Tree Level Unitarity Bounds for the Minimal B-L Model

We have derived the unitarity bounds in the high energy limit for the minimal B-L extension of the Standard Model by analysing the full class of Higgs and would-be Goldstone boson two-to-two scatterings at tree level. Moreover, we have investigated how these limits could vary at some lower critical value of the energy.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables; 1d figure modified, typos corrected, bibliography augmented; published in PRD after minor adjustmen

The Z' boson of the minimal B-L model at future Linear Colliders in e+e- --> mu+mu-

We study the capabilities of future electron-positron Linear Colliders, with centre-of-mass energy at the TeV scale, in accessing the parameter space of a $Z'$ boson within the minimal $B-L$ model. We carry out a detailed comparison between the discovery regions mapped over a two-dimensional configuration space ($Z'$ mass and coupling) at the Large Hadron Collider and possible future Linear Colliders for the case of di-muon production. As known in the literature for other $Z'$ models, we confirm that leptonic machines, as compared to the CERN hadronic accelerator, display an additional potential in discovering a $Z'$ boson as well as in allowing one to study its properties at a level of precision well beyond that of any of the existing colliders.Comment: 5 pages, proceeding of LC09 (Perugia), published by the Italian Physical Society in the Nuovo Cimento C (Colloquia

Variegate galaxy cluster gas content: Mean fraction, scatter, selection effects and covariance with X-ray luminosity

We use a cluster sample selected independently of the intracluster medium content with reliable masses to measure the mean gas mass fraction and its scatter, the biases of the X-ray selection on gas mass fraction, and the covariance between the X-ray luminosity and gas mass. The sample is formed by 34 galaxy clusters in the nearby ($0.050<z<0.135$) Universe, mostly with $14<\log M_{500}/M_\odot \lesssim 14.5$, and with masses calculated with the caustic technique. First, we found that integrated gas density profiles have similar shapes, extending earlier results based on subpopulations of clusters such as those that are relaxed or X-ray bright for their mass. Second, the X-ray unbiased selection of our sample allows us to unveil a variegate population of clusters; the gas mass fraction shows a scatter of $0.17\pm0.04$ dex, possibly indicating a quite variable amount of feedback from cluster to cluster, which is larger than is found in previous samples targeting subpopulations of galaxy clusters, such as relaxed or X-ray bright clusters. The similarity of the gas density profiles induces an almost scatterless relation between X-ray luminosity, gas mass, and halo mass, and modulates selection effects in the halo gas mass fraction: gas-rich clusters are preferentially included in X-ray selected samples. The almost scatterless relation also fixes the relative scatters and slopes of the $L_X-M$ and $M_{gas}-M$ relations and makes core-excised X-ray luminosities and gas masses fully covariant. Therefore, cosmological or astrophysical studies involving X-ray or SZ selected samples need to account for both selection effects and covariance of the studied quantities with X-ray luminosity/SZ strength.Comment: A&A, in press, minor language changes from previous versio

XQCAT: eXtra Quark Combined Analysis Tool

XQCAT (eXtra Quark Combined Analysis Tool) is a tool aimed at determining exclusion confidence levels for scenarios of new physics characterised by the presence of one or multiple heavy extra quarks which interact through Yukawa couplings with any of the Standard Model quarks. The code uses a database of efficiencies for pre-simulated processes of QCD-induced pair production of extra quarks and their subsequent on-shell decays. In the version 1.2 of XQCAT the efficiencies have been computed for a set of seven publicly available search results by the CMS experiment. The input for the code is a text file in which masses, branching ratios and dominant chirality of the couplings of the new quarks are provided. The output of the code is the exclusion confidence levels of the test point for each implemented experimental analysis considered individually and, when possible, in statistical combination.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, version accepted for publication in Comp. Phys. Comm., fixed formatting problems caused by the arXiv's autotex syste

Phenomenology of the minimal B-L extension of the Standard Model

We present the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) discovery potential in the $Z'$ and heavy neutrino sectors of a $U(1)_{B-L}$ enlarged Standard Model also encompassing three heavy Majorana neutrinos. This model exhibits novel signatures at the LHC, the most interesting arising from a $Z'$ decay chain involving heavy neutrinos, eventually decaying into leptons and jets. In particular, this signature allows one to measure the $Z'$ and heavy neutrino masses involved. In addition, over a large region of parameter space, the heavy neutrinos are rather long-lived particles producing distinctive displaced vertices that can be seen in the detectors. Lastly, the simultaneous measurement of both the heavy neutrino mass and decay length enables an estimate of the absolute mass of the parent light neutrino. For completeness, we will also compare the LHC and a future Linear Collider (LC) discovery potentials.Comment: 4 pages, no figures. LaTeX. Talk given at "The 2009 Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics", Krakow, Poland, July 16-22, 200

Framework for Model Independent Analyses of Multiple Extra Quark Scenarios

In this paper we present an analysis strategy and a dedicated tool to determine the exclusion confidence level for any scenario involving multiple heavy extra quarks with generic decay channels, as predicted in several extensions of the Standard Model. We have created, validated and used a software package, called XQCAT (eXtra Quark Combined Analysis Tool), which is based on publicly available experimental data from direct searches for top partners and from Supersymmetry inspired searches. By means of this code, we recast the limits from CMS on new heavy extra quarks considering a complete set of decay channels. The resulting exclusion confidence levels are presented for some simple scenarios with multiple states and general coupling assumptions. Highlighting the importance of combining multiple topology searches to obtain accurate re-interpretations of the existing searches, we discuss the reach of the SUSY analyses so as to set bounds on new quark resonances. In particular, we report on the re-interpretation of the existing limits on benchmark scenarios with one and multiple pair-produced top partners having non-exclusive couplings to the third Standard Model generation of quarks.Comment: 31 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, version accepted for publication in JHE