720 research outputs found
Collinear superspace
This paper provides a superfield based approach to constructing a collinear slice of N=1 superspace. The strategy is analogous to integrating out anticollinear fermionic degrees-of-freedom as was developed in the context of soft-collinear effective theory. The resulting Lagrangian can be understood as an integral over collinear superspace, where half the supercoordinates have been integrated out. The application to N=1 super Yang-Mills is presented. Collinear superspace provides the foundation for future explorations of supersymmetric soft-collinear effective theory.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (PHY–0969510)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (PHY–1419008)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (PHY–1066293
Cosmological axino problem
We revisit the cosmology of the supersymmetric QCD axion, highlighting the existence of a serious cosmological axino problem that is fully analogous to the gravitino problem of overclosure via thermal production. A general analysis implies that the QCD axino has a mass greater than or equal to that of the gravitino in the absence of unnatural fine-tuning or sequestering. As a consequence, bounds from thermal gravitino and QCD axino production are complementary in parameter space, and together provide a quite stringent limit on the reheating temperature after inflation given by T_R < 10^3 − 10^6 GeV for an axion decay constant of f_a = 10^9 − 10^(12) GeV. Motivated by this result, we explore the cosmology of gravitino lightest supersymmetric particle and axino next to lightest supersymmetric particle at low T_R and present three realistic scenarios for dark matter
Circumnavigating Collinear Superspace
In this paper, we extend the collinear superspace formalism to include the
full range of supersymmetric interactions. Building on the
effective field theory rules developed in a companion paper - "Navigating
Collinear Superspace" - we construct collinear superspace Lagrangians for
theories with non-trivial - and -term auxiliary fields. For (massless)
Wess-Zumino models, the key ingredient is a novel type of Grassmann-valued
supermultiplet whose lowest component is a (non-propagating) fermionic degree
of freedom. For gauge theories coupled to charged chiral matter, the key
ingredient is a novel type of vector superfield whose lowest component is a
non-propagating gauge potential. This unique vector superfield is used to
construct a gauge-covariant derivative; while such an object does not appear in
the standard full superspace formalism, it is crucial for modeling gauge
interactions when the theory is expressed on a collinear slice. This brings us
full circle, by showing that all types of theories in four
dimensions can be constructed in collinear superspace from purely infrared
considerations. We speculate that supersymmetric theories with could also be implemented using similar collinear superspace constructions.Comment: 51 pages plus appendix, 7 tables. v3 Published versio
Origins of hidden sector dark matter II: collider physics
We consider a broad class of supersymmetric theories in which dark matter (DM) is the lightest superpartner (LSP) of a hidden sector that couples very weakly to visible sector fields. Portal interactions connecting visible and hidden sectors mediate the decay of the lightest observable superpartner (LOSP) into the LSP, allowing the LHC to function as a spectacular probe of the origin of hidden sector DM. As shown in a companion paper, this general two-sector framework allows only for a handful of DM production mechanisms, each of which maps to a distinctive window in lifetimes and cross-sections for the LOSP. In the present work we perform a systematic collider study of LOSP candidates and portal interactions, and for each case evaluate the prospects for successfully reconstructing the origin of DM at the LHC. If, for instance, DM arises from Freeze-Out and Decay, this may be verified if the LOSP is a bino or right-handed slepton decaying to the LSP through a variety of portal interactions, and with an annihilation cross-section within a narrow range. On the other hand, the Freeze-In mechanism may be verified for a complimentary set of LOSP candidates, and within a narrow range of LOSP lifetimes. In all cases, the LOSP is relatively long-lived on collider time scales, leading to events with displaced vertices. Furthermore, scenarios with a charged or colored LOSP are particularly promising
Origins of Hidden Sector Dark Matter I: Cosmology
We present a systematic cosmological study of a universe in which the visible
sector is coupled, albeit very weakly, to a hidden sector comprised of its own
set of particles and interactions. Assuming that dark matter (DM) resides in
the hidden sector and is charged under a stabilizing symmetry shared by both
sectors, we determine all possible origins of weak-scale DM allowed within this
broad framework. We show that DM can arise only through a handful of
mechanisms, lending particular focus to Freeze-Out and Decay and Freeze-In, as
well as their variations involving late time re-annihilations of DM and DM
particle anti-particle asymmetries. Much like standard Freeze-Out, where the
abundance of DM depends only on the annihilation cross-section of the DM
particle, these mechanisms depend only on a very small subset of physical
parameters, many of which may be measured directly at the LHC. In particular,
we show that each DM production mechanism is associated with a distinctive
window in lifetimes and cross-sections for particles which may be produced in
the near future. We evaluate prospects for employing the LHC to definitively
reconstruct the origin of DM in a companion paper.Comment: 32 pages, 19 figures; v2: references added, published versio
Cosmological axino problem
We revisit the cosmology of the supersymmetric QCD axion, highlighting the existence of a serious cosmological axino problem that is fully analogous to the gravitino problem of overclosure via thermal production. A general analysis implies that the QCD axino has a mass greater than or equal to that of the gravitino in the absence of unnatural fine-tuning or sequestering. As a consequence, bounds from thermal gravitino and QCD axino production are complementary in parameter space, and together provide a quite stringent limit on the reheating temperature after inflation given by T_R < 10^3 − 10^6 GeV for an axion decay constant of f_a = 10^9 − 10^(12) GeV. Motivated by this result, we explore the cosmology of gravitino lightest supersymmetric particle and axino next to lightest supersymmetric particle at low T_R and present three realistic scenarios for dark matter
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