Radion and Higgs Signals in Peripheral Heavy Ion Collisions at the LHC

We investigate the sensitivity of the heavy ion mode of the LHC to Higgs boson and Radion production via photon-photon fusion through the analysis of the processes photon to photon photon, photon photon to b anti-b, and photon photon to g g in peripheral heavy ion collisions. We suggest cuts to improve the Higgs and Radion signal over standard model background ratio and determine the capability of LHC to detect these particles production.Comment: 16 pages, 8 eps figures. admin note: text overlap with arXiv:hep-ph/0009232 by different autho

String theory duals of Wilson loops from Higgsing

For three-dimensional ABJ(M) theories and $\mathcal N=4$ Chern-Simons-matter quiver theories, we construct two sets of 1/2 BPS Wilson loop operators by applying the Higgsing procedure along independent directions of the moduli space, and choosing different massive modes. For theories whose dual M-theory description is known, we also determine the corresponding spectrum of 1/2 BPS M2-brane solutions. We identify the supercharges in M-theory and field theory, as well as the supercharges preserved by M2-/anti-M2-branes and 1/2 BPS Wilson loops. In particular, in $\mathcal N=4$ orbifold ABJM theory we find pairs of different 1/2 BPS Wilson loops that preserve exactly the same set of supercharges. In field theory they arise by Higgsing with the choice of either particles or antiparticles, whereas in the dual description they correspond to a pair of M2-/anti-M2-branes localized at different positions in the compact space. This result enlightens the origin of classical Wilson loop degeneracy in these theories, already discussed in arXiv:1506.07614. A discussion on possible scenarios that emerge by comparison with localization results is included.Comment: 52 pages, 4 figures; V2, 61 pages, 4 figures, supercharges in gravity and field theory identified, conclusion unchanged, published versio

New Higgs Interactions in ZZ\gamma and Z\gamma\gamma Production

The effect of new operators that only modify the bosonic couplings of the Higgs boson, without altering the WW\gamma or WWZ three-point functions, are examined in the e+e- -> ZZ\gamma and Z\gamma\gamma processes. We analyse the constraints on these interactions that can be imposed by the LEP II collider at CERN and at the Next Linear Collider.Comment: 7 pages, RevTeX, 3 postscript figure

Steering efficiency of a ultrarelativistic proton beam in a thin bent crystal

Crystals with small thickness along the beam exhibit top performance for steering particle beams through planar channeling. For such crystals, the effect of nuclear dechanneling plays an important role because it affects their efficiency. We addressed the problem through experimental work carried out with 400 GeV/c protons at fixed-target facilities of CERN-SPS. The dependence of efficiency vs. curvature radius has been investigated and compared favourably to the results of modeling. A realistic estimate of the performance of a crystal designed for LHC energy including nuclear dechanneling has been achieved.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure

Probing Intermediate Mass Higgs Interactions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

We analyze the potentiality of the CERN Large Hadron Collider to probe the Higgs boson couplings to the electroweak gauge bosons. We parametrize the possible deviations of these couplings due to new physics in a model independent way, using the most general dimension--six effective lagrangian where the SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y is realized linearly. For intermediate Higgs masses, the decay channel into two photons is the most important one for Higgs searches at the LHC. We study the effects of these new interactions on the Higgs production mechanism and its subsequent decay into two photons. We show that the LHC will be sensitive to new physics scales beyond the present limits extracted from the LEP and Tevatron physics.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure included using epsfig, RevTe