A note on gauge-fixing in the electroweak sector of nmUED

Electroweak observables are highly sensitive to the loop corrections. Therefore, a proper gauge-fixing mechanism is always needed to define the propagators which are involved in Feynman loop amplitude. With this spirit we compute gauge-fixing mechanism in five dimensional (5-D) Universal Extra-Dimensional (UED) model with boundary localised terms (BLTs). These BLTs are not 5-D operators in four-dimensional (4-D) effective theory but some sort of boundary conditions on the respective fields at the fixed points of $S^1/Z_2$ orbifold. Furthermore, these BLTs non-trivially modify the Kaluza-Klein (KK) spectra and some of the interactions among the KK-excitations compared to the minimal UED (mUED), in which, these BLTs are absent. In this note we calculate the gauge-fixing mechanism in the electroweak sector of such non-trivial UED scenario. Moreover, we discuss the composition and masses of Goldstone and any physical scalar that emerge after the symmetry breaking in this set up with different choices of gauge.Comment: 9 pages, title has been changed, matched with the published versio

Next to Minimal Higgs : Mass Bounds and Search Prospects

The Standard Model of electroweak interactions has one scalar doublet. The minimal extension of this sector is effected by adding a neutral, singlet scalar field. Depending on whether the singlet field has a non-zero vacuum expectation value, x, or not, the scenario has quite distinctive predictions. In particular, x unequal to 0 produces a mixing between the usual SU(2) doublet and the singlet, giving rise to two physical states and a goldstone boson with non-vanishing coupling to these. Presence of this coupling modifies the 2 jets + missing energy signal of the Bjorken process at LEP. We update the bounds on the Higgs mass using the LEP-1 data. We then explore, using parton-level Monte Carlo event generators, the production of these scalars at the LHC via gluon-gluon fusion and subsequent detection. We compare the signals with the expected backgrounds.Comment: 16 pages and 7 Postscript figures, Late

Mass bounds for Triplet Scalars of the Left-Right symmetric model and their future detection prospects

The standard formulation of the Left-Right symmetric model involves scalars transforming as a triplet under SU(2)L. This multiplet contains particles which are uncharged, singly-charged, and doubly-charged. We derive a bound on the uncharged scalar mass of 55.4 GeV using results from LEP-II and find that a range upto 110 GeV may be explored at the NLC at the 5sigma level. We also discuss search strategies for the singly- and doubly-charged scalars at the Tevatron and the LHC. Possible Standard Model backgrounds for the relevant modes are estimated and compared with the signal. At the LHC, the prospects of detecting the doubly-charged scalar are bright up to a mass of 850 GeV while the 5sigma discovery limit of the singly-charged mode extends to 240 GeV for an integrated luminosity of 100 inverse fb. At the Tevatron, with an integrated luminosity of 25 inverse fb, the doubly-charged state can be detected if its mass is less than 275 GeV while the reach for the singly charged scalar is 140 GeV.Comment: Latex, References added, some postscript figures modified, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Vacuum Stability Constraints and LHC Searches for a Model with a Universal Extra Dimension

If the new boson is lying in the narrow mass range between 122 - 127 GeV is confirmed to be a Higgs boson, then stability of the electroweak vacuum in a minimal model with a universal extra dimension (mUED) will require a much lower cutoff for the theory than has been envisaged earlier. We show that this low cutoff would lead to important changes in much of the mUED phenomenology studied till now. In particular, prospects for LHC searches for n = 1 states are rather limited, while resonant n = 2 states may go completely undetected. Prospects for detection at the ILC and CLIC are less affected.Comment: Revised and updated version, some typos fixed and references adde

LHC Signature of the Minimal SUGRA Model with a Large Soft Scalar Mass

Thanks to the focus point phenomenon, it is quite {\it natural} for the minimal SUGRA model to have a large soft scalar mass m_0 > 1 TeV. A distinctive feature of this model is an inverted hierarchy, where the lighter stop has a significantly smaller mass than the other squarks and sleptons. Consequently, the gluino is predicted to decay dominantly via stop exchange into a channel containing 2b and 2W along with the LSP. We exploit this feature to construct a robust signature for this model at the LHC in leptonic channels with 3-4 b-tags and a large missing-E_T.Comment: Small clarifications added. Final version to appear in Phys. Lett.

ZZH coupling : A probe to the origin of EWSB ?

We argue that the $ZZH$ coupling constitutes a simple probe of the nature of the scalar sector responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking. We demonstrate the efficacy of this measure through an analysis of four-dimensional models containing scalars in arbitrary representation of $SU(2) \times U(1)$, as well as extra-dimensional models with a non-factorizable geometry. A possible role for the $t \bar t H$ couplings is also discussed.Comment: Minor modifications in the text. Version to appear in Nucl. Phys.