Signatures of Extra Dimensions from Upsilon Decays with a Light Gaugephobic Higgs Boson

We explore non-standard Higgs phenomenology in the Gaugephobic Higgs model in which the Higgs can be lighter than the usually quoted current experimental bound. The Higgs propagates in the bulk of a 5D space-time and Electroweak Symmetry Breaking occurs by a combination of boundary conditions in the extra dimension and an elementary Higgs. The Higgs can thus have a significantly suppressed coupling to the other Standard Model fields. A large enough suppression can be found to escape all limits and allow for a Higgs of any mass, which would be associated with the discovery of W' and Z' Kaluza-Klein resonances at the LHC. The Higgs can be precisely discovered at B-factories while the LHC would be insensitive to it due to high backgrounds. In this letter we study the Higgs discovery mode in Upsilon(3S), Upsilon(2S), and Upsilon(1S) decays, and the model parameter space that will be probed by BaBar, Belle, and CLEO data. In the absence of an early discovery of a heavy Higgs at the LHC, A Super-B factory would be an excellent option to further probe this region.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Anomalies, Unparticles, and Seiberg Duality

We calculate triangle anomalies for fermions with non-canonical scaling dimensions. The most well known example of such fermions (aka unfermions) occurs in Seiberg duality where the matching of anomalies (including mesinos with scaling dimensions between 3/2 and 5/2) is a crucial test of duality. By weakly gauging the non-local action for an unfermion, we calculate the one-loop three-current amplitude. Despite the fact that there are more graphs with more complicated propagators and vertices, we find that the calculation can be completed in a way that nearly parallels the usual case. We show that the anomaly factor for fermionic unparticles is independent of the scaling dimension and identical to that for ordinary fermions. This can be viewed as a confirmation that unparticle actions correctly capture the physics of conformal fixed point theories like Banks-Zaks or SUSY QCD.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figur

Gaugephobic Higgs Signals at the LHC

The Gaugephobic Higgs model provides an interpolation between three different models of electroweak symmetry breaking: Higgsless models, Randall-Sundrum models, and the Standard Model. At parameter points between the extremes, Standard Model Higgs signals are present at reduced rates, and Higgsless Kaluza-Klein excitations are present with shifted masses and couplings, as well as signals from exotic quarks necessary to protect the Zbb coupling. Using a new implementation of the model in SHERPA, we show the LHC signals which differentiate the generic Gaugephobic Higgs model from its limiting cases. These are all signals involving a Higgs coupling to a Kaluza-Klein gauge boson or quark. We identify the clean signal $p p \to W^(i) \to W H$ mediated by a Kaluza-Klein W, which can be present at large rates and is enhanced for even Kaluza-Klein numbers. Due to the very hard lepton coming from the W decay, this signature has little background, and provides a better discovery channel for the Higgs than any of the Standard Model modes, over its entire mass range. A Higgs radiated from new heavy quarks also has large rates, but is much less promising due to very high multiplicity final states.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure

Track A Basic Science

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138319/1/jia218438.pd

Defining the interaction of HIV-1 with the mucosal barriers of the female reproductive tract

Worldwide, HIV-1 infects millions of people annually, the majority of whom are women. To establish infection in the female reproductive tract (FRT), HIV-1 in male ejaculate must overcome numerous innate and adaptive immune factors, traverse the genital epithelium, and establish infection in underlying CD4(+) target cells. How the virus achieves this remains poorly defined. By utilizing a new technique, we define how HIV-1 interacts with different tissues of the FRT using human cervical explants and in vivo exposure in the rhesus macaque vaginal transmission model. Despite previous claims of the squamous epithelium being an efficient barrier to virus entry, we reveal that HIV-1 can penetrate both intact columnar and squamous epithelial barriers to depths where the virus can encounter potential target cells. In the squamous epithelium, we identify virus entry occurring through diffusive percolation, penetrating areas where cell junctions are absent. In the columnar epithelium, we illustrate that virus does not transverse barriers as well as previously thought due to mucus impediment. We also show a statistically significant correlation between the viral load of inocula and the ability of HIV-1 to pervade the squamous barrier. Overall, our results suggest a diffusive percolation mechanism for the initial events of HIV-1 entry. With these data, we also mathematically extrapolate the number of HIV-1 particles that penetrate the mucosa per coital act, providing a biological description of the mechanism for HIV-1 transmission during the acute and chronic stages of infection