Precision Measurements of Higgs Couplings: Implications for New Physics Scales

The measured properties of the recently discovered Higgs boson are in good agreement with predictions from the Standard Model. However, small deviations in the Higgs couplings may manifest themselves once the currently large uncertainties will be improved as part of the LHC program and at a future Higgs factory. We review typical new physics scenarios that lead to observable modifications of the Higgs interactions. They can be divided into two broad categories: mixing effects as in portal models or extended Higgs sectors, and vertex loop effects from new matter or gauge fields. In each model we relate coupling deviations to their effective new physics scale. It turns out that with percent level precision the Higgs couplings will be sensitive to the multi-TeV regime.Comment: Invited review for Journal of Physics G, 33pp; v2: references added and improved discussion of operator basis in section 2.

Effects of SUSY-QCD in hadronic Higgs production at next-to-next-to-leading order

An estimate of the NNLO supersymmetric QCD effects for Higgs production at hadron colliders is given. Assuming an effective gluon-Higgs interaction, these corrections enter only in terms of process-independent, factorizable terms. We argue that the current knowledge of these terms up to NLO is sufficient to derive the NNLO hadronic cross section within the limitations of the standard theoretical uncertainties arising mainly from renormalization and factorization scale variations. The SUSY contributions are small with respect to the QCD effects, which means that the NNLO corrections to Higgs production are very similar in the Standard Model and the MSSM.Comment: LaTeX, 5 pages, 3 embedded PostScript figure

Supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories with local coupling: The supersymmetric gauge

Supersymmetric pure Yang-Mills theory is formulated with a local, i.e. space-time dependent, complex coupling in superspace. Super-Yang-Mills theories with local coupling have an anomaly, which has been first investigated in the Wess-Zumino gauge and there identified as an anomaly of supersymmetry. In a manifest supersymmetric formulation the anomaly appears in two other identities: The first one describes the non-renormalization of the topological term, the second relates the renormalization of the gauge coupling to the renormalization of the complex supercoupling. Only one of the two identities can be maintained in perturbation theory. We discuss the two versions and derive the respective beta function of the local supercoupling, which is non-holomorphic in the first version, but directly related to the coupling renormalization, and holomorphic in the second version, but has a non-trivial, i.e.anomalous, relation to the beta function of the gauge coupling.Comment: References correcte

Roots of the derivative of the Riemann zeta function and of characteristic polynomials

We investigate the horizontal distribution of zeros of the derivative of the Riemann zeta function and compare this to the radial distribution of zeros of the derivative of the characteristic polynomial of a random unitary matrix. Both cases show a surprising bimodal distribution which has yet to be explained. We show by example that the bimodality is a general phenomenon. For the unitary matrix case we prove a conjecture of Mezzadri concerning the leading order behavior, and we show that the same follows from the random matrix conjectures for the zeros of the zeta function.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure

Cabozantinib in hepatocellular carcinoma: results of a phase 2 placebo-controlled randomized discontinuation study.

BackgroundCabozantinib, an orally bioavailable inhibitor of tyrosine kinases including MET, AXL, and VEGF receptors, was assessed in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as part of a phase 2 randomized discontinuation trial with nine tumor-type cohorts.Patients and methodsEligible patients had Child-Pugh A liver function and ≤1 prior systemic anticancer regimen, completed ≥4 weeks before study entry. The cabozantinib starting dose was 100 mg daily. After an initial 12-week cabozantinib treatment period, patients with stable disease (SD) per Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) version 1.0 were randomized to cabozantinib or placebo. The primary endpoint of the lead-in stage was objective response rate (ORR) at week 12, and the primary endpoint of the randomized stage was progression-free survival (PFS).ResultsAmong the 41 HCC patients enrolled, the week 12 ORR was 5%, with 2 patients achieving a confirmed partial response (PR). The week 12 disease control rate (PR or SD) was 66% (Asian subgroup: 73%). Of patients with ≥1 post-baseline scan, 78% had tumor regression, with no apparent relationship to prior sorafenib therapy. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) response (>50% reduction from baseline) occurred in 9 of the 26 (35%) patients with elevated baseline AFP and ≥1 post-baseline measurement. Twenty-two patients with SD at week 12 were randomized. Median PFS after randomization was 2.5 months with cabozantinib and 1.4 months with placebo, although this difference was not statistically significant. Median PFS and overall survival from Day 1 in all patients were 5.2 and 11.5 months, respectively. The most common grade 3/4 adverse events, regardless of attribution, were diarrhea (20%), hand-foot syndrome (15%), and thrombocytopenia (15%). Dose reductions were utilized in 59% of patients.ConclusionsCabozantinib has clinical activity in HCC patients, including objective tumor responses, disease stabilization, and reductions in AFP. Adverse events were managed with dose reductions.Trial registration numberNCT00940225

Endoscopic Proximal Adductor Lengthening for Chronic Adductor-Related Groin Pain

© 2018 Arthroscopy Association of North America Proximal adductor injuries are relatively common groin injuries in athletes. Various tenotomy techniques have been described including open, partial, and percutaneous approaches. Current techniques help most athletes return to sport; however, many develop adductor weakness. Moreover, the procedures lack full visualization of the tendon and do not allow for return to athletes’ preinjury level of play. We describe an endoscopic z-lengthening of the proximal adductor tendon with the potential to minimize complications associated with open procedures such as incisional pain and neurovascular injury while affording a more complete tenotomy than current percutaneous techniques. This is a safe and reproducible technique that allows for release of tension as a result of pathologic adductor tendon pathologies

The NNLO gluon fusion Higgs production cross-section with many heavy quarks

We consider extensions of the Standard Model with a number of additional heavy quarks which couple to the Higgs boson via top-like Yukawa interactions. We construct an effective theory valid for a Higgs boson mass which is lighter than twice the lightest heavy quark mass and compute the corresponding Wilson coefficient through NNLO. We present numerical results for the gluon fusion cross-section at the Tevatron for an extension of the Standard Model with a fourth generation of heavy quarks. The gluon fusion cross-section is enhanced by a factor of roughly 9 with respect to the Standard Model value. Tevatron experimental data can place stringent exclusion limits for the Higgs mass in this model.Comment: 14 pages, 1 tabl

Pseudoscalar Higgs boson production at hadron colliders in NNLO QCD

We compute the total cross-section for direct production of the pseudoscalar Higgs boson in hadron collisions at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in perturbative QCD. The O(alpha_s^2) QCD corrections increase the NLO production cross-section by approximately 20-30 per cent.Comment: 5 pages, revtex