A Twisted Custodial Symmetry in the Two-Higgs-Doublet Model

In the Standard Model for electroweak interactions, the Higgs sector is known to display a "custodial" symmetry protecting the mass relation m_{W^\pm}^2=m_{W_3}^2 from large corrections. When considering extensions of the scalar sector, this symmetry has to be introduced by hand in order to pass current electroweak precision tests in a natural way. In this Letter we implement a generalized custodial symmetry in the two-Higgs-doublet model. Assuming the invariance of the potential under CP transformations, we prove the existence of a new custodial scenario characterized by m_{H^\pm}^2=m_{H^0}^2 instead of m_{H^\pm}^2=m_{A^0}^2. Consequently the pseudoscalar A^0 may be much lighter than the charged H^\pm, giving rise to interesting phenomenology.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX

Global geometry of the 2+1 rotating black hole

The generic rotating BTZ black hole, obtained by identifications in AdS3 space through a discrete subgroup of its isometry group, is investigated within a Lie theoretical context. This space is found to admit a foliation by two-dimensional leaves, orbits of a two-parameter subgroup of SL(2,R) and invariant under the BTZ identification subgroup. A global expression for the metric is derived, allowing a better understanding of the causal structure of the black hole.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur

Sphaleron-Bisphaleron bifurcations in a custodial-symmetric two-doublets model

The standard electroweak model is extended by means of a second Brout-Englert-Higgs-doublet. The symmetry breaking potential is chosen is such a way that (i) the Lagrangian possesses a custodial symmetry, (ii) a static, spherically symmetric ansatz of the bosonic fields consistently reduces the Euler-Lagrange equations to a set of differential equations. The potential involves, in particular, products of fields of the two doublets, with a coupling constant $\lambda_3$.Static, finite energy solutions of the classical equations are constructed. The regular, non-trivial solutions having the lowest classical energy can be of two types: sphaleron or bisphaleron, according to the coupling constants. A special emphasis is put to the bifurcation between these two types of solutions which is analyzed in function of the different constants of the model,namely of $\lambda_3$.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

New Developments in MadGraph/MadEvent

We here present some recent developments of MadGraph/MadEvent since the latest published version, 4.0. These developments include: Jet matching with Pythia parton showers for both Standard Model and Beyond the Standard Model processes, decay chain functionality, decay width calculation and decay simulation, process generation for the Grid, a package for calculation of quarkonium amplitudes, calculation of Matrix Element weights for experimental events, automatic dipole subtraction for next-to-leading order calculations, and an interface to FeynRules, a package for automatic calculation of Feynman rules and model files from the Lagrangian of any New Physics model.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Plenary talk given at SUSY08, Seoul, South Korea, June 2008. To appear in the proceeding

Single top production in a non-minimal supersymmetric model

We study single top production at the LHC in a SUSY-QCD model with a heavy Dirac gluino. The presence of a heavy Dirac gluino allows for notable top-up flavour changing neutral currents. In this scenario, we find that the process ug->tg gives the largest contribution to single top production via FCNCs at the LHC. The key features of this signal are that the top quark is produced very forward and that it is asymmetric to its anti-top counterpart, as the latter lacks a valence quark.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, a background added, references added, minor revisions, to be published in Phys. Lett.

A New Look at an Old Mass Relation

New data from neutrino oscillation experiments motivate us to extend a successful mass relation for the charged leptons to the other fundamental fermions. This new universal relation requires a Dirac mass around 3 10^-2 eV for the lightest neutrino and rules out a maximal atmospheric mixing. It also suggests a specific decomposition of the CKM mixing matrix.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Maverick dark matter at colliders

Assuming that dark matter is a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) species X produced in the early Universe as a cold thermal relic, we study the collider signal of pp or ppbar -> XXbar + jets and its distinguishability from standard-model background processes associated with jets and missing energy. We assume that the WIMP is the sole particle related to dark matter within reach of the LHC--a "maverick" particle--and that it couples to quarks through a higher dimensional contact interaction. We simulate the WIMP final-state signal XXbar + jet and dominant standard-model (SM) background processes and find that the dark-matter production process results in higher energies for the colored final state partons than do the standard-model background processes, resulting in more QCD radiation and a higher jet multiplicity. As a consequence, the detectable signature of maverick dark matter is an excess over standard-model expectations of events consisting of large missing transverse energy, together with large leading jet transverse momentum and scalar sum of the transverse momenta of the jets. Existing Tevatron data and forthcoming LHC data can constrain (or discover!) maverick dark matter.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Is Vtb=1 ?

The strongest constraint on Vtb presently comes from the 3 x 3 unitarity of the CKM matrix, which fixes Vtb to be very close to one. If the unitarity is relaxed, current information from top production at Tevatron still leaves open the possibility that Vtb is sizably smaller than one. In minimal extensions of the standard model with extra heavy quarks, the unitarity constraints are much weaker and the EW precision parameters entail the strongest bounds on Vtb. We discuss the experimental perspectives of discovering and identifying such new physics models at the Tevatron and the LHC, through a precise measurement of Vtb from the single top cross sections and by the study of processes where the extra heavy quarks are produced.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure