651 research outputs found
On B_s -> mu+ mu- and Cold Dark Matter Scattering in the MSSM with Non-Universal Higgs Masses
We show that present experimental constraints on B_s -> mu+ mu- decay and the
CDMS upper limit on the cold dark matter elastic scattering cross section
already have significant impact on the parameter space of the minimal
supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM) with non-universal
supersymmetry-breaking scalar masses for the Higgs multiplets (NUHM). The
relaxation of scalar universality in the MSSM allows the possibility of a
relatively light mass M_A for the pseudoscalar Higgs boson. The present upper
limit on B_s -> mu+ mu- already excludes much of the scope for this possibility
in the NUHM, in contrast to the constrained MSSM with universal scalar masses
(CMSSM), where B_s -> mu+ mu- decay does not exclude any ranges of parameters
not already excluded by b -> s \gamma decay. Cold dark matter scattering is
also enhanced for small M_A, but the impact of present upper limit on B_s ->
mu+ mu- on the NUHM parameter space is in many cases greater than that of the
CDMS scattering limit, particularly at large tanb.Comment: 17 pages, 14 eps figure
Spatially distinct and metabolically active membrane domain in mycobacteria
Protected from host immune attack and antibiotic penetration by their unique cell envelope, mycobacterial pathogens cause devastating human diseases such as tuberculosis. Seamless coordination of cell growth with cell envelope elongation at the pole maintains this barrier. Unraveling this spatiotemporal regulation is a potential strategy for controlling mycobacterial infections. Our biochemical analysis previously revealed two functionally distinct membrane fractions in Mycobacterium smegmatis cell lysates: plasma membrane tightly associated with the cell wall (PM-CW) and a distinct fraction of pure membrane free of cell wall components (PMf). To provide further insight into the functions of these membrane fractions, we took the approach of comparative proteomics and identified more than 300 proteins specifically associated with the PMf, including essential enzymes involved in cell envelope synthesis such as a mannosyltransferase, Ppm1, and a galactosyltransferase, GlfT2. Furthermore, comparative lipidomics revealed the distinct lipid composition of the PMf, with specific association of key cell envelope biosynthetic precursors. Live-imaging fluorescence microscopy visualized the PMf as patches of membrane spatially distinct from the PM-CW and notably enriched in the pole of the growing cells. Taken together, our study provides the basis for assigning the PMf as a spatiotemporally distinct and metabolically active membrane domain involved in cell envelope biogenesis
General Analysis of Antideuteron Searches for Dark Matter
Low energy cosmic ray antideuterons provide a unique low background channel
for indirect detection of dark matter. We compute the cosmic ray flux of
antideuterons from hadronic annihilations of dark matter for various Standard
Model final states and determine the mass reach of two future experiments
(AMS-02 and GAPS) designed to greatly increase the sensitivity of antideuteron
detection over current bounds. We consider generic models of scalar, fermion,
and massive vector bosons as thermal dark matter, describe their basic features
relevant to direct and indirect detection, and discuss the implications of
direct detection bounds on models of dark matter as a thermal relic. We also
consider specific dark matter candidates and assess their potential for
detection via antideuterons from their hadronic annihilation channels. Since
the dark matter mass reach of the GAPS experiment can be well above 100 GeV, we
find that antideuterons can be a good indirect detection channel for a variety
of thermal relic electroweak scale dark matter candidates, even when the rate
for direct detection is highly suppressed.Comment: 44 pages, 15 Figure
Phenomenology of GUT-less Supersymmetry Breaking
We study models in which supersymmetry breaking appears at an intermediate
scale, M_{in}, below the GUT scale. We assume that the soft
supersymmetry-breaking parameters of the MSSM are universal at M_{in}, and
analyze the morphology of the constraints from cosmology and collider
experiments on the allowed regions of parameter space as M_{in} is reduced from
the GUT scale. We present separate analyses of the (m_{1/2},m_0) planes for
tan(beta)=10 and tan(beta)=50, as well as a discussion of non-zero trilinear
couplings, A_0. Specific scenarios where the gaugino and scalar masses appear
to be universal below the GUT scale have been found in mirage-mediation models,
which we also address here. We demand that the lightest neutralino be the LSP,
and that the relic neutralino density not conflict with measurements by WMAP
and other observations. At moderate values of M_{in}, we find that the allowed
regions of the (m_{1/2},m_0) plane are squeezed by the requirements of
electroweak symmetry breaking and that the lightest neutralino be the LSP,
whereas the constraint on the relic density is less severe. At very low M_{in},
the electroweak vacuum conditions become the dominant constraint, and a
secondary source of astrophysical cold dark matter would be necessary to
explain the measured relic density for nearly all values of the soft
SUSY-breaking parameters and tan(beta). We calculate the neutralino-nucleon
cross sections for viable scenarios and compare them with the present and
projected limits from direct dark matter searches.Comment: 35 pages, 9 figures; typos corrected, references adde
Constrained Supersymmetric Flipped SU(5) GUT Phenomenology
We explore the phenomenology of the minimal supersymmetric flipped SU(5) GUT
model (CFSU(5)), whose soft supersymmetry-breaking (SSB) mass parameters are
constrained to be universal at some input scale, , above the GUT scale,
. We analyze the parameter space of CFSU(5) assuming that the lightest
supersymmetric particle (LSP) provides the cosmological cold dark matter,
paying careful attention to the matching of parameters at the GUT scale. We
first display some specific examples of the evolutions of the SSB parameters
that exhibit some generic features. Specifically, we note that the relationship
between the masses of the lightest neutralino and the lighter stau is sensitive
to , as is the relationship between the neutralino mass and the masses
of the heavier Higgs bosons. For these reasons, prominent features in generic
planes such as coannihilation strips and rapid-annihilation
funnels are also sensitive to , as we illustrate for several cases with
tan(beta)=10 and 55. However, these features do not necessarily disappear at
large , unlike the case in the minimal conventional SU(5) GUT. Our
results are relatively insensitive to neutrino masses.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures; (v2) added explanations and corrected typos,
version to appear in EPJ
Galactic-Centre Gamma Rays in CMSSM Dark Matter Scenarios
We study the production of gamma rays via LSP annihilations in the core of
the Galaxy as a possible experimental signature of the constrained minimal
supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (CMSSM), in which
supersymmetry-breaking parameters are assumed to be universal at the GUT scale,
assuming also that the LSP is the lightest neutralino chi. The part of the
CMSSM parameter space that is compatible with the measured astrophysical
density of cold dark matter is known to include a stau_1 - chi coannihilation
strip, a focus-point strip where chi has an enhanced Higgsino component, and a
funnel at large tanb where the annihilation rate is enhanced by the poles of
nearby heavy MSSM Higgs bosons, A/H. We calculate the total annihilation rates,
the fractions of annihilations into different Standard Model final states and
the resulting fluxes of gamma rays for CMSSM scenarios along these strips. We
observe that typical annihilation rates are much smaller in the coannihilation
strip for tanb = 10 than along the focus-point strip or for tanb = 55, and that
the annihilation branching ratios differ greatly between the different dark
matter strips. Whereas the current Fermi-LAT data are not sensitive to any of
the CMSSM scenarios studied, and the calculated gamma-ray fluxes are probably
unobservably low along the coannihilation strip for tanb = 10, we find that
substantial portions of the focus-point strips and rapid-annihilation funnel
regions could be pressured by several more years of Fermi-LAT data, if
understanding of the astrophysical background and/or systematic uncertainties
can be improved in parallel.Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures, comments and references added, version to
appear in JCA
Dynamical supersymmetry breaking in a superstring inspired model
We present a dilaton dominated scenario for supersymmetry breaking in a
recently constructed realistic superstring inspired model with an anomalous
U(1) symmetry. Supersymmetry is broken via gaugino condensation due to a
confining SU(Nc) gauge group in the hidden sector. In particular, we find that
by imposing on the model the phenomenological constraint of the absence of
observed flavor changing neutral currents, there is a range of parameters
related to the hidden sector and the Kahler potential for which we obtain a low
energy spectrum consistent with present experimental bounds. As an illustrative
example, we derive the low energy spectrum of a specific model. We find that
the LSP is the lightest neutralino with a mass of 53 GeV and the lightest Higgs
has a mass of 104 GeV.Comment: 13 page
Gravitino Dark Matter Scenarios with Massive Metastable Charged Sparticles at the LHC
We investigate the measurement of supersymmetric particle masses at the LHC
in gravitino dark matter (GDM) scenarios where the next-to-lightest
supersymmetric partner (NLSP) is the lighter scalar tau, or stau, and is stable
on the scale of a detector. Such a massive metastable charged sparticle would
have distinctive Time-of-Flight (ToF) and energy-loss () signatures. We
summarise the documented accuracies expected to be achievable with the ATLAS
detector in measurements of the stau mass and its momentum at the LHC. We then
use a fast simulation of an LHC detector to demonstrate techniques for
reconstructing the cascade decays of supersymmetric particles in GDM scenarios,
using a parameterisation of the detector response to staus, taus and jets based
on full simulation results. Supersymmetric pair-production events are selected
with high redundancy and efficiency, and many valuable measurements can be made
starting from stau tracks in the detector. We recalibrate the momenta of taus
using transverse-momentum balance, and use kinematic cuts to select
combinations of staus, taus, jets and leptons that exhibit peaks in invariant
masses that correspond to various heavier sparticle species, with errors often
comparable with the jet energy scale uncertainty.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, updated to version published in JHE
Constraining Supersymmetry
We review constraints on the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard
Model (MSSM) coming from direct searches at accelerators such as LEP, indirect
measurements such as b -> s gamma decay and the anomalous magnetic moment of
the muon. The recently corrected sign of pole light-by-light scattering
contributions to the latter is taken into account. We combine these constraints
with those due to the cosmological density of stable supersymmetric relic
particles. The possible indications on the supersymmetric mass scale provided
by fine-tuning arguments are reviewed critically. We discuss briefly the
prospects for future accelerator searches for supersymmetry.Comment: 21 LaTeX pages, 9 eps figures, Invited Contribution to the New
Journal of Physics Focus Issue on Supersymmetr
WMAP-Compliant Benchmark Surfaces for MSSM Higgs Bosons
We explore `benchmark surfaces' suitable for studying the phenomenology of
Higgs bosons in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model
(MSSM), which are chosen so that the supersymmetric relic density is generally
compatible with the range of cold dark matter density preferred by WMAP and
other observations. These benchmark surfaces are specified assuming that
gaugino masses m_{1/2}, soft trilinear supersymmetry-breaking parameters A_0
and the soft supersymmetry-breaking contributions m_0 to the squark and slepton
masses are universal, but not those associated with the Higgs multiplets (the
NUHM framework). The benchmark surfaces may be presented as M_A-tan_beta planes
with fixed or systematically varying values of the other NUHM parameters, such
as m_0, m_{1/2}, A_0 and the Higgs mixing parameter mu. We discuss the
prospects for probing experimentally these benchmark surfaces at the Tevatron
collider, the LHC, the ILC, in B physics and in direct dark-matter detection
experiments. An Appendix documents developments in the FeynHiggs code that
enable the user to explore for her/himself the WMAP-compliant benchmark
surfaces.Comment: Minor corrections, references added. 43 pages, 10 figures. Version to
appear in JHE
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