28 research outputs found
Search for the Standard Model Higgs boson at LEP
The four LEP Collaborations, ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL, have collected a total of 2461 pb^(â1) of e^+e^â collision data at centre-of-mass energies between 189 and 209 GeV. The data are used to search for the Standard Model Higgs boson. The search results of the four Collaborations are combined and examined in a likelihood test for their consistency with two hypotheses: the background hypothesis and the signal plus background hypothesis. The corresponding confidences have been computed as functions of the hypothetical Higgs boson mass. A lower bound of 114.4 GeV/c^2 is established, at the 95% confidence level, on the mass of the Standard Model Higgs boson. The LEP data are also used to set upper bounds on the HZZ coupling for various assumptions concerning the decay of the Higgs boson
Theoretical predictions for the direct detection of neutralino dark matter in the NMSSM
We analyse the direct detection of neutralino dark matter in the framework of
the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. After performing a detailed
analysis of the parameter space, taking into account all the available
constraints from LEPII, we compute the neutralino-nucleon cross section, and
compare the results with the sensitivity of detectors. We find that sizable
values for the detection cross section, within the reach of dark matter
detectors, are attainable in this framework. For example, neutralino-proton
cross sections compatible with the sensitivity of present experiments can be
obtained due to the exchange of very light Higgses with m_{h_1^0}\lsim 70
GeV. Such Higgses have a significant singlet composition, thus escaping
detection and being in agreement with accelerator data. The lightest neutralino
in these cases exhibits a large singlino-Higgsino composition, and a mass in
the range 50\lsim m_{\tilde\chi_1^0}\lsim 100 GeV.Comment: Final version to appear in JHEP. References added. LaTeX, 53 pages,
23 figure
Naturalness and Higgs Decays in the MSSM with a Singlet
The simplest extension of the supersymmetric standard model - the addition of
one singlet superfield - can have a profound impact on the Higgs and its
decays. We perform a general operator analysis of this scenario, focusing on
the phenomenologically distinct scenarios that can arise, and not restricting
the scope to the narrow framework of the NMSSM. We reexamine decays to four b
quarks and four tau's, finding that they are still generally viable, but at the
edge of LEP limits. We find a broad set of Higgs decay modes, some new,
including those with four gluon final states, as well as more general six and
eight parton final states. We find the phenomenology of these scenarios is
dramatically impacted by operators typically ignored, specifically those
arising from D-terms in the hidden sector, and those arising from weak-scale
colored fields. In addition to sensitivity of m_Z, there are potential tunings
of other aspects of the spectrum. In spite of this, these models can be very
natural, with light stops and a Higgs as light as 82 GeV. These scenarios
motivate further analyses of LEP data as well as studies of the detection
capabilities of future colliders to the new decay channels presented.Comment: 3 figures, 1 appendix; version to appear in JHEP; typos fixed and
additional references and acknowledgements adde
Standard Model Higgs boson searches with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider
The investigation of the mechanism responsible for electroweak symmetry
breaking is one of the most important tasks of the scientific program of the
Large Hadron Collider. The experimental results on the search of the Standard
Model Higgs boson with 1 to 2 fb^-1 of proton proton collision data at sqrt s=7
TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector are presented and discussed. No significant
excess of events is found with respect to the expectations from Standard Model
processes, and the production of a Higgs boson is excluded at 95% Confidence
Level for the mass regions 144-232, 256-282 and 296-466 GeV.Comment: Proceedings of the Lepton Photon 2011 Conference, to appear in
"Pramana - journal of phsyics". 11 pages, 13 figure
The MSSM fine tuning problem: a way out
As is well known, electroweak breaking in the MSSM requires substantial
fine-tuning, mainly due to the smallness of the tree-level Higgs quartic
coupling, lambda_tree. Hence the fine tuning is efficiently reduced in
supersymmetric models with larger lambda_tree, as happens naturally when the
breaking of SUSY occurs at a low scale (not far from the TeV). We show, in
general and with specific examples, that a dramatic improvement of the fine
tuning (so that there is virtually no fine-tuning) is indeed a very common
feature of these scenarios for wide ranges of tan(beta) and the Higgs mass
(which can be as large as several hundred GeV if desired, but this is not
necessary). The supersymmetric flavour problems are also drastically improved
due to the absence of RG cross-talk between soft mass parameters.Comment: 28 pages, 9 PS figures, LaTeX Published versio
Next-to-leading Corrections to the Higgs Boson Transverse Momentum Spectrum in Gluon Fusion
We present a fully analytic calculation of the Higgs boson transverse
momentum and rapidity distributions, for nonzero Higgs , at
next-to-leading order in the infinite-top-mass approximation. We separate the
cross section into a part that contains the dominant soft, virtual, collinear,
and small--enhanced contributions, and the remainder, which is
organized by the contributions due to different parton helicities. We use this
cross section to investigate analytically the small- limit and compare
with the expectation from the resummation of large logarithms of the type
. We also compute numerically the cross section at moderate
where a fixed-order calculation is reliable. We find a -factor
that varies from , and a reduction in the scale dependence, as
compared to leading order. Our analysis suggests that the contribution of
current parton distributions to the total uncertainty on this cross section at
the LHC is probably less than that due to uncalculated higher orders.Comment: 40 pages, 10 figures, JHEP style (minor changes, added reference
Direct Higgs production and jet veto at the Tevatron and the LHC in NNLO QCD
We consider Higgs boson production through gluon--gluon fusion in hadron
collisions, when a veto is applied on the transverse momenta of the
accompanying hard jets. We compute the QCD radiative corrections to this
process at NLO and NNLO. The NLO calculation is complete. The NNLO calculation
uses the recently evaluated NNLO soft and virtual QCD contributions to the
inclusive cross section. We find that the jet veto reduces the impact of the
NLO and NNLO contributions, the reduction being more sizeable at the LHC than
at the Tevatron.Comment: 22 pages, 12 postscript figure
Constraints on Supersymmetric Flavour Models from b->s gamma
We consider the effects of departures from minimal flavour violations (MFV)
in the context of CMSSM-like theories. Second and third generation off-diagonal
elements in the Yukawa, sfermion, and trilinear mass matrices are taken to be
non-zero at the GUT scale. These are run down together with MSSM parameters to
the electroweak scale. We apply constraints from fermion masses and CKM matrix
elements to limit the range of the new free parameters of the model. We
determine the effect of the departure from MFV on the branching ratio of b->s
gamma. We find that only when the expansion parameter in the down-squark sector
is relatively large there is a noticeable effect, which tends to relax the
lower limit from b->s gamma on the universal gaugino mass. We also find that
the expansion parameter associated with the slepton sector needs to be smaller
than the corresponding parameter in the down-squark sector in order to be
compliant with the bound imposed by the branching ratio of tau-> mu gamma.Comment: Comments: 43 pages, 14 figures. Version accepted for publication:
typos corrected, rewritten for better understanding and references adde
Phenomenology of GUT-less Supersymmetry Breaking
We study models in which supersymmetry breaking appears at an intermediate
scale, M_{in}, below the GUT scale. We assume that the soft
supersymmetry-breaking parameters of the MSSM are universal at M_{in}, and
analyze the morphology of the constraints from cosmology and collider
experiments on the allowed regions of parameter space as M_{in} is reduced from
the GUT scale. We present separate analyses of the (m_{1/2},m_0) planes for
tan(beta)=10 and tan(beta)=50, as well as a discussion of non-zero trilinear
couplings, A_0. Specific scenarios where the gaugino and scalar masses appear
to be universal below the GUT scale have been found in mirage-mediation models,
which we also address here. We demand that the lightest neutralino be the LSP,
and that the relic neutralino density not conflict with measurements by WMAP
and other observations. At moderate values of M_{in}, we find that the allowed
regions of the (m_{1/2},m_0) plane are squeezed by the requirements of
electroweak symmetry breaking and that the lightest neutralino be the LSP,
whereas the constraint on the relic density is less severe. At very low M_{in},
the electroweak vacuum conditions become the dominant constraint, and a
secondary source of astrophysical cold dark matter would be necessary to
explain the measured relic density for nearly all values of the soft
SUSY-breaking parameters and tan(beta). We calculate the neutralino-nucleon
cross sections for viable scenarios and compare them with the present and
projected limits from direct dark matter searches.Comment: 35 pages, 9 figures; typos corrected, references adde
Higgs Boson Production in Association with Three Jets
The scattering amplitudes for Higgs + 5 partons are computed, with the Higgs
boson produced via gluon fusion in the large top-quark mass limit. A
parton-level analysis of Higgs + 3 jet production via gluon fusion and via
weak-boson fusion is presented, and the effectiveness of a central-jet veto is
analysed.Comment: 26 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses JHEP3.cl