Impact of a XENONnT Signal on LHC Dijet Searches

It is well-known that dark matter (DM) direct detection experiments and the LHC are complementary, since they probe physical processes occurring at different energy scales. And yet, there are aspects of this complementarity which are still not fully understood, or exploited. For example, what is the impact that the discovery of DM at XENONnT would have on present and future searches for DM in LHC final states involving a pair of hadronic jets? In this work we investigate the impact of a XENONnT signal on the interpretation of current dijet searches at the LHC, and on the prospects for dijet signal discovery at the High-Luminosity (HL) LHC in the framework of simplified models. Specifically, we focus on a general class of simplified models where DM can have spin 0, 1/2 or 1, and interacts with quarks through the exchange of a scalar, pseudo-scalar, vector, or pseudo-vector mediator. We find that exclusion limits on the mediator's mass and its coupling to quarks from dijet searches at the LHC are significantly affected by a signal at XENONnT, and that $\mathcal{O}(100)$ signal events at XENONnT would drastically narrow the region in the parameter space of simplified models where a dijet signal can be discovered at $5\sigma$ C.L. at the HL-LHC.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, version accepted by JHE

Minimal Asymmetric Dark Matter

In the early Universe, any particle carrying a conserved quantum number and in chemical equilibrium with the thermal bath will unavoidably inherit a particle-antiparticle asymmetry. A new particle of this type, if stable, would represent a candidate for asymmetric dark matter (DM) with an asymmetry directly related to the baryon asymmetry. We study this possibility for a minimal DM sector constituted by just one (generic) $SU(2)_L$ multiplet $\chi$ carrying hypercharge, assuming that at temperatures above the electroweak phase transition an effective operator enforces chemical equilibrium between $\chi$ and the Higgs boson. We argue that limits from DM direct detection searches severely constrain this scenario, leaving as the only possibilities scalar or fermion multiplets with hypercharge $y = 1$, preferentially quintuplets or larger $SU(2)$ representations, and with a mass in the few TeV range.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, included t-channel scattering, added details on charged-neutral mass splitting and indirect detection, accepted in PL

Higher Dimensional Effective Operators for Direct Dark Matter Detection

We discuss higher dimensional effective operators describing interactions between fermionic dark matter and Standard Model particles. They are typically suppressed compared to the leading order effective operators, which can explain why no conclusive direct dark matter detection has been made so far. The ultraviolet completions of the effective operators, which we systematically study, require new particles. These particles can potentially have masses at the TeV scale and can therefore be phenomenologically interesting for LHC physics. We demonstrate that the lowest order options require Higgs-portal interactions generated by dimension six operators. We list all possible tree-level completions with extra fermions and scalars, and we discuss the LHC phenomenology of a specific example with extra heavy fermion doublets.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures, 3 table

Determining Dark Matter properties with a XENONnT/LZ signal and LHC-Run3 mono-jet searches

We develop a method to forecast the outcome of the LHC Run 3 based on the hypothetical detection of $\mathcal{O}(100)$ signal events at XENONnT. Our method relies on a systematic classification of renormalisable single-mediator models for dark matter-quark interactions, and is valid for dark matter candidates of spin less than or equal to one. Applying our method to simulated data, we find that at the end of the LHC Run 3 only two mutually exclusive scenarios would be compatible with the detection of $\mathcal{O}(100)$ signal events at XENONnT. In a first scenario, the energy distribution of the signal events is featureless, as for canonical spin-independent interactions. In this case, if a mono-jet signal is detected at the LHC, dark matter must have spin 1/2 and interact with nucleons through a unique velocity-dependent operator. If a mono-jet signal is not detected, dark matter interacts with nucleons through canonical spin-independent interactions. In a second scenario, the spectral distribution of the signal events exhibits a bump at non zero recoil energies. In this second case, a mono-jet signal can be detected at the LHC Run 3, dark matter must have spin 1/2 and interact with nucleons through a unique momentum-dependent operator. We therefore conclude that the observation of $\mathcal{O}(100)$ signal events at XENONnT combined with the detection, or the lack of detection, of a mono-jet signal at the LHC Run 3 would significantly narrow the range of possible dark matter-nucleon interactions. As we argued above, it can also provide key information on the dark matter particle spin.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, updated operator coefficients and figures, version accepted by PR

Neutrino mass from higher than d=5 effective operators in SUSY, and its test at the LHC

We discuss neutrino masses from higher than d=5 effective operators in a supersymmetric framework, where we explicitly demonstrate which operators could be the leading contribution to neutrino mass in the MSSM and NMSSM. As an example, we focus on the d=7 operator L L H_u H_u H_d H_u, for which we systematically derive all tree-level decompositions. We argue that many of these lead to a linear or inverse see-saw scenario with two extra neutral fermions, where the lepton number violating term is naturally suppressed by a heavy mass scale when the extra mediators are integrated out. We choose one example, for which we discuss possible implementations of the neutrino flavor structure. In addition, we show that the heavy mediators, in this case SU(2) doublet fermions, may indeed be observable at the LHC, since they can be produced by Drell-Yan processes and lead to displaced vertices when they decay. However, the direct observation of lepton number violating processes is on the edge at LHC.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures, 6 table

Dark Matter interactions in an S4×Z5S_4 \times Z_5 flavor symmetry framework

The interactions of dark matter (DM) with the visible sector are often phenomenologically described in the framework of simplified models where the couplings of quarks to the new particles are generally assumed to be universal or have a simple structure motivated by observational benchmarks. They should, however, a priori be treated as free parameters. In this work we discuss one particular realization of the structure of DM couplings based on an $S_4 \times Z_5$ flavor symmetry, which has been shown to account reasonably well for fermion masses and mixing, and compare their effect on observational signals to universal as well as Yukawa-like couplings, which are motivated by minimal flavor violation. We will also comment on how these structures could be constrained in UV complete theories of DM and how DM observables, such as, e.g., relic density and direct detection, can potentially be used as a smoking gun for the underlying flavor symmetries.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure

Functional lesional neurosurgery for tremor: back to the future?

For nearly a century, functional neurosurgery has been applied in the treatment of tremor. While deep brain stimulation has been in the focus of academic interest in recent years, the establishment of incisionless technology, such as MRI-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound, has again stirred interest in lesional approaches.In this article, we will discuss the historical development of surgical technique and targets, as well as the technological state-of-the-art of conventional and incisionless interventions for tremor due to Parkinson's disease, essential and dystonic tremor and tremor related to multiple sclerosis (MS) and midbrain lesions. We will also summarise technique-inherent advantages of each technology and compare their lesion characteristics. From this, we identify gaps in the current literature and derive future directions for functional lesional neurosurgery, in particularly potential trial designs, alternative targets and the unsolved problem of bilateral lesional treatment. The results of a systematic review and meta-analysis of the consistency, efficacy and side effect rate of lesional treatments for tremor are presented separately alongside this article

Pion Cloud Contribution to K+ Nucleus Scattering

A careful reanalysis is done of the contribution to $K^{+}$ nucleus scattering from the interaction of the kaon with the virtual pion cloud. The usual approximations made in the evaluation of the related kaon selfenergy are shown to fail badly. We also find new interaction mechanisms which provide appreciable corrections to the kaon selfenergy. Some of these contribute to the imaginary part below pion creation threshold. The inclusion of these new mechanisms in the inelastic part of the optical potential produces a significant improvement in the differential and total $K^{+}$ nuclear cross sections. Uncertainties remain in the dispersive part of the optical potential.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figures (not all of them included, please request them), report UG-DFM-2/9

The Tensor to Scalar Ratio of Phantom Dark Energy Models

We investigate the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background in a class of models which possess a positive cosmic energy density but negative pressure, with a constant equation of state w = p/rho < -1. We calculate the temperature and polarization anisotropy spectra for both scalar and tensor perturbations by modifying the publicly available code CMBfast. For a constant initial curvature perturbation or tensor normalization, we have calculated the final anisotropy spectra as a function of the dark energy density and equation of state w and of the scalar and tensor spectral indices. This allows us to calculate the dependence of the tensor-to-scalar ratio on w in a model with phantom dark energy, which may be important for interpreting any future detection of long-wavelength gravitational waves.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Contribution of Long Wavelength Gravitational Waves to the CMB Anisotropy

We present an in depth discussion of the production of gravitational waves from an inflationary phase that could have occurred in the early universe, giving derivations for the resulting spectrum and energy density. We also consider the large-scale anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background radiation coming from these waves. Assuming that the observed quadrupole anisotropy comes mostly from gravitational waves (consistent with the predictions of a flat spectrum of scalar density perturbations and the measured dipole anisotropy) we describe in detail how to derive a value for the scale of inflation of $(1.5-5)\times 10^{16}$GeV, which is at a particularly interesting scale for particle physics. This upper limit corresponds to a 95\% confidence level upper limit on the scale of inflation assuming only that the quadrupole anisotropy from gravitational waves is not cancelled by another source. Direct detection of gravitational waves produced by inflation near this scale will have to wait for the next generation of detectors.Comment: (LaTeX 16 pages), 2 figures not included, YCTP-P16-9