675 research outputs found
Supergravity Inspired Warped Compactifications and Effective Cosmological Constants
We propose a supergravity inspired derivation of a Randall-Sundrum's type
action as an effective description of the dynamics of a brane coupled to the
bulk through gravity only. The cosmological constants in the bulk and on the
brane appear at the classical level when solving the equations of motion
describing the bosonic sector of supergravities in ten and eleven dimensions
coupled to the brane. They are related to physical quantities like the brane
electric charge and thus inherit some of their physical properties. The most
appealing property is their quantization: in d_\perp extra dimensions,
Lambda_brane goes like N and Lambda_bulk like N^{2/(2-d_perp)}. This dynamical
origin also explains the apparent fine-tuning required in the Randall-Sundrum
scenario. In our approach, the cosmological constants are derived parameters
and cannot be chosen arbitrarily; instead they are determined by the underlying
Lagrangian. Some of the branes we construct that support cosmological constant
in the bulk have supersymmetric properties: D3-branes of type IIB superstring
theory provide an explicit example.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX, 1 figure. v2: references added and a comment about
D-8 brane of massive IIA sugra included v3: improved argument on the
effective cosmological constants quantization and clarified discussion on the
supersymmetric issue of the solutions constructed. Final version to appear in
NP
Inflating Intersecting Branes and Remarks on the Hierarchy Problem
We generalize solutions of Einstein's equations for intersecting branes in
higher dimensional spacetimes to the nonstatic case, modeling an expanding
universe. The relation between the Hubble rate, the brane tensions, and the
bulk cosmological constant is similar to the case of a single 3-brane in a
5-dimensional spacetime. However, because the bulk inflates as well as the
branes, this class of solutions suffers from Newton's constant tending toward
zero on the TeV brane, where the Randall-Sundrum mechanism should solve the
weak scale hierarchy problem. The strength of gravity remains constant on the
Planck brane, however.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX. v2:Misprint in eq. (23) corrected; citations fixed
and clarified relationship of our work to hep-th/9909053 and hep-th/9909076
v3: final version to appear in PLB. Corrected discussion of the time
dependance of the 4-D Planck mass on the TeV brane. Some references added to
earlier works on warped Kaluza-Klein compactification
Probing top-Higgs non-standard interactions at the LHC
Effective interactions involving both the top quark and the Higgs field are
among the least constrained of all possible (gauge invariant) dimension-six
operators in the Standard Model. Such a handful of operators, in particular the
top quark chromomagnetic dipole moment, might encapsulate signs of the new
physics responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking. In this work, we compute
the contributions of these operators to inclusive Higgs and t tbar h
production. We argue that: i) rather strong constraints on the overall size of
these operators can already be obtained from the current limits/evidence on
Higgs production at the LHC; ii) t tbar h production will provide further key
information that is complementary to t tbar measurements, and the possibility
of discriminating among different contributions by performing accurate
measurements of total and differential rates.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures. v2: Logarithmic contribution of the top quark
chromomagnetic operator to Higgs production by gluon fusion correcte
Elastic Scattering and Direct Detection of Kaluza-Klein Dark Matter
Recently a new dark matter candidate has been proposed as a consequence of
universal compact extra dimensions. It was found that to account for
cosmological observations, the masses of the first Kaluza-Klein modes (and thus
the approximate size of the extra dimension) should be in the range 600-1200
GeV when the lightest Kaluza-Klein particle (LKP) corresponds to the
hypercharge boson and in the range 1 - 1.8 TeV when it corresponds to a
neutrino. In this article, we compute the elastic scattering cross sections
between Kaluza-Klein dark matter and nuclei both when the lightest Kaluza-Klein
particle is a KK mode of a weak gauge boson, and when it is a neutrino. We
include nuclear form factor effects which are important to take into account
due to the large LKP masses favored by estimates of the relic density. We
present both differential and integrated rates for present and proposed
Germanium, NaI and Xenon detectors. Observable rates at current detectors are
typically less than one event per year, but the next generation of detectors
can probe a significant fraction of the relevant parameter space.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures; v2,v3: Ref. added, discussion improved,
conclusions unchanged. v4: Introduction was expanded to be more appropriate
for non experts. Various clarifications added in the text. Version to be
published in New Journal of Physic
Dirac Neutrino Dark Matter
We investigate the possibility that dark matter is made of heavy Dirac
neutrinos with mass in the range [O(1) GeV- a few TeV] and with suppressed but
non-zero coupling to the Standard Model Z as well as a coupling to an
additional Z' gauge boson. The first part of this paper provides a
model-independent analysis for the relic density and direct detection in terms
of four main parameters: the mass, the couplings to the Z, to the Z' and to the
Higgs. These WIMP candidates arise naturally as Kaluza-Klein states in
extra-dimensional models with extended electroweak gauge group SU(2)_L* SU(2)_R
* U(1). They can be stable because of Kaluza-Klein parity or of other discrete
symmetries related to baryon number for instance, or even, in the low mass and
low coupling limits, just because of a phase-space-suppressed decay width. An
interesting aspect of warped models is that the extra Z' typically couples only
to the third generation, thus avoiding the usual experimental constraints. In
the second part of the paper, we illustrate the situation in details in a
warped GUT model.Comment: 35 pages, 25 figures; v2: JCAP version; presentation and plots
improved, results unchange
The Indirect Search for Dark Matter with IceCube
We revisit the prospects for IceCube and similar kilometer-scale telescopes
to detect neutrinos produced by the annihilation of weakly interacting massive
dark matter particles (WIMPs) in the Sun. We emphasize that the astrophysics of
the problem is understood; models can be observed or, alternatively, ruled out.
In searching for a WIMP with spin-independent interactions with ordinary
matter, IceCube is only competitive with direct detection experiments if the
WIMP mass is sufficiently large. For spin-dependent interactions IceCube
already has improved the best limits on spin-dependent WIMP cross sections by
two orders of magnitude. This is largely due to the fact that models with
significant spin-dependent couplings to protons are the least constrained and,
at the same time, the most promising because of the efficient capture of WIMPs
in the Sun. We identify models where dark matter particles are beyond the reach
of any planned direct detection experiments while being within reach of
neutrino telescopes. In summary, we find that, even when contemplating recent
direct detection results, neutrino telescopes have the opportunity to play an
important as well as complementary role in the search for particle dark matter.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, published in the New Journal of Physics 11
105019 http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/1367-2630/11/10/105019, new version
submitted to correct Abstract in origina
An Introduction to Extra Dimensions
Models that involve extra dimensions have introduced completely new ways of
looking up on old problems in theoretical physics. The aim of the present notes
is to provide a brief introduction to the many uses that extra dimensions have
found over the last few years, mainly following an effective field theory point
of view. Most parts of the discussion are devoted to models with flat extra
dimensions, covering both theoretical and phenomenological aspects. We also
discuss some of the new ideas for model building where extra dimensions may
play a role, including symmetry breaking by diverse new and old mechanisms.
Some interesting applications of these ideas are discussed over the notes,
including models for neutrino masses and proton stability. The last part of
this review addresses some aspects of warped extra dimensions, and graviton
localization.Comment: 39 pages. Two figures. Comments and references added. Lectures given
at the XI Mexican School of Particles and Fields. Xalapa, Mexico, August
1-13, 200
Gamma Ray Lines from a Universal Extra Dimension
Indirect Dark Matter searches are based on the observation of secondary
particles produced by the annihilation or decay of Dark Matter. Among them,
gamma-rays are perhaps the most promising messengers, as they do not suffer
deflection or absorption on Galactic scales, so their observation would
directly reveal the position and the energy spectrum of the emitting source.
Here, we study the detailed gamma-ray energy spectrum of Kaluza--Klein Dark
Matter in a theory with 5 Universal Extra Dimensions. We focus in particular on
the two body annihilation of Dark Matter particles into a photon and another
particle, which produces monochromatic photons, resulting in a line in the
energy spectrum of gamma rays. Previous calculations in the context of the five
dimensional UED model have computed the line signal from annihilations into
\gamma \gamma, but we extend these results to include \gamma Z and \gamma H
final states. We find that these spectral lines are subdominant compared to the
predicted \gamma \gamma signal, but they would be important as follow-up
signals in the event of the observation of the \gamma \gamma line, in order to
distinguish the 5d UED model from other theoretical scenarios.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure
Cosmological Consequences of Nearly Conformal Dynamics at the TeV scale
Nearly conformal dynamics at the TeV scale as motivated by the hierarchy
problem can be characterized by a stage of significant supercooling at the
electroweak epoch. This has important cosmological consequences. In particular,
a common assumption about the history of the universe is that the reheating
temperature is high, at least high enough to assume that TeV-mass particles
were once in thermal equilibrium. However, as we discuss in this paper, this
assumption is not well justified in some models of strong dynamics at the TeV
scale. We then need to reexamine how to achieve baryogenesis in these theories
as well as reconsider how the dark matter abundance is inherited. We argue that
baryonic and dark matter abundances can be explained naturally in these setups
where reheating takes place by bubble collisions at the end of the strongly
first-order phase transition characterizing conformal symmetry breaking, even
if the reheating temperature is below the electroweak scale GeV. We
also discuss inflation as well as gravity wave smoking gun signatures of this
class of models.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure
Indirect Detection of Kaluza-Klein Dark Matter from Latticized Universal Dimensions
We consider Kaluza-Klein dark matter from latticized universal dimensions. We
motivate and investigate two different lattice models, where the models differ
in the choice of boundary conditions. The models reproduce relevant features of
the continuum model for Kaluza-Klein dark matter. For the model with simple
boundary conditions, this is the case even for a model with only a few lattice
sites. We study the effects of the latticization on the differential flux of
positrons from Kaluza-Klein dark matter annihilation in the galactic halo. We
find that for different choices of the compactification radius, the
differential positron flux rapidly converges to the continuum model results as
a function of the number of lattice sites. In addition, we consider the
prospects for upcoming space-based experiments such as PAMELA and AMS-02 to
probe the latticization effect.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures, LaTeX. Final version published in JCA
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