Relic density and future colliders: inverse problem(s)

Relic density calculations are often used to constrain particle physics models, and in particular supersymmetry. We will show that the presence of additional energy or entropy before the Big-Bang nucleosynthesis can however completely change the relic density constraints on the SUSY parameter space. Therefore one should be extremely careful when using the relic density to constrain supersymmetry as it could give misleading results, especially if combined with the future collider data. Alternatively, we will also show that combining the discoveries of the future colliders with relic density calculations can shed light on the inaccessible pre-BBN dark time physics. Finally we will present SuperIso Relic, a new relic density calculator code in Supersymmetry, which incorporates alternative cosmological models, and is publicly available.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, contribution to the proceedings of the conference "Invisible Universe", Paris, June 29 - July 3, 2009, Franc

LHC and ILC Data and the Early Universe Properties

With the start-up of the LHC, we can hope to find evidences for new physics beyond the Standard Model, and particle candidates for dark matter. Determining the parameters of the full underlying theory will be a long process requiring the combination of LHC and ILC data, flavor physics constraints, and cosmological observations. However, the Very Early Universe properties, from which the relic particles originate, are poorly known, and the relic density calculation can be easily falsified by hidden processes. We consider supersymmetry and show that determining the underlying particle physics parameters will help understanding the Very Early Universe properties.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, contribution to the proceedings of the workshop "LC09: e+e- Physics at the TeV Scale and the Dark Matter Connection", Perugia, September 21 - 24, 2009, Italy. v2: reference adde

Production and decay of gluino pairs at hadron colliders

At hadron colliders, one of the most important channels for sparticle production is expected to be the gluino pair production. In the scenario where the sbottom is lighter than the gluino, gluinos can decay into sbottom and bottom quarks. Sbottoms can subsequently decay into bottom quarks and neutralinos. Hence, one expects a rich signature consisting of four b-jets and the missing transverse energy from neutralinos. To compute the cross section of this reaction, it is important to find tools and techniques suitable for the calculation of diagrams with many particles in the final state. We present here a way to deal with such complicated reactions.Comment: Proceedings of the Conference: "QCD and High Energy Hadronic Interactions", XXXXth Rencontres de Moriond, La Thuile, Italy - March 12-19, 2005 - 4 pages. References update

Complementarity of direct and indirect searches in the pMSSM

We explore the pMSSM parameter space in view of the constraints from SUSY and monojet searches at the LHC, from Higgs data and flavour physics observables, as well as from dark matter searches. We show that whilst the simplest SUSY scenarios are already ruled out, there are still many possibilities left over in the pMSSM. We discuss the complementarity between different searches and consistency checks which are essential in probing the pMSSM and will be even more important in the near future with the next round of data becoming available.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of the Fifth Capri Workshop on the interplay of flavour physics with electroweak symmetry breaking and dark matter, Capri, May 201

Light neutralino dark matter in MSSM

Three dark matter direct detection experiments, DAMA, COGENT and CRESST, have reported a possible signal of WIMP interaction corresponding to very light particles, close to the edge of the XENON 100 and CDMS sensitivity. Imposing the latest constraints from colliders, flavour physics, electroweak precision tests and direct and indirect dark matter searches, we show that viable MSSM scenarios with a light neutralino, in agreement with all the present data, are feasible. An analysis of the characteristics of the resulting scenarios will be presented.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, contribution to the ICHEP 2012 Conference proceedings, 4-11 July 2012, Melbourne, Australi

Implications of LHC Higgs and SUSY searches for MSSM

The implications of the LHC SUSY searches as well as the discovery of a new bosonic state compatible with the lightest Higgs boson will be discussed in the context of constrained and general MSSM scenarios. Exploring the MSSM through the Higgs sector is an alternative and complementary path to direct searches, and tight constraints on the MSSM parameter space can be obtained.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, contribution to the ICHEP 2012 Conference proceedings, 4-11 July 2012, Melbourne, Australi

An update of the constraints on the phenomenological MSSM from the new LHC Higgs results

Updated results on the search of Higgs bosons at the LHC with up to 17/fb of data have just been presented by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. New constraints are provided by the LHCb and XENON experiments with the observation of the rare decay B_s -> mu+mu- and new limits on dark matter direct detection. In this paper, we update and extend the results on the implications of these data on the phenomenological Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (pMSSM) by using high statistics, flat scans of its 19 parameters. The new LHC data on bb and tau tau decays of the lightest Higgs state and the new CMS limits from the tau tau searches for the heavier Higgs states set stronger constraints on the pMSSM parameter space.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures. This update is based on results presented at HCP 2012 and the December 2012 CERN Council LHC Jamboree. It features larger scan statistics and additional plot

On split products of quaternion algebras with involution in characteristic two

The question of whether a split tensor product of quaternion algebras with involution over a field of characteristic two can be expressed as a tensor product of split quaternion algebras with involution, is shown to have an affirmative answer

Exploring CP Violation in the MSSM

We explore the prospects for observing CP violation in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM) with six CP-violating parameters, three gaugino mass phases and three phases in trilinear soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters, using the CPsuperH code combined with a geometric approach to maximize CP-violating observables subject to the experimental upper bounds on electric dipole moments. We also implement CP-conserving constraints from Higgs physics, flavour physics and the upper limits on the cosmological dark matter density and spin-independent scattering. We study possible values of observables within the constrained MSSM (CMSSM), the non-universal Higgs model (NUHM), the CPX scenario and a variant of the phenomenological MSSM (pMSSM). We find values of the CP-violating asymmetry A_CP in b -> s gamma decay that may be as large as 3%, so future measurements of A_CP may provide independent information about CP violation in the MSSM. We find that CP-violating MSSM contributions to the B_s meson mass mixing term Delta M_Bs are in general below the present upper limit, which is dominated by theoretical uncertainties. If these could be reduced, Delta M_Bs could also provide an interesting and complementary constraint on the six CP-violating MSSM phases, enabling them all to be determined experimentally, in principle. We also find that CP violation in the h_{2,3} tau+ tau- and h_{2,3} tbar t couplings can be quite large, and so may offer interesting prospects for future pp, e+ e-, mu+ mu- and gamma gamma colliders.Comment: 36 pages, 32 figure