Gluon Correlators in the Kogan-Kovner Model

The Lorentz-invariant gluon correlation functions, corresponding to scalar and pseudo-scalar glueballs, are calculated for Kogan's and Kovner's variational ansatz for the pure SU(N) Yang-Mills wavefunctional. One expects that only one dynamical mass scale should be present in QCD; the ansatz generates the expected scale for both glueballs, as well as an additional scale for the scalar glueball. The additional mass scale must therefore vanish, or be close to the expected one. This is shown to constrain the nature of the phase transition in the Kogan-Kovner ansatz.Comment: 9 pages, no figure

Composite leptoquarks and anomalies in B-meson decays

We attempt to explain recent anomalies in semileptonic $B$ decays at LHCb via a composite Higgs model, in which both the Higgs and an $SU(2)_L$-triplet leptoquark arise as pseudo-Goldstone bosons of the strong dynamics. Fermion masses are assumed to be generated via the mechanism of partial compositeness, which largely determines the leptoquark couplings and implies non-universal lepton interactions. The latter are needed to accommodate tensions in the $b \to s \mu \mu$ dataset and to be consistent with a discrepancy measured at LHCb in the ratio of $B^+ \to K^+ \mu^+ \mu^-$ to $B^+ \to K^+ e^+ e^-$ branching ratios. The data imply that the leptoquark should have a mass of around a TeV. We find that the model is not in conflict with current flavour or direct production bounds, but we identify a few observables for which the new physics contributions are close to current limits and where the leptoquark is likely to show up in future measurements. The leptoquark will be pair-produced at the LHC and decay predominantly to third-generation quarks and leptons, and LHC13 searches will provide further strong bounds.This work has been partially supported by STFC grant ST/L000385/1 and King's College, Cambridge.This is the final published version. It first appeared at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2015)00

Polynomials, Riemann surfaces, and reconstructing missing-energy events

We consider the problem of reconstructing energies, momenta, and masses in collider events with missing energy, along with the complications introduced by combinatorial ambiguities and measurement errors. Typically, one reconstructs more than one value and we show how the wrong values may be correlated with the right ones. The problem has a natural formulation in terms of the theory of Riemann surfaces. We discuss examples including top quark decays in the Standard Model (relevant for top quark mass measurements and tests of spin correlation), cascade decays in models of new physics containing dark matter candidates, decays of third-generation leptoquarks in composite models of electroweak symmetry breaking, and Higgs boson decay into two tau leptons.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures; version accepted for publication, with discussion of Higgs to tau tau deca

Improved variational analysis of deconfinement in SU(N) gauge theory

A variational analysis of the pure SU(N) gauge theory in 3+1 dimensions at finite temperature is performed, extending the work of Kogan, Kovner and Milhano in hep-ph/0208053 . A de-confining phase transition is found at a temperature of 470 MeV, somewhat higher than lattice estimates. This value is however rather sensitive, for reasons which are discussed. A more robust quantity is the ratio of the transition temperature to the lightest glueball mass in the model. This is 0.18, in agreement with the lattice estimate for SU(3) to two significant figures. Ways of further improving the calculation are discussed

Nambu-Goldstone Modes in Gravitational Theories with Spontaneous Lorentz Breaking

Spontaneous breaking of Lorentz symmetry has been suggested as a possible mechanism that might occur in the context of a fundamental Planck-scale theory, such as string theory or a quantum theory of gravity. However, if Lorentz symmetry is spontaneously broken, two sets of questions immediately arise: what is the fate of the Nambu-Goldstone modes, and can a Higgs mechanism occur? A brief summary of some recent work looking at these questions is presented here.Comment: 6 pages. Presented at the meeting "From Quantum to Cosmos," Washington, D.C., May 2006; published in Int. J. Mod. Phys. D16:2357-2363, 200

The Three Dimensional Dual of 4D Chirality

Chiral gauge theories can be defined in four-dimensional Anti de Sitter space, but AdS boundary conditions explicitly break the chiral symmetry in a specific, well defined manner, which in turns results in an anomalous Ward identity. When the 4D theory admits a dual description in terms of a 3D CFT, the 3D dual of the broken chiral symmetry is a certain double-trace deformation of the CFT, which produces the same anomalous chiral Ward identities that obtains in the 4D bulk theory.Comment: 10 pages, small misprints corrected, reference [16] updated. Version to appear in JHE

Gauge Boson Mass Generation in AdS4

We investigate the role of boundary conditions in gauge theories in AdS4. The presence of the boundary can break the gauge symmetry consistently with AdS4 isometries. We show that, as a consequence, the gauge bosons associated to the broken symmetries become massive at one loop. In particular chiral gauge theories such us the Standard Model are necessarily massive in AdS4. We briefly discuss similarities with the Schwinger model and implications for CFTs in three dimensions.Comment: 12 page

Transverse mass and invariant mass observables for measuring the mass of a semi-invisibly decaying heavy particle

Formulae are derived for the positions of end-points in the invariant mass and transverse mass distributions obtained from the products of heavy states decaying to pairs of semi-invisibly decaying lighter states. Formulae are derived both for the special case where the two decay chains are identical and the more general case where they are different. The formulae are tested with a simple case study of heavy SUSY higgs particles decaying to gauginos at the LHC.Comment: 13 pages, 8 eps figure

A hybrid method for determining particle masses at the Large Hadron Collider with fully identified cascade decays

A new technique for improving the precision of measurements of SUSY particle masses at the LHC is introduced. The technique involves kinematic fitting of events with two fully identified decay chains. We incorporate both event ETmiss constraints and independent constraints provided by kinematic end-points in experiment invariant mass distributions of SUSY decay products. Incorporation of the event specific information maximises the information used in the fit and is shown to reduce the mass measurement uncertainites by ~30% compared to conventional fitting of experiment end-point constraints for the SPS1a benchmark model.Comment: 10 pages, 2 .eps figures, JHEP3 styl