479 research outputs found
Continuum Superpartners
In an exact conformal theory there is no particle. The excitations have
continuum spectra and are called "unparticles" by Georgi. We consider
supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model with approximate conformal
sectors. The conformal symmetry is softly broken in the infrared which
generates a gap. However, the spectrum can still have a continuum above the gap
if there is no confinement. Using the AdS/CFT correspondence this can be
achieved with a soft wall in the warped extra dimension. When supersymmetry is
broken the superpartners of the Standard Model particles may simply be a
continuum above gap. The collider signals can be quite different from the
standard supersymmetric scenarios and the experimental searches for the
continuum superpartners can be very challenging.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, talk at SCGT09 Workshop, Nagoya, Japan, 8-11
Dec, 200
Electroweak Precision Observables and the Unhiggs
We compute one-loop corrections to the S and T parameters in the Unhiggs
scenario. In that scenario, the Standard Model Higgs is replaced by a non-local
object, called the Unhiggs, whose spectral function displays a continuum above
the mass gap. The Unhiggs propagator has effectively the same UV properties as
the Standard Model Higgs propagator, which implies that loop corrections to the
electroweak precision observables are finite and calculable. We show that the
Unhiggs is consistent with electroweak precision tests when its mass gap is at
the weak scale; in fact, it then mimics a light SM Higgs boson. We also argue
that the Unhiggs, while being perfectly visible to electroweak precision
observables, is invisible to detection at LEP.Comment: 13 pages; v2: references added, discussion of production
cross-section expande
The Minimal Set of Electroweak Precision Parameters
We present a simple method for analyzing the impact of precision electroweak
data above and below the Z-peak on flavour-conserving heavy new physics. We
find that experiments have probed about ten combinations of new physics
effects, which to a good approximation can be condensed into the effective
oblique parameters Shat, That, Uhat, V, X, W, Y (we prove positivity
constraints W, Y >= 0) and three combinations of quark couplings (including a
distinct parameter for the bottom). We apply our method to generic extra Z'
vectors.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figure
Superluminal neutrinos in long baseline experiments and SN1987a
Precise tests of Lorentz invariance in neutrinos can be performed using long
baseline experiments such as MINOS and OPERA or neutrinos from astrophysical
sources. The MINOS collaboration reported a measurement of the muonic neutrino
velocities that hints to super-luminal propagation, very recently confirmed at
6 sigma by OPERA. We consider a general parametrisation which goes beyond the
usual linear or quadratic violation considered in quantum-gravitational models.
We also propose a toy model showing why Lorentz violation can be specific to
the neutrino sector and give rise to a generic energy behaviour E^alpha, where
alpha is not necessarily an integer number. Supernova bounds and the preferred
MINOS and OPERA regions show a tension, due to the absence of shape distortion
in the neutrino bunch in the far detector of MINOS. The energy independence of
the effect has also been pointed out by the OPERA results.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures; comment on Cherenkov emission added, version
matching JHEP published pape
Field Theory on Multi-throat Backgrounds
We consider extra dimensional field theory descriptions of backgrounds with N different throats where one of the extra dimensions in each throat is much larger than the others. Such backgrounds can be described by field theory on N 5D warped spaces which intersect on a ultraviolet (UV) brane. Given a field that propagates in all N throats there are N boundary conditions on the UV brane (which are determined by the effective Lagrangian on the UV brane) in addition to the boundary conditions on the N infrared branes. We derive a general set of UV boundary conditions and give examples of how they are applied to particular situations. Three simple example applications are given: in the first the number of families is determined by the number of throats and the SUSY flavor problem is solved via an S_3 symmetry of the throats; in the second we embed this scenario in a SUSY GUT with a solution of the doublet-triplet splitting problem based on the product group approach; while in the final example we show a simple geometric implementation of a SUSY trinification model on three throats
The Universal Real Projective Plane: LHC phenomenology at one Loop
The Real Projective Plane is the lowest dimensional orbifold which, when
combined with the usual Minkowski space-time, gives rise to a unique model in
six flat dimensions possessing an exact Kaluza Klein (KK) parity as a relic
symmetry of the broken six dimensional Lorentz group. As a consequence of this
property, any model formulated on this background will include a stable Dark
Matter candidate. Loop corrections play a crucial role because they remove mass
degeneracy in the tiers of KK modes and induce new couplings which mediate
decays. We study the full one loop structure of the corrections by means of
counter-terms localised on the two singular points. As an application, the
phenomenology of the (2,0) and (0,2) tiers is discussed at the LHC. We identify
promising signatures with single and di-lepton, top antitop and 4 tops: in the
dilepton channel, present data from CMS and ATLAS may already exclude KK masses
up to 250 GeV, while by next year they may cover the whole mass range preferred
by WMAP data.Comment: 45 pages, 3 figure
Oblique Corrections from Higgsless Models in Warped Space
We calculate the tree-level oblique corrections to electroweak precision
observables generated in higgless models of electroweak symmetry breaking with
a 5D SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R x U(1)_{B-L} gauge group on a warped background. In the
absence of brane induced kinetic terms (and equal left and right gauge
couplings) we find the S parameter to be ~1.15, while T,U~0, as in technicolor
theories. Planck brane induced kinetic terms and unequal left-right couplings
can lower S, however for sufficiently low values of S tree-level unitarity will
be lost. A kinetic term localized on the TeV brane for SU(2)_D will generically
increase S, however an induced kinetic term for U(1)_{B-L} on the TeV brane
will lower S. With an appropriate choice of the value of this induced kinetic
term S~0 can be achieved. In this case the mass of the lowest Z' mode will be
lowered to about ~300 GeV.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, 2 figures include
Composite Higgs Sketch
The coupling of a composite Higgs to the standard model fields can deviate
substantially from the standard model values. In this case perturbative
unitarity might break down before the scale of compositeness is reached, which
would suggest that additional composites should lie well below this scale. In
this paper we account for the presence of an additional spin 1 custodial
triplet of rhos. We examine the implications of requiring perturbative
unitarity up to the compositeness scale and find that one has to be close to
saturating certain unitarity sum rules involving the Higgs and the rho
couplings. Given these restrictions on the parameter space we investigate the
main phenomenological consequences of the spin 1 triplet. We find that they can
substantially enhance the Higgs di-photon rate at the LHC even with a reduced
Higgs coupling to gauge bosons. The main existing LHC bounds arise from
di-boson searches, especially in the experimentally clean channel where the
charged rhos decay to a W-boson and a Z, which then decay leptonically. We find
that a large range of interesting parameter space with 700 GeV < m(rho) < 2 TeV
is currently experimentally viable.Comment: 37 pages, 12 figures; v4: sum rule corrected, conclusions unchange
Curing the Ills of Higgsless Models: the S Parameter and Unitarity
We consider various constraints on Higgsless models of electroweak symmetry
breaking based on a bulk SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R x U(1)_{B-L} gauge group in warped
space. First we show that the S parameter which is positive if fermions are
localized on the Planck brane can be lowered (or made vanishing) by changing
the localization of the light fermions. If the wave function of the light
fermions is almost flat their coupling to the gauge boson KK modes will be
close to vanishing, and therefore contributions to the S parameter will be
suppressed. At the same time the experimental bounds on such Z' and W' gauge
bosons become very weak, and their masses can be lowered to make sure that
perturbative unitarity is not violated in this theory before reaching energies
of several TeV. The biggest difficulty of these models is to incorporate a
heavy top quark mass without violating any of the experimental bounds on bottom
quark gauge couplings. In the simplest models of fermion masses a sufficiently
heavy top quark also implies an unacceptably large correction to the Zb\bar{b}
vertex and a large splitting between the KK modes of the top and bottom quarks,
yielding large loop corrections to the T-parameter. We present possible
directions for model building where perhaps these constraints could be obeyed
as well.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX, 5 figures. References and acknowledgements adde
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