Bounds on Dark Matter Interactions with Electroweak Gauge Bosons

We investigate scenarios in which dark matter interacts with the Standard Model primarily through electroweak gauge bosons. We employ an effective field theory framework wherein the Standard Model and the dark matter particle are the only light states in order to derive model-independent bounds. Bounds on such interactions are derived from dark matter production by weak boson fusion at the LHC, indirect detection searches for the products of dark matter annihilation and from the measured invisible width of the $Z^0$. We find that limits on the UV scale, $\Lambda$, reach weak scale values for most operators and values of the dark matter mass, thus probing the most natural scenarios in the WIMP dark matter paradigm. Our bounds suggest that light dark matter (m_{\chi}\lsim m_Z/2 or m_{\chi}\lsim 100-200\gev, depending on the operator) cannot interact only with the electroweak gauge bosons of the Standard Model, but rather requires additional operator contributions or dark sector structure to avoid overclosing the universe.Comment: 45 pages, 26 figure

Higgs Properties in the Fourth Generation MSSM: Boosted Signals Over the 3G Plan

The generalization of the MSSM to the case of four chiral fermion generations (4GMSSM) can lead to significant changes in the phenomenology of the otherwise familiar Higgs sector. In most of the 3GMSSM parameter space, the lighter CP-even $h$ is $\sim 115-125$ GeV and mostly Standard Model-like while $H,A,H^\pm$ are all relatively heavy. Furthermore, the ratio of Higgs vevs, $\tan \beta$, is relatively unconstrained. In contrast to this, in the 4GMSSM, heavy fourth generation fermion loops drive the masses of $h,H,H^\pm$ to large values while the CP-odd boson, $A$, can remain relatively light and $\tan \beta$ is restricted to the range 1/2 \lsim \tan \beta \lsim 2 due to perturbativity requirements on Yukawa couplings. We explore this scenario in some detail, concentrating on the collider signatures of the light CP-odd Higgs at both the Tevatron and LHC. We find that while $gg \to A$ may lead to a potential signal in the $\tau^+\tau^-$ channel at the LHC, $A$ may first be observed in the $\gamma \gamma$ channel due to a highly loop-enhanced cross section that can be more than an order of magnitude greater than that of a SM Higgs for $A$ masses of $\sim 115-120$ and $\tan\beta<1$. We find that the CP-even states $h,H$ are highly mixed and can have atypical branching fractions. Precision electroweak constraints, particularly for the light $A$ parameter space region, are examined in detail.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures; typos fixed, refs adde

No Prejudice in Space

We present a summary of recent results obtained from a scan of the 19-dimensional parameter space of the pMSSM and its implications for dark matter searches.Comment: 12 pgs, Presented at the Dark Matter Conference, 9-11 Feb 2009, Arcetri, Florence, Ital

Warped Phenomenology of Higher-Derivative Gravity

We examine the phenomenological implications at colliders for the existence of higher-derivative gravity terms as extensions to the Randall-Sundrum model. Such terms are expected to arise on rather general grounds, e.g., from string theory. In 5-d, if we demand that the theory be unitary and ghost free, these new contributions to the bulk action are uniquely of the Gauss-Bonnet form. We demonstrate that the usual expectations for the production cross section and detailed properties of graviton Kaluza-Klein resonances and TeV-scale black holes can be substantially altered by existence of these additional contributions. It is shown that measurements at future colliders will be highly sensitive to the presence of such terms.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figure

Constraints on the pMSSM from LAT Observations of Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies

We examine the ability for the Large Area Telescope (LAT) to constrain Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) dark matter through a combined analysis of Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies. We examine the Lightest Supersymmetric Particles (LSPs) for a set of ~71k experimentally valid supersymmetric models derived from the phenomenological-MSSM (pMSSM). We find that none of these models can be excluded at 95% confidence by the current analysis; nevertheless, many lie within the predicted reach of future LAT analyses. With two years of data, we find that the LAT is currently most sensitive to light LSPs (m_LSP < 50 GeV) annihilating into tau-pairs and heavier LSPs annihilating into b-bbar. Additionally, we find that future LAT analyses will be able to probe some LSPs that form a sub-dominant component of dark matter. We directly compare the LAT results to direct detection experiments and show the complementarity of these search methods.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, submitted to JCA

Supersymmetry Without Prejudice at the LHC

The discovery and exploration of Supersymmetry in a model-independent fashion will be a daunting task due to the large number of soft-breaking parameters in the MSSM. In this paper, we explore the capability of the ATLAS detector at the LHC ($\sqrt s=14$ TeV, 1 fb$^{-1}$) to find SUSY within the 19-dimensional pMSSM subspace of the MSSM using their standard transverse missing energy and long-lived particle searches that were essentially designed for mSUGRA. To this end, we employ a set of $\sim 71$k previously generated model points in the 19-dimensional parameter space that satisfy all of the existing experimental and theoretical constraints. Employing ATLAS-generated SM backgrounds and following their approach in each of 11 missing energy analyses as closely as possible, we explore all of these $71$k model points for a possible SUSY signal. To test our analysis procedure, we first verify that we faithfully reproduce the published ATLAS results for the signal distributions for their benchmark mSUGRA model points. We then show that, requiring all sparticle masses to lie below 1(3) TeV, almost all(two-thirds) of the pMSSM model points are discovered with a significance $S>5$ in at least one of these 11 analyses assuming a 50\% systematic error on the SM background. If this systematic error can be reduced to only 20\% then this parameter space coverage is increased. These results are indicative that the ATLAS SUSY search strategy is robust under a broad class of Supersymmetric models. We then explore in detail the properties of the kinematically accessible model points which remain unobservable by these search analyses in order to ascertain problematic cases which may arise in general SUSY searches.Comment: 69 pages, 40 figures, Discussion adde

Pharmacokinetic of myriocin in rabbit&#8217;s eyes

Myriocin (Myr) is a suicide inactivator of ceramide synthesis with a complex lipid multifunctional structure. Its biological activity is exerted at very low doses, and thus highly performing quantitative method are needed [1]. The pharmacological development of Myr to modulate ceramide levels also requires currently unavailable ADME information in healthy and pathological animal models

Quantum Radiation from a 5-Dimensional Rotating Black Hole

We study a massless scalar field propagating in the background of a five-dimensional rotating black hole. We showed that in the Myers-Perry metric describing such a black hole the massless field equation allows the separation of variables. The obtained angular equation is a generalization of the equation for spheroidal functions. The radial equation is similar to the radial Teukolsky equation for the 4-dimensional Kerr metric. We use these results to quantize the massless scalar field in the space-time of the 5-dimensional rotating black hole and to derive expressions for energy and angular momentum fluxes from such a black hole.Comment: references added, accepted for publication in Physical Review