An alternative NMSSM phenomenology with manifest perturbative unification

Can supersymmetric models with a moderate stop mass be made consistent with the negative Higgs boson searches at LEP, while keeping perturbative unification manifest? The NMSSM achieves this rather easily, but only if extra matter multiplets filling complete SU(5) representations are present at intermediate energies. As a concrete example which makes use of this feature, we give an analytic description of the phenomenology of a constrained NMSSM close to a Peccei-Quinn symmetry point. The related pseudo-Goldstone boson appears in decays of the Higgs bosons and possibly of the lightest neutralino, and itself decays into (b anti-b) and (tau anti-tau).Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures; v2: possibility of pseudo-Goldstone below 2m_b threshold added, version published by JHE

Setting limits on Effective Field Theories: the case of Dark Matter

The usage of Effective Field Theories (EFT) for LHC new physics searches is receiving increasing attention. It is thus important to clarify all the aspects related with the applicability of the EFT formalism in the LHC environment, where the large available energy can produce reactions that overcome the maximal range of validity, i.e. the cutoff, of the theory. We show that this does forbid to set rigorous limits on the EFT parameter space through a modified version of the ordinary binned likelihood hypothesis test, which we design and validate. Our limit-setting strategy can be carried on in its full-fledged form by the LHC experimental collaborations, or performed externally to the collaborations, through the Simplified Likelihood approach, by relying on certain approximations. We apply it to the recent CMS mono-jet analysis and derive limits on a Dark Matter (DM) EFT model. DM is selected as a case study because the limited reach on the DM production EFT Wilson coefficient and the structure of the theory suggests that the cutoff might be dangerously low, well within the LHC reach. However our strategy can also be applied to EFT's parametrising the indirect effects of heavy new physics in the Electroweak and Higgs sectors

Bounding wide composite vector resonances at the LHC

In composite Higgs models (CHMs), electroweak precision data generically push colourless composite vector resonances to a regime where they dominantly decay into pairs of light top partners. This greatly attenuates their traces in canonical collider searches, tailored for narrow resonances promptly decaying into Standard Model final states. By reinterpreting the CMS same-sign dilepton (SS2$\ell$) analysis at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), originally designed to search for top partners with electric charge $5/3$, we demonstrate its significant coverage over this kinematical regime. We also show the reach of the 13 TeV run of the LHC, with various integrated luminosity options, for a possible upgrade of the SS2$\ell$ search. The top sector of CHMs is found to be more fine-tuned in the presence of colourless composite resonances in the few TeV range.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures. Minor corrections for publication in JHE

UV friendly T-parity in the SU(6)/Sp(6) little Higgs model

Electroweak precision tests put stringent constraints on the parameter space of little Higgs models. Tree-level exchange of TeV scale particles in a generic little Higgs model produce higher dimensional operators that make contributions to electroweak observables that are typically too large. To avoid this problem a discrete symmetry dubbed T-parity can be introduced to forbid the dangerous couplings. However, it was realized that in simple group models such as the littlest Higgs model, the implementation of T-parity in a UV completion could present some challenges. The situation is analogous to the one in QCD where the pion can easily be defined as being odd under a new $Z_2$ symmetry in the chiral Lagrangian, but this $Z_2$ is not a symmetry of the quark Lagrangian. In this paper we examine the possibility of implementing a T-parity in the low energy $SU(6)/Sp(6)$ model that might be easier to realize in the UV. In our model, the T-parity acts on the low energy non-linear sigma model field in way which is different to what was originally proposed for the Littlest Higgs, and lead to a different low energy theory. In particular, the Higgs sector of this model is a inert two Higgs doublets model with an approximate custodial symmetry. We examine the contributions of the various sectors of the model to electroweak precision data, and to the dark matter abundance.Comment: 21 pages,4 figures. Clarifications added, typos corrected and references added. Published in JHE

Dangerous Skyrmions in Little Higgs Models

Skyrmions are present in many models of electroweak symmetry breaking where the Higgs is a pseudo-Goldstone boson of some strongly interacting sector. They are stable, composite objects whose mass lies in the range 10-100 TeV and can be naturally abundant in the universe due to their small annihilation cross-section. They represent therefore good dark matter candidates. We show however in this work that the lightest skyrmion states are electrically charged in most of the popular little Higgs models, and hence should have been directly or indirectly observed in nature already. The charge of the skyrmion under the electroweak gauge group is computed in a model-independent way and is related to the presence of anomalies in the underlying theory via the Wess-Zumino-Witten term.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures; v2: minor changes, one reference added, version to appear in JHEP; v3: erratum added, conclusions unchange

Calogero-Sutherland Approach to Defect Blocks

Extended objects such as line or surface operators, interfaces or boundaries play an important role in conformal field theory. Here we propose a systematic approach to the relevant conformal blocks which are argued to coincide with the wave functions of an integrable multi-particle Calogero-Sutherland problem. This generalizes a recent observation in 1602.01858 and makes extensive mathematical results from the modern theory of multi-variable hypergeometric functions available for studies of conformal defects. Applications range from several new relations with scalar four-point blocks to a Euclidean inversion formula for defect correlators.Comment: v2: changes for clarit

T-parity, its problems and their solution

We point out a basic difficulty in the construction of little-Higgs models with T-parity which is overlooked by large part of the present literature. Almost all models proposed so far fail to achieve their goal: they either suffer from sizable electroweak corrections or from a breakdown of collective breaking. We provide a model building recipe to bypass the above problem and apply it to build the simplest T-invariant extension of the Littlest Higgs. Our model predicts additional T-odd pseudo-Goldstone bosons with weak scale masses.Comment: 25 pages, 2 appendice

Spectrum-doubled heavy vector bosons at the LHC

We study a simple effective field theory incorporating six heavy vector bosons together with the standard-model field content. The new particles preserve custodial symmetry as well as an approximate left-right parity symmetry. The enhanced symmetry of the model allows it to satisfy precision electroweak constraints and bounds from Higgs physics in a regime where all the couplings are perturbative and where the amount of fine-tuning is comparable to that in the standard model itself. We find that the model could explain the recently observed excesses in di-boson processes at invariant mass close to 2 TeV from LHC Run 1 for a range of allowed parameter space. The masses of all the particles differ by no more than roughly 10%. In a portion of the allowed parameter space only one of the new particles has a production cross section large enough to be detectable with the energy and luminosity of Run 1, both via its decay to WZ and to Wh, while the others have suppressed production rates. The model can be tested at the higher-energy and higher-luminosity run of the LHC even for an overall scale of the new particles higher than 3 TeV