64 research outputs found
Revealing the electroweak properties of a new scalar resonance
One or more new heavy resonances may be discovered in experiments at the CERN
Large Hadron Collider. In order to determine if such a resonance is the
long-awaited Higgs boson, it is essential to pin down its spin, CP, and
electroweak quantum numbers. Here we describe how to determine what role a
newly-discovered neutral CP-even scalar plays in electroweak symmetry breaking,
by measuring its relative decay rates into pairs of electroweak vector bosons:
WW, ZZ, \gamma\gamma, and Z\gamma. With the data-driven assumption that
electroweak symmetry breaking respects a remnant custodial symmetry, we perform
a general analysis with operators up to dimension five. Remarkably, only three
pure cases and one nontrivial mixed case need to be disambiguated, which can
always be done if all four decay modes to electroweak vector bosons can be
observed or constrained. We exhibit interesting special cases of Higgs
look-alikes with nonstandard decay patterns, including a very suppressed
branching to WW or very enhanced branchings to \gamma\gamma and Z\gamma. Even
if two vector boson branching fractions conform to Standard Model expectations
for a Higgs doublet, measurements of the other two decay modes could unmask a
Higgs imposter.Comment: 23 pages, two figures; v2: minor revision and version to appear in
JHE
Probing natural SUSY from stop pair production at the LHC
We consider the natural supersymmetry scenario in the framework of the
R-parity conserving minimal supersymmetric standard model (called natural MSSM)
and examine the observability of stop pair production at the LHC. We first scan
the parameters of this scenario under various experimental constraints,
including the SM-like Higgs boson mass, the indirect limits from precision
electroweak data and B-decays. Then in the allowed parameter space we study the
stop pair production at the LHC followed by the stop decay into a top quark
plus a lightest neutralino or into a bottom quark plus a chargino. From
detailed Monte Carlo simulations of the signals and backgrounds, we find the
two decay modes are complementary to each other in probing the stop pair
production, and the LHC with TeV and 100 luminosity is
capable of discovering the stop predicted in natural MSSM up to 450 GeV. If no
excess events were observed at the LHC, the 95% C.L. exclusion limits of the
stop masses can reach around 537 GeV.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, version accepted by JHE
Deciphering Universal Extra Dimension from the top quark signals at the CERN LHC
Models based on Universal Extra Dimensions predict Kaluza-Klein (KK)
excitations of all Standard Model (SM) particles. We examine the pair
production of KK excitations of top- and bottom-quarks at the Large Hadron
Collider. Once produced, the KK top/bottom quarks can decay to -quarks,
leptons and the lightest KK-particle, , resulting in 2 -jets, two
opposite sign leptons and missing transverse momentum, thereby mimicing
top-pair production. We show that, with a proper choice of kinematic cuts, an
integrated luminosity of 100 fb would allow a discovery for an inverse
radius upto GeV.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures, Accepted for publication in JHE
Searching for Heavy Charged Higgs Boson with Jet Substructure at the LHC
We study the heavy charged Higgs boson (from 800 GeV to 1500 GeV in this
study) in production associated with a top quark at the LHC with the collision
energy TeV. Such a heavy charged Higgs boson can dominantly decay
into a top quark and a bottom quark due to its large Yukawa couplings, like in
MSSM. To suppress background events and to confirm the signal, we reconstruct
the mass bumps of the heavy charged Higgs boson and the associated top quark.
For this purpose, we propose a hybrid-R reconstruction method which utilizes
the top tagging technique, a jet substructure technique developed for highly
boosted massive particles. By using the full hadronic mode of as a test field, we find that this method can greatly reduce the
combinatorics in the full reconstruction and can successfully reduce background
events down to a controlled level. The sensitivity of LHC to the heavy charged
Higgs boson with two taggings is studied and a significance can
be achieved when .Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures, 7 tables; v2: some typos corrected and
references added; v3: discussion added, Fig.10 and Table7 updated, version
published in JHE
Supersymmetric Monojets at the Large Hadron Collider
Supersymmetric monojets may be produced at the Large Hadron Collider by the
process qg -> squark neutralino_1 -> q neutralino_1 neutralino_1, leading to a
jet recoiling against missing transverse momentum. We discuss the feasibility
and utility of the supersymmetric monojet signal. In particular, we examine the
possible precision with which one can ascertain the neutralino_1-squark-quark
coupling via the rate for monojet events. Such a coupling contains information
on the composition of the neutralino_1 and helps bound dark matter direct
detection cross-sections and the dark matter relic density of the neutralino_1.
It also provides a check of the supersymmetric relation between gauge couplings
and gaugino-quark-squark couplings.Comment: 46 pages, 10 figures. The appendix has been rewritten to correct an
error that appears in all previous versions of the appendix. This error has
no effect on the results in the main body of the pape
Exclusive Signals of an Extended Higgs Sector
Expectations for the magnitude of Higgs boson signals in standard Higgs
search channels at the LHC relative to Standard Model (SM) expectations are
investigated within the framework of various types of CP and flavor conserving
two Higgs doublet models (2HDMs). Signals of the SM-like Higgs boson in
different classes of 2HDM may be parameterized in terms of particular
two-dimensional sub-spaces of the general four-dimensional space of Higgs
couplings to the massive vector bosons, top quark, bottom quark, and tau
lepton. We find fairly strong correlations among the inclusive di-photon
channel and the exclusive di-photon and di-tau channels from vector boson
fusion or associated production. Order one deviations from SM expectations in
some of these channels could provide discriminating power among various types
of 2HDMs. The ratio of exclusive di-photon to di-tau channels is particularly
sensitive to deviations from SM expectations. We also emphasize that deviations
from SM expectations in standard Higgs search channels may imply observable
signals of non-SM-like Higgs bosons in some of these same channels, in
particular in di-photon and di-vector boson channels. The results cataloged
here provide a roadmap for interpreting standard Higgs search channels in the
context of 2HDMs.Comment: 24 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables; v2: minor corrections, extended
discussion of current Higgs signals; version appearing in JHE
How Similar Are the Mice to Men? Between-Species Comparison of Left Ventricular Mechanics Using Strain Imaging
BACKGROUND: While mammalian heart size maintains constant proportion to whole body size, scaling of left ventricular (LV) function parameters shows a more complex scaling pattern. We used 2-D speckle tracking strain imaging to determine whether LV myocardial strains and strain rates scale to heart size. METHODS: We studied 18 mice, 15 rats, 6 rabbits, 12 dogs and 20 human volunteers by 2-D echocardiography. Relationship between longitudinal or circumferential strains/strain rates (S(Long)/SR(Long), S(Circ)/SR(Circ)), and LV end-diastolic volume (EDV) or mass were assessed by the allometric (power-law) equation Y = kM(β). RESULTS: Mean LV mass in individual species varied from 0.038 to 134 g, LV EDV varied from 0.015 to 102 ml, while RR interval varied from 81 to 1090 ms. While S(Long) increased with increasing LV EDV or mass (β values 0.047±0.006 and 0.051±0.005, p<0.0001 vs. 0 for both) S(Circ) was unchanged (p = NS for both LV EDV or mass). Systolic and diastolic SR(Long) and SR(Circ) showed inverse correlations to LV EDV or mass (p<0.0001 vs. 0 for all comparisons). The ratio between S(Long) and S(Circ) increased with increasing values of LV EDV or mass (β values 0.039±0.010 and 0.040±0.011, p>0.0003 for both). CONCLUSIONS: While S(Circ) is unchanged, S(Long) increases with increasing heart size, indicating that large mammals rely more on long axis contribution to systolic function. SR(Long) and SR(Circ), both diastolic and systolic, show an expected decrease with increasing heart size
The effective Standard Model after LHC Run I
We treat the Standard Model as the low-energy limit of an effective field theory that incorporates higher-dimensional operators to capture the effects of decoupled new physics. We consider the constraints imposed on the coefficients of dimension-6 operators by electroweak precision tests (EWPTs), applying a framework for the effects of dimension- 6 operators on electroweak precision tests that is more general than the standard S, T formalism, and use measurements of Higgs couplings and the kinematics of associated Higgs production at the Tevatron and LHC, as well as triple-gauge couplings at the LHC. We highlight the complementarity between EWPTs, Tevatron and LHC measurements in obtaining model-independent limits on the effective Standard Model after LHC Run 1. We illustrate the combined constraints with the example of the two-Higgs doublet model
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