DarkSUSY 6: An advanced tool to compute dark matter properties numerically

The nature of dark matter remains one of the key science questions. Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are among the best motivated particle physics candidates, allowing to explain the measured dark matter density by employing standard big-bang thermodynamics. Examples include the lightest supersymmetric particle, though many alternative particles have been suggested as a solution to the dark matter puzzle. We introduce here a radically new version of the widely used DarkSUSY package, which allows to compute the properties of such dark matter particles numerically. With DarkSUSY 6 one can accurately predict a large variety of astrophysical signals from dark matter, such as direct detection rates in low-background counting experiments and indirect detection signals through antiprotons, antideuterons, gamma rays and positrons from the Galactic halo, or high-energy neutrinos from the center of the Earth or of the Sun. For thermally produced dark matter like WIMPs, high-precision tools are provided for the computation of the relic density in the Universe today, as well as for the size of the smallest dark matter protohalos. Furthermore, the code allows to calculate dark matter self-interaction rates, which may affect the distribution of dark matter at small cosmological scales. Compared to earlier versions, DarkSUSY 6 introduces many significant physics improvements and extensions. The most fundamental new feature of this release, however, is that the code has been completely re-organized and brought into a highly modular and flexible shape. Switching between different pre-implemented dark matter candidates has thus become straight-forward, just as adding new - WIMP or non-WIMP - particle models or replacing any given functionality in a fully user-specified way. In this article, we describe the physics behind the computer package, along with the main structure and philosophy of this major revision of DarkSUSY. A detailed manual is provided together with the public release at www.darksusy.org

Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 1. Inclusive Observables

This Report summarizes the results of the first 10 months’ activities of the LHC Higgs Cross Sections Working Group. The main goal of the working group was to present the status-of-art on Higgs Physics at the LHC integrating all new results that have appeared in the last few years. The Report is more than a mere collection of the proceedings of the general meetings. The subgroups have been working in different directions. An attempt has been made to present the first Report from these subgroups in a complete and homogeneous form. The subgroups’ contributions correspondingly comprise the main parts of the Report. A significant amount of work has been performed in providing higher-order corrections to the Higgs-boson cross sections and pinning down the theoretical uncertainty of the Standard Model predictions. This Report comprises explicit numerical results on total cross sections, leaving the issues of event selection cuts and differential distributions to future publications. The subjects for further study are identified

LHC HXSWG interim recommendations to explore the coupling structure of a Higgs-like particle

This document presents an interim framework in which the coupling structure of a Higgs-like particle can be studied. After discussing different options and approximations, recommendations on specific benchmark parametrizations to be used to fit the data are given.This document presents an interim framework in which the coupling structure of a Higgs-like particle can be studied. After discussing different options and approximations, recommendations on specific benchmark parametrizations to be used to fit the data are given