Finding the Leptonic WWWW Decay Mode of a Heavy Higgs Boson

We reanalyze the extraction of the heavy Higgs boson signal $H\rightarrow W^+W^-\rightarrow \bar\ell\nu,\ell\bar\nu$ $(\ell=e\hbox{ or }\mu)$ from the Standard Model background at hadron supercolliders, taking into account revised estimates of the top quark background. With new acceptance criteria the detection of the signal remains viable. Requiring a forward jet-tag, a central jet-veto, and a large relative transverse momentum of the two charged leptons yields $S/\sqrt B>6$ for one year of running at the SSC or LHC.Comment: LaTex(Revtex), 9 pages, 6 figures (available upon request), MAD/PH/75

Which long-baseline neutrino experiments are preferable?

We discuss the physics of superbeam upgrades, where we focus on T2KK, a NuMI beam line based experiment NOvA*, and a wide band beam (WBB) experiment independent of the NuMI beam line. For T2KK, we find that the Japan-Korea baseline helps resolve parameter degeneracies, but the improvement due to correlated systematics between the two detectors (using identical detectors) is only moderate. For an upgrade of NOvA with a liquid argon detector, we demonstrate that the Ash River site is preferred compared to alternatives, such as at the second oscillation maximum, and is the optimal site within the U.S. For a WBB experiment, we find that high proton energies and long decay tunnels are preferable. We compare water Cherenkov and liquid argon technologies, and find the break-even point in detector cost at about 4:1. In order to compare the physics potential of the different experimental configurations, we use the concept of exposure to normalize the performance. We find that experiments with WBBs are the best experimental concept. NOvA* could be competitive with sufficient luminosity. If $\sin^2 2\theta_{13}$ > 0.01, a WBB experiment can perform better than a neutrino factory.Comment: 31 pages, 13 figures, 5 tables. Version to appear in PR

Searching for Stoponium along with the Higgs boson

Stoponium, a bound state of top squark and its antiparticle in a supersymmetric model, may be found in the ongoing Higgs searches at the LHC. Its WW and ZZ detection ratios relative to the Standard Model Higgs boson can be more than unity from WW* threshold to the two Higgs threshold. The gamma gamma channel is equally promising. Some regions of the stoponium mass below 150 GeV are already being probed by the ATLAS and CMS experiments.Comment: 10 pages 5 figure

Searching for a heavy Higgs boson via the H --> l nu jj decay mode at the CERN LHC

The discovery of a heavy Higgs boson with mass up to m_H = 1 TeV at the CERN LHC is possible in the H--> W^+W^- --> l nu jj decay mode. The weak boson scattering signal and backgrounds from t\bar tjj and from W+jets production are analyzed with parton level Monte Carlo programs which are built on full tree level amplitudes for all subprocesses. The use of double jet tagging and the reconstruction of the W invariant mass reduce the combined backgrounds to the same level as the Higgs signal. A central mini-jet veto, which distinguishes the different gluon radiation patterns of the hard processes, further improves the signal to background ratio to about 2.5:1, with a signal cross section of 1 fb. The jet energy asymmetry of the W --> jj decay will give a clear signature of the longitudinal polarization of the W's in the final event sample.Comment: 23 pages (with 7 embedded figures), Revtex, uses epsf.sty. Z-compressed postscript version also available at http://phenom.physics.wisc.edu/pub/preprints/1997/madph-97-1017.ps.Z or at ftp://phenom.physics.wisc.edu/pub/preprints/1997/madph-97-1017.ps.

Inverting a Supernova: Neutrino Mixing, Temperatures and Binding Energy

We show that the temperatures of the emergent non-electron neutrinos and the binding energy released by a galactic Type II supernova are determinable, assuming the Large Mixing Angle (LMA) solution is correct, from observations at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) and at Super-Kamiokande (SK). If the neutrino mass hierarchy is inverted, either a lower or upper bound can be placed on the neutrino mixing angle $\theta_{13}$, and the hierarchy can be deduced for adiabatic transitions. For the normal hierarchy, neither can $\theta_{13}$ be constrained nor can the hierarchy be determined. Our conclusions are qualitatively unchanged for the proposed Hyper-Kamiokande detector.Comment: Following astro-ph/0208035, we adopt electron and non-electron neutrino spectra with very small differences. Conclusions change

Breaking Eight-fold Degeneracies in Neutrino CP Violation, Mixing, and Mass Hierarchy

We identify three independent two-fold parameter degeneracies (\delta, \theta_{13}), sgn(\delta m^2_{31}) and (\theta_{23}, \pi/2-\theta_{23}) inherent in the usual three-neutrino analysis of long-baseline neutrino experiments, which can lead to as much as an eight-fold degeneracy in the determination of the oscillation parameters. We discuss the implications these degeneracies have for detecting CP violation and present criteria for breaking them. A superbeam facility with a baseline at least as long as the distance between Fermilab and Homestake (1290 km) and a narrow band beam with energy tuned so that the measurements are performed at the first oscillation peak can resolve all the ambiguities other than the (\theta_{23}, \pi/2-\theta_{23}) ambiguity (which can be resolved at a neutrino factory) and a residual (\delta, \pi-\delta) ambiguity. However, whether or not CP violation occurs in the neutrino sector can be ascertained independently of the latter two ambiguities. The (\delta,\pi-\delta) ambiguity can be eliminated by performing a second measurement to which only the \cos\delta terms contribute. The hierarchy of mass eigenstates can be determined at other oscillation peaks only in the most optimistic conditions, making it necessary to use the first oscillation maximum. We show that the degeneracies may severely compromise the ability of the proposed SuperJHF-HyperKamiokande experiment to establish CP violation. In our calculations we use approximate analytic expressions for oscillation probabilitites that agree with numerical solutions with a realistic Earth density profile.Comment: Revtex (singlespaced), 35 pages, 15 postscript figures, uses psfig.st