the MSSM, however this compensating effect is limited in the NMSSM with a large Higgs-singlet coupling due to restrictions on large tan beta from electroweak precision tests. We derive a lower bound on this tuning and show that the level of precision of Higgs coupling measurements at the LHC will probe naturalness in the NMSSM at the few-percent level. This is comparable to the tuning derived from superpartner limits in models with a low messenger scale and split families. Instead the significant improvement in sensitivity of Higgs coupling measurements at the ILC will allow naturalness in these models to be constrained at the per-mille level, beyond any tuning derived from direct superpartner limits.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figure

Leptophilic Dark Matter with Z′Z' interactions

We consider a scenario where dark matter (DM) interacts exclusively with Standard Model (SM) leptons at tree level. Due to the absence of tree-level couplings to quarks, the constraints on leptophilic dark matter arising from direct detection and hadron collider experiments are weaker than those for a generic WIMP. We study a simple model in which interactions of DM with SM leptons are mediated by a leptophilic $Z'$ boson, and determine constraints on this scenario arising from relic density, direct detection, and other experiments. We then determine current LHC limits and project the future discovery reach. We show that, despite the absence of direct interactions with quarks, this scenario can be strongly constrained.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figure