A partially composite Goldstone Higgs

We consider a model of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking with a partially composite Goldstone Higgs. The model is based on a strongly-interacting fermionic sector coupled to a fundamental scalar sector via Yukawa interactions. The SU(4) x SU(4) global symmetry of these two sectors is broken to a single SU(4) via Yukawa interactions. Electroweak symmetry breaking is dynamically induced by condensation due to the strong interactions in the new fermionic sector which further breaks the global symmetry SU(4) to Sp(4). The Higgs boson arises as a partially composite state which is an exact Goldstone boson in the limit where SM interactions are turned off. Terms breaking the SU(4) global symmetry explicitly generate a mass for the Goldstone Higgs. The model realizes in different limits both (partially) composite Higgs and (bosonic) Technicolor models, thereby providing a convenient unified framework for phenomenological studies of composite dynamics. It is also a dynamical extension of the recent elementary Goldstone-Higgs model.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Diboson Signals via Fermi Scale Spin-One States

ATLAS and CMS observe deviations from the expected background in diboson invariant mass searches of new resonances around 2 TeV. We provide a general analysis of the results in terms of spin-one resonances and find that Fermi scale composite dynamics can be the culprit. The analysis and methodology can be employed for future searches at run two of the Large Hadron Collider.Comment: Version to match the published one in PRD. Note that we use an effective theory and therefore our analysis is largely model-independent and applies not only to technicolor but also to composite (goldstone) Higgs as well as to elementary extensions that appeared later in the literature. LaTeX, 2 columns, 4 pages, 5 figure

New or ν\nu Missing Energy? Discriminating Dark Matter from Neutrino Interactions at the LHC

Missing energy signals such as monojets are a possible signature of Dark Matter (DM) at colliders. However, neutrino interactions beyond the Standard Model may also produce missing energy signals. In order to conclude that new "missing particles" are observed the hypothesis of BSM neutrino interactions must be rejected. In this paper, we first derive new limits on these Non-Standard neutrino Interactions (NSIs) from LHC monojet data. For heavy NSI mediators, these limits are much stronger than those coming from traditional low-energy $\nu$ scattering or $\nu$ oscillation experiments for some flavor structures. Monojet data alone can be used to infer the mass of the "missing particle" from the shape of the missing energy distribution. In particular, 13 TeV LHC data will have sensitivity to DM masses greater than $\sim$ 1 TeV. In addition to the monojet channel, NSI can be probed in multi-lepton searches which we find to yield stronger limits at heavy mediator masses. The sensitivity offered by these multi-lepton channels provide a method to reject or confirm the DM hypothesis in missing energy searches.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Increased tolerance to humans among disturbed wildlife.

Human disturbance drives the decline of many species, both directly and indirectly. Nonetheless, some species do particularly well around humans. One mechanism that may explain coexistence is the degree to which a species tolerates human disturbance. Here we provide a comprehensive meta-analysis of birds, mammals and lizards to investigate species tolerance of human disturbance and explore the drivers of this tolerance in birds. We find that, overall, disturbed populations of the three major taxa are more tolerant of human disturbance than less disturbed populations. The best predictors of the direction and magnitude of bird tolerance of human disturbance are the type of disturbed area (urbanized birds are more tolerant than rural or suburban populations) and body mass (large birds are more tolerant than small birds). By identifying specific features associated with tolerance, these results guide evidence-based conservation strategies to predict and manage the impacts of increasing human disturbance on birds

Morse–Bott split symplectic homology

© 2019, The Author(s). We associate a chain complex to a Liouville domain (W¯ , d λ) whose boundary Y admits a Boothby–Wang contact form (i.e. is a prequantization space). The differential counts Floer cylinders with cascades in the completion W of W¯ , in the spirit of Morse–Bott homology (Bourgeois in A Morse–Bott approach to contact homology, Ph.D. Thesis. ProQuest LLC, Stanford University, Ann Arbor 2002; Frauenfelder in Int Math Res Notices 42:2179–2269, 2004; Bourgeois and Oancea in Duke Math J 146(1), 71–174, 2009). The homology of this complex is the symplectic homology of W (Diogo and Lisi in J Topol 12:966–1029, 2019). Let X be obtained from W¯ by collapsing the boundary Y along Reeb orbits, giving a codimension two symplectic submanifold Σ. Under monotonicity assumptions on X and Σ , we show that for generic data, the differential in our chain complex counts elements of moduli spaces of cascades that are transverse. Furthermore, by some index estimates, we show that very few combinatorial types of cascades can appear in the differential

Morse-Bott Split Symplectic Homology

We introduce a chain complex associated to a Liouville domain $(\overline{W}, d\lambda)$ whose boundary $Y$ admits a Boothby--Wang contact form (i.e. is a prequantization space). The differential counts cascades of Floer solutions in the completion $W$ of $\overline{W}$, in the spirit of Morse--Bott homology (as in work of Bourgeois, Frauenfelder arXiv:math/0309373 and Bourgeois-Oancea arXiv:0704.1039). The homology of this complex is the symplectic homology of the completion $W$. We identify a class of simple cascades and show that their moduli spaces are cut out transversely for generic choice of auxiliary data. If $X$ is obtained by collapsing the boundary along Reeb orbits and $\Sigma$ is the quotient of $Y$ by the $S^1$-action induced by the Reeb flow, we also establish transversality for certain moduli spaces of holomorphic spheres in $X$ and in $\Sigma$. Finally, under monotonicity assumptions on $X$ and $\Sigma$, we show that for generic data, the differential in our chain complex counts elements of moduli spaces that are transverse. Furthermore, by some index estimates, we show that very few combinatorial types of cascades can appear in the differential.Comment: 67 pages, 7 figures; expanded the section on orientations of moduli spaces, corrected some errors and improved exposition thanks to comments from the refere