Hard diffraction -- 20 years later

The idea of diffractive processes with a hard scale involved, to resolve the underlying parton dynamics, was published 1985 and experimentally verified 1988. Today hard diffraction is an active research field with high-quality data and new theoretical models. The trend from Regge-based pomeron models to QCD-based parton level models has given insights on QCD dynamics involving perturbative gluon exchange mechanisms, including the predicted BFKL-dynamics, as well as novel ideas on non-perturbative colour fields and their interactions. Extrapolations to the LHC include the interesting possibility of diffractive Higgs production.Comment: 14 pages, 19 figures. Invited talk at XXII International Symposium on Lepton-Photon Interactions at High Energy, Uppsala, Sweden, June 30-July 5, 200

QCD rescattering mechanism for diffractive deep inelastic scattering

We present a QCD-based model where rescattering between final state partons in deep inelastic scattering leads to events with large rapidity gaps and a leading proton. In the framework of this model the amplitude for multiple gluon exchanges is calculated in the eikonal approximation to all orders in perturbation theory. Both large and small invariant mass M_X limits are considered. The model successfully describes the precise HERA data on the diffractive deep inelastic cross section in the whole available kinematical range and gives new insight into the density of gluons at very small momentum fractions in the proton.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures. Version to appear in PR

The 750 GeV excess from photon-photon and quark-quark processes

The observed excess in the diphoton mass spectrum around 750 GeV at the 13 TeV LHC possibly indicates the presence of a photonphilic resonance. We show that the excess can be explained by a scalar of the type involved in Bekenstein's framework for varying electromagnetic coupling theories. The scalar, in our model, couples dominantly to photons and is mainly produced by the quark-quark fusion at the LHC. In addition, it can also be produced in photon-photon fusion. Our model has only two free parameters, the mass of the scalar and the scale of the new physics, which are fixed by the LHC excess to 750 GeV and 1.5 - 2 TeV, respectively. The scalar has a large three-body decay to a fermion pair and a photon, which provides an interesting search channel with a dilepton-photon resonance around 750 GeV.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables. Presented at the 51st Rencontres de Moriond, QCD and High Energy Interactions, La Thuile, 19-26 March 201

Constraining minimal anomaly free U(1)\mathrm{U}(1) extensions of the Standard Model

We consider a class of minimal anomaly free $\mathrm{U}(1)$ extensions of the Standard Model with three generations of right-handed neutrinos and a complex scalar. Using electroweak precision constraints, new 13 TeV LHC data, and considering theoretical limitations such as perturbativity, we show that it is possible to constrain a wide class of models. By classifying these models with a single parameter, $\kappa$, we can put a model independent upper bound on the new $\mathrm{U}(1)$ gauge coupling $g_z$. We find that the new dilepton data puts strong bounds on the parameters, especially in the mass region $M_{Z'}\lesssim 3~ \mathrm{TeV}$.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures. Modified model parametrization, exclusion limits with new dat

Parton Energy Loss Without Transverse Momentum Broadening

The JEWEL 1.0 Monte Carlo simulates jet evolution in a medium with a microscopic description of splitting and scattering processes. In the framework of this model we investigate the transverse momentum broadening due to medium effects in different scenarios. Depending on assumptions about hadronisation, we observe either a small increase or even a slight decrease of the mean transverse momentum, but no sizeable broadening. This appears to be a natural consequence of a model formulation which conserves energy and momentum microscopically at each splitting and at each scattering.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Contribution to the 20th International Conference on Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions: Quark Matter 2008 (QM2008), Jaipur, India, 4-10 Feb 2008, to be published in the Indian Journal of Physic

String model description of polarisation and angular distributions in pbar p -> Lambdabar Lambda at low energies

The observed polarisation of Lambda hyperons from the inclusive pA -> Lambda X reaction at high energies has previously been well described within the Lund string model through polarised ss quark pair production in the string breaking hadronisation process. This model is here applied to the exclusive pbar p -> Lambdabar Lambda reaction at low energies and compared to available data sets down to an incident beam momentum of 1.835 GeV/c. This required an extension of the diquark scattering model to involve three components: an isotropic part relevant close to threshold, a spectator part and a forward scattering part as in pA -> Lambda X at high energies. The observed angular distributions are then reproduced and, for momentum transfers above |t'| = 0.2 GeV^2, agreement with the measured polarisation is also obtained.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Eur. Phys. J.