Higgs Signal for h to aa at Hadron Colliders

We assess the prospect of observing a neutral Higgs boson at hadron colliders in its decay to two spin-zero states, a, for a Higgs mass of 90-130 GeV, when produced in association with a W or Z boson. Such a decay is allowed in extensions of the MSSM with CP-violating interactions and in the NMSSM, and can dominate Higgs boson final states, thereby evading the LEP constraints on standard Higgs boson production. The light spin-zero state decays primarily via a to bb and tau+tau-, so this signal channel retains features distinct from the main backgrounds. Our study shows that at the Tevatron, there may be potential to observe a few events in the bb tau+tau- or bbbb channels with relatively small background, although this observation would be statistically limited. At the LHC, the background problem is more severe, but with cross sections and integrated luminosities orders of magnitude larger than at the Tevatron, the observation of a Higgs boson in this decay mode would be possible. The channel h to aa to bbbb would provide a large statistical significance, with a signal-to-background ratio on the order of 1:2. In these searches, the main challenge would be to retain the adequate tagging efficiency of b's and tau's in the low p_T region.Comment: Version to be published in JHEP. 20 pages, 5 figure

b→sb \to s Transitions in Family-dependent U(1)′U(1)^\prime Models

We analyze flavor-changing-neutral-current (FCNC) effects in the $b\to s$ transitions that are induced by family non-universal $U(1)'$ gauge symmetries. After systematically developing the necessary formalism, we present a correlated analysis for the $\Delta B =1, 2$ processes. We adopt a model-independent approach in which we only require family-universal charges for the first and second generations and small fermion mixing angles. We analyze the constraints on the resulting parameter space from $B_s - \bar B_s$ mixing and the time-dependent CP asymmetries of the penguin-dominated $B_d \to (\pi, \phi, \eta', \rho, \omega, f_0)K_S$ decays. Our results indicate that the currently observed discrepancies in some of these modes with respect to the Standard Model predictions can be consistently accommodated within this general class of models.Comment: 36 pages, 11 figure

Effective lagrangian for the tbH^+ interaction in the MSSM and charged Higgs phenomenology

In the framework of a 2HDM effective lagrangian for the MSSM, we analyse important phenomenological aspects associated with quantum soft SUSY-breaking effects that modify the relation between the bottom mass and the bottom Yukawa coupling. We derive a resummation of the dominant supersymmetric corrections for large values of \tb to all orders in perturbation theory. With the help of the operator product expansion we also perform the resummation of the leading and next-to-leading logarithms of the standard QCD corrections. We use these resummation procedures to compute the radiative corrections to the \tbH, \Htb decay rates. In the large \tb regime, we derive simple formulae embodying all the dominant contributions to these decay rates and we compute the corresponding branching ratios. We show, as an example, the effect of these new results on determining the region of the \mH--\tb plane excluded by the Tevatron searches for a supersymmetric charged Higgs boson in top quark decays, as a function of the MSSM parameter space.Comment: 33 pages, LaTeX, 17 figures, revised version submitted to Nuc. Phys.

LHC Discovery Potential for Non-Standard Higgs Bosons in the 3b Channel

In a variety of well motivated models, such as two Higgs Doublet Models (2HDMs) and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), there are neutral Higgs bosons that have significantly enhanced couplings to b-quarks and tau leptons in comparison to those of the SM Higgs. These so called non-standard Higgs bosons could be copiously produced at the LHC in association with b quarks, and subsequently decay into b-quark pairs. However, this production channel suffers from large irreducible QCD backgrounds. We propose a new search strategy for non-standard neutral Higgs bosons at the 7 TeV LHC in the 3b's final state topology. We perform a simulation of the signal and backgrounds, using state of the art tools and methods for different sets of selection cuts, and conclude that neutral Higgs bosons with couplings to b-quarks of about 0.3 or larger, and masses up to 400 GeV, could be seen with a luminosity of 30 fb^{-1}. In the case of the MSSM we also discuss the complementarity between the 3b channel and the inclusive tau pair channel in exploring the supersymmetric parameter space.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, references added, published versio

Phenomenology of the nMSSM from colliders to cosmology

Low energy supersymmetric models provide a solution to the hierarchy problem and also have the necessary ingredients to solve two of the most outstanding issues in cosmology: the origin of dark matter and baryonic matter. One of the most attractive features of this framework is that the relevant physical processes are related to interactions at the weak scale and therefore may be tested in collider experiments in the near future. This is true for the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) as well as for its extension with the addition of one singlet chiral superfield, the so-called nMSSM. It has been recently shown that within the nMSSM an elegant solution to both the problem of baryogenesis and dark matter may be found, that relies mostly on the mixing of the singlet sector with the Higgs sector of the theory. In this work we review the nMSSM model constraints from cosmology and present the associated collider phenomenology at the LHC and the ILC. We show that the ILC will efficiently probe the neutralino, chargino and Higgs sectors, allowing to confront cosmological observations with computations based on collider measurements. We also investigate the prospects for a direct detection of dark matter and the constraints imposed by the current bounds of the electron electric dipole moment in this model.Comment: 44 pp, 10 figures; Fig.9 replaced; discussion on CP violation extended and references added; few minor additions in text about details of the cut

Higgs Bosons in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with Explicit CP Violation

We study the Higgs-boson mass spectrum of the minimal supersymmetric standard model, in which the tree-level CP invariance of the Higgs potential is broken explicitly by loop effects of soft-CP-violating Yukawa interactions related to scalar quarks of the third generation. The analysis is performed by considering the CP-non-invariant renormalization-group improved effective potential through next-to-leading order that includes leading logarithms due to two-loop Yukawa and QCD corrections. We find that the three neutral Higgs particles predicted by the theory may strongly mix with one another, thereby significantly modifying their tree-level couplings to fermions and to the $W^\pm$ and Z bosons. We analyze the phenomenological consequences of such a minimal supersymmetric scenario of explicit CP violation on the production rates of the lightest Higgs particle, and discuss strategies for its potential discovery at high-energy colliders

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362

Partitioning the Heritability of Tourette Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Reveals Differences in Genetic Architecture

The direct estimation of heritability from genome-wide common variant data as implemented in the program Genome-wide Complex Trait Analysis (GCTA) has provided a means to quantify heritability attributable to all interrogated variants. We have quantified the variance in liability to disease explained