Reconstruction of the left-chiral tau-sneutrino in supersymmetry with a right-sneutrino as the lightest supersymmetric particle

We have considered a supersymmetric scenario in which the minimal supersymmetric standard model is augmented with a right-chiral neutrino superfield for each generation. Such a scenario can have a lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) dominated by the right-chiral sneutrino state and the lighter stau as the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP). This can easily be motivated by assuming a high scale framework of supersymmetry breaking like minimal supergravity (mSUGRA). Due to the extremely small neutrino Yukawa coupling, the decay of the NLSP to the LSP is suppressed and consequently the NLSP, here the lighter stau mass eigenstate, becomes stable at the length scale of the detector. The collider signal in this case consists of charged tracks of massive stable particles in the muon chamber. Following up on our earlier studies on neutralino and chargino reconstruction in such a scenario, we have shown the kinematical information obtained from these charged tracks allows us to reconstruct the left-chiral tau-sneutrino as well over a significant region of the mSUGRA parameter space. Two methods for reconstruction are suggested and their relative merits are discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures and 5 table

Neutralino reconstruction in supersymmetry with long-lived staus

We consider a supergravity (SUGRA) scenario, with universal scalar and gaugino masses at high scale, with a right-chiral neutrino superfield included in the spectrum. Such a scenario can have a lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) dominated by the right sneutrino and a stau as the next-to lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP). Since decays of all particles into the LSP are suppressed by the neutrino Yukawa coupling, the signal of supersymmetry consists in charged tracks of stable particles in the muon chamber. We demonstrate how a neutralino decaying into a tau and the stau-NLSP can be fully reconstructed over substantial areas in the SUGRA parameter space. We also suggest event selection criteria for eliminating backgrounds, including combinatorial ones, and use a new method for the extraction of the mass of the stau-NLSP, using its three-momentum as obtained from the curvature of the charged track.Comment: Version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Multi-leptons and Top-jets in the Hunt for Gluinos in R-parity Violating Supersymmetry

The presence of R-parity ($\mathcal{R}_p$) violation offers intersting decay channels for the gluinos. In this work we present a new search strategy for the gluinos in the presence of semileptonic $\mathcal{R}_p$ violating couplings $\lambda^{'}_{133}$ and $\lambda^{'}_{233}$. We consider two scenarios (i) $\lambda^{'}$ induced 3-body decay of gluinos to a top quark ($t$), a bottom quark ($b$) and a light lepton ($\ell$) (ii) cascade decay of gluinos to top quarks and neutralinos ($\widetilde{\chi}_1^0$) followed by the decay of $\widetilde{\chi}_1^0$ to $t$, $b$ and $\ell$ through $\lambda^{'}$ couplings. We present two different search procedures which are common to both the scenarios. While the first one involves the traditional approach with multi-leptons and $b$-tagged jets, the second one employs the more recent technique to reconstruct highly energetic hadronically decaying top quarks. We perform a detailed simulation of the signal as well as all the relevant Standard Model backgrounds to show that the second procedure offers slightly better sensitivity for gluino discovery. In both the procedures, a $\geq$ 5$\sigma$ discovery is possible for the gluino mass in the range 1.5 -1.7 TeV at 14 TeV LHC with 50 fb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity.Comment: Event selection cuts optimized, results significantly improved, more discussions added. Version to appear in JHE

Dark-Photon searches via Higgs-boson production at the LHC

Dark photons $\bar \gamma$ mediating long-range forces in a dark sector are predicted by various new physics scenarios, and are being intensively searched for in experiments. We extend a previous study of a new discovery process for dark photons proceedings via Higgs-boson production at the LHC. Thanks to the non-decoupling properties of the Higgs boson, BR($H\to \gamma\bar \gamma$) values up to a few percent are possible for a massless dark photon, even for heavy dark-sector scenarios. The corresponding signature consists (for a Higgs boson at rest) of a striking monochromatic photon with energy $E_{\gamma}= m_H/2$, and similar amount of missing energy. We perform a model independent analysis at the LHC of both the gluon-fusion and VBF Higgs production mechanisms at 14 TeV, including parton-shower effects, and updating our previous parton-level analysis at 8 TeV in the gluon-fusion channel by a more realistic background modeling. We find that a $5\sigma$ sensitivity can be reached in the gluon-fusion channel for BR($H\to \gamma\bar \gamma)\simeq\,$0.1% with an integrated luminosity of $L\simeq 300\, {\rm fb}^{-1}$. The corresponding VBF reach is instead restricted to 1%. Such decay rates can be naturally obtained in dark-photon scenarios arising from unbroken $U(1)_F$ models explaining the origin and hierarchy of the Yukawa couplings, strongly motivating the search for this exotic Higgs decay at the LHC.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Enhancing the ttH signal through top-quark spin polarization effects at the LHC

We compare the impact of top-quark spin polarization effects in Higgs boson production in association with top-quark pairs and in corresponding backgrounds at the LHC. Because of the spin-zero nature of the Higgs boson, one expects, in the chiral limit for the top quarks, a substantial complementarity in $t\bar t$ spin correlations for a Higgs decaying into fermions/gauge-bosons and $t\bar{t}$ spin correlations for the corresponding irreducible $t\bar t f\bar f/VV$ backgrounds. Although top mass effects in $t\bar t H$ production are in general dominant, and seriously spoil the chiral-limit expectations, one can find observables that capture the $t \bar t$ angular spin correlations and can help in separating the signal from irreducible backgrounds. In particular, we show that, for both $H\to b\bar b$ and $H\to \gamma\gamma$, taking into account $t\bar{t}$ spin correlations in $t\bar t H$ production and irreducible backgrounds could appreciably improve the LHC sensitivity to the $t\bar t H$ channel.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures; implementation of cuts corrected in figures 7-

Higgs-boson production in association with a Dark Photon in e+e−e^+ e^- collisions

We study the production of a Higgs boson recoiling from a massless invisible system in $e^ + e^ -$ collisions. This is a quite distinctive signature that can arise when the Higgs boson is produced in association with a massless dark photon, which can happen in BSM scenarios foreseeing an extra unbroken $U(1)$ gauge group. Dark photons can indeed acquire effective couplings to the Higgs boson as occurs in models recently proposed to generate exponentially-spread Yukawa couplings. We analyze the signal and corresponding backgrounds for $H\to b\bar{b}$, and estimate ILC and FCC-ee sensitivities in a model-independent way.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures; Conclusion Section expandend, to appear in JHEP; v5: typographical errors correcte

ASSESSMENT OF THE QUADRUPLE INJECTION STRATEGY OVER TRIPLE INJECTIONS TO IMPROVE EMISSIONS, PERFORMANCE AND NOISE OF THE AUTOMOTIVE DIESEL ENGINE

The present study aims at investigating effectiveness of the quadruple (early-pilot-main-after [epMa]) injection strategy over three different triple [early-main-after (eMa), early-pilot-main (epM) and pilot-main-after (pMa)] injection scheduling in terms of emissions, performance [brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), torque, brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and fuel economy] and noise. The experimentation was carried out on a heavy-duty BS-IV diesel engine with 45% EGR fraction and fixed main injection (Crank-angle) scheduling at eight different RPMs and three loads of engine (20%, 60% and 100%) using design of experiments(DOE).     This comprehensive study showed that the quadruple injection strategy provides optimum results in both performance and emissions compared to the promising three triple injection strategy. The quadruple injection strategy exhibits the best BTE at all operating conditions and best BSFC at medium to high-speed zone around 0.5–1% inline to reduce combustion noise (CN) level, especially at low speeds and low to medium load of 0.2–2.2 dBA. Among triple injections, the pMa shows the best performance in BSFC, BTE, smoke and THC emissions. The epM is the best in the CO emissions and torque performance in the low-speed zone. Smoke value is marginally higher for the epMa at low to medium speed than the pMa, although average smoke emissions were the best. Taken together, the overall PM emission level was marginally better than Triple Injections, due to the impact of double pilots in combination with post-injection. In addition, NOx emissions were improved (around 3–6%) significantly with quadruple than with triple injections. The epMa injection scheduling also showed improvement in constant speed fuel economy and in pass-by-noise at the vehicle