79 research outputs found
The supercooling window at weak and strong coupling
Supercooled first order phase transitions are typical of theories where conformal symmetry is predominantly spontaneously broken. In these theories the fate of the flat scalar direction is highly sensitive to the size and the scaling dimension of the explicit breaking deformations. For a given deformation, the coupling must lie in a particular region to realize a supercooled first order phase transition. We identify the supercooling window in weakly coupled theories and derive a fully analytical understanding of its boundaries. Mapping these boundaries allows us to identify the deformations enlarging the supercooling window and to characterize their dynamics analytically. For completeness we also discuss strongly coupled conformal field theories with an holographic dual, where the complete characterization of the supercooling window is challenged by calculability issues
Tame D-tadpoles in gauge mediation
We revisit models of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking where messenger
parity is violated. Such a symmetry is usually invoked in order to set to zero
potentially dangerous hypercharge D-term tadpoles. A milder hypothesis is that
the D-tadpole vanishes only at the first order in the gauge coupling constant.
Then the next order leads to a contribution to the sfermion masses which is of
the same magnitude as the usual radiative one. This enlarges the parameter
space of gauge mediated models. We first give a completely general
characterization of this contribution, in terms of particular three-point
functions of hidden sector current multiplet operators. We then explore the
parameter space by means of two simple weakly coupled models, where the
D-tadpole arising at two-loops has actually a mild logarithmic divergence.Comment: 13 pages + 9 pages of appendix, 1 figure; v2: some clarifying
comments added, version to appear in JHE
Electron and hole states in quantum-dot quantum wells within a spherical 8-band model
In order to study heterostructures composed both of materials with strongly
different parameters and of materials with narrow band gaps, we have developed
an approach, which combines the spherical 8-band effective-mass Hamiltonian and
the Burt's envelope function representation. Using this method, electron and
hole states are calculated in CdS/HgS/CdS/H_2O and CdTe/HgTe/CdTe/H_2O
quantum-dot quantum-well heterostructures. Radial components of the wave
functions of the lowest S and P electron and hole states in typical quantum-dot
quantum wells (QDQWs) are presented as a function of radius. The 6-band-hole
components of the radial wave functions of an electron in the 8-band model have
amplitudes comparable with the amplitude of the corresponding 2-band-electron
component. This is a consequence of the coupling between the conduction and
valence bands, which gives a strong nonparabolicity of the conduction band. At
the same time, the 2-band-electron component of the radial wave functions of a
hole in the 8-band model is small compared with the amplitudes of the
corresponding 6-band-hole components. It is shown that in the CdS/HgS/CdS/H_2O
QDQW holes in the lowest states are strongly localized in the well region
(HgS). On the contrary, electrons in this QDQW and both electron and holes in
the CdTe/HgTe/CdTe/H_2O QDQW are distributed through the entire dot. The
importance of the developed theory for QDQWs is proven by the fact that in
contrast to our rigorous 8-band model, there appear spurious states within the
commonly used symmetrized 8-band model.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, E-mail addresses: [email protected],
[email protected]
Exploring Holographic General Gauge Mediation
We study models of gauge mediation with strongly coupled hidden sectors,
employing a hard wall background as an holographic dual description. The
structure of the soft spectrum depends crucially on the boundary conditions one
imposes on bulk fields at the IR wall. Generically, vector and fermion
correlators have poles at zero momentum, leading to gauge mediation by massive
vector messengers and/or generating Dirac gaugino masses. Instead, non-generic
choices of boundary conditions let one cover all of GGM parameter space.
Enriching the background with R-symmetry breaking scalars, the SSM soft term
structure becomes more constrained and similar to previously studied top-down
models, while retaining the more analytic control the present bottom-up
approach offers.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures; v2: typos corrected and refs adde
The muon Smasher's guide
We lay out a comprehensive physics case for a future high-energy muon collider, exploring a range of collision energies (from 1 to 100 TeV) and luminosities. We highlight the advantages of such a collider over proposed alternatives. We show how one can leverage both the point-like nature of the muons themselves as well as the cloud of electroweak radiation that surrounds the beam to blur the dichotomy between energy and precision in the search for new physics. The physics case is buttressed by a range of studies with applications to electroweak symmetry breaking, dark matter, and the naturalness of the weak scale. Furthermore, we make sharp connections with complementary experiments that are probing new physics effects using electric dipole moments, flavor violation, and gravitational waves. An extensive appendix provides cross section predictions as a function of the center-of-mass energy for many canonical simplified models
Supercurrent multiplet correlators at weak and strong coupling
Correlators of gauge invariant operators provide useful information on the dynamics, phases and spectra of a quantum field theory. In this paper, we consider four dimensional N = 1 supersymmetric theories and focus our attention on the supercurrent multiplet. We give a complete characterization of two-point functions of operators belonging to such multiplet, like the energy-momentum tensor and the supercurrent, and study the relations between them. We discuss instances of weakly coupled and strongly coupled theories, in which different symmetries, like conformal invariance and supersymmetry, may be conserved and/or spontaneously or explicitly broken. For theories at strong coupling, we exploit AdS/CFT techniques. We provide a holographic description of different properties of a strongly coupled theory, including a realization of the Goldstino mode in a simple illustrative model. \ua9 The Authors
Feebly-interacting particles: FIPs 2020 workshop report
With the establishment and maturation of the experimental programs searching for new physics with sizeable couplings at the LHC, there is an increasing interest in the broader particle and astrophysics community for exploring the physics of light and feebly-interacting particles as a paradigm complementary to a New Physics sector at the TeV scale and beyond. FIPs 2020 has been the first workshop fully dedicated to the physics of feebly-interacting particles and was held virtually from 31 August to 4 September 2020. The workshop has gathered together experts from collider, beam dump, fixed target experiments, as well as from astrophysics, axions/ALPs searches, current/future neutrino experiments, and dark matter direct detection communities to discuss progress in experimental searches and underlying theory models for FIPs physics, and to enhance the cross-fertilisation across different fields. FIPs 2020 has been complemented by the topical workshop Physics Beyond Colliders meets theory, held at CERN from 7 June to 9 June 2020. This document presents the summary of the talks presented at the workshops and the outcome of the subsequent discussions held immediately after. It aims to provide a clear picture of this blooming field and proposes a few recommendations for the next round of experimental results
Holographic Correlators for General Gauge Mediation
We use holographic techniques to compute two-point functions of operators
belonging to a conserved current supermultiplet in theories which break
supersymmetry at strong coupling. These are the relevant quantities one has to
compute in models of gauge mediation to determine the soft spectrum in
supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model (SSM). Such holographic
approach can be used for diverse gravitational backgrounds, but here we focus,
for definiteness, on asymptotically AdS backgrounds. After presenting the
general framework, we apply our formulas to two explicit examples which differ
by the nature of the SSM gauginos, which have Dirac or Majorana masses,
corresponding to models that respectively preserve or break R-symmetry.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figures. v3: clarifications added, typos corrected, refs
added, one figure improve
The CLIC Potential for New Physics
The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a mature option for the future of high
energy physics. It combines the benefits of the clean environment of
colliders with operation at high centre-of-mass energies, allowing to probe
scales beyond the reach of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for many scenarios of new physics. This places the CLIC project at a privileged spot in between the precision and energy frontiers, with capabilities that will significantly extend knowledge on both fronts at the end of the LHC era. In this report we review and revisit the potential of CLIC to search, directly and indirectly, for physics beyond the Standard Model
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