Positron Polarization at the International Linear Collider

We review some recent arguments supporting the upgrade of the International Linear Collider by a polarized positron beam, in addition to the polarized electron beam. The examples presented here mainly focus on the impact of positron polarization on items relevant to new physics searches, such as the identification of novel interactions in fermion-pair production and the formulation of new CP-sensitive observables. In particular, in addition to the benefits from positron and electron longitudinal polarizations, the advantages in this field of having transverse polarization of both beams are emphasized.Comment: Invited talk at 2005 International Linear Collider Workshop, Stanford Ca (LCWS05) 6 pages, LaTeX, 2 eps figure

Diagnosing CP properties of the 2HDM

We have investigated a Two-Higgs-Doublet Model (2HDM), focusing on CP violation. Various scenarios with spontaneous and explicit breaking of CP have been considered. Some features of CP violation related to a choice of the basis for the two Higgs doublets have been discussed and clarified. Regions in the physical parameter space corresponding to spontaneous and explicit CP violation have been located and discussed. The possibility to determine parameters of the scalar potential with no reference to Yukawa couplings has been considered and an unavoidable ambiguity has been found. The issue of disentangling spontaneous and explicit CP violation has been investigated.Comment: 32 pages, 5 figures. Minor changes. Version to appear in JHE

Measuring CP violation in Two-Higgs-Doublet models in light of the LHC Higgs data

In Two-Higgs-Doublet models, the conditions for CP violation can be expressed in terms of invariants under U(2) rotations among the two SU(2) Higgs doublet fields. In order to design a strategy for measuring the invariants we express them in terms of observables, i.e., masses and couplings of scalar bosons. We find amplitudes directly sensitive to the invariants. Observation of the Standard-Model-like Higgs boson at the LHC severely constrains the models. In particular, in the model with Z_2 symmetry imposed on dimension-4 terms (in order to eliminate tree-level flavour-changing neutral currents), CP violation is strongly suppressed. On the other hand, the most general Two-Higgs-Doublet model (without Z_2 symmetry) would still allow for CP violation to be present in the model, without being in conflict with the LHC data. Consequently, also flavour-changing neutral currents would in general be expected. We briefly sketch a strategy for measuring the remaining CP violation.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures. Version published in JHE

Testing the presence of CP violation in the 2HDM

We review CP properties of the Two-Higgs-Doublet model. In particular, we show that spontaneous CP violation occurs in the parameter space on the border between regions allowing explicit CP violation and those where there is another minimum, deeper than the one corresponding to v=246 GeV. We discuss weak-basis invariants which describe CP violation and express them through measurable quantities like coupling constants and masses. Also, we discuss how CP violation is constrained by the LHC Higgs data. Finally, we identify effective operators that could be adopted to measure CP-invariants.Comment: 9 pages, Proceedings of the Corfu Summer Institute 2014 "School and Workshops on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity", 3-21 September 2014 Corfu, Greece. v2: References adde

Determining masses of supersymmetric particles

If supersymmetric particles are produced at the Large Hadron Collider it becomes very important not only to identify them, but also to determine their masses with the highest possible precision, since this may lead to an understanding of the SUSY-breaking mechanism and the physics at some higher scale. We here report on studies of how such mass measurements are obtained, and how the precision can be optimized.Comment: 11 pages, contribution to the proceedings "II. Southeastern European Workshop Challenges Beyond The Standard Model", 19-23 May 2005, Vrnjacka Banja, Serbi

Improved bounds on W-W' mixing with ATLAS resonant WZ production data at the LHC at s=13\sqrt{s}=13 TeV

New charged vector bosons $W'$ decaying into gauge boson pairs $WZ$ are predicted in many scenarios of new physics, including models with an extended gauge sector (EGM). Due to the large variety of models (other unification groups, models with Supersymmetry, Little Higgs Models, Extra Dimensions) the more general EGM approach is here considered. For what concerns $W'$-production, these models are parametrised by two parameters, the $W^\prime$ mass $M_{W^\prime}$ and the $W$-$W^\prime$ mixing parameter $\xi$. The diboson $WZ$ production allows to place stringent constraints on this mixing angle and the $W'$ mass, which we determine and present for the first time by using data from $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN LHC, with integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$. By comparing the experimental limits to the theoretical predictions for the total cross section of $W'$ resonant production and its subsequent decay into $WZ$ pairs, we show that the derived constraints on the mixing angle for the benchmark model are rather small, between $10^{-4}$ and $10^{-3}$, i.e., greatly improved with respect to those derived from the global analysis of electroweak data which yield $\xi\sim 10^{-2}$. We combine the limits derived from $WZ$ production data with those obtained from the $W'\to e\nu$ process in order to significantly extend the exclusion region in the $M_{W'}$-$\xi$ parameter plane and obtain the most stringent exclusion limits to date. We present the combined allowed parameter space for the EGM $W'$ boson after incorporating indirect constraints from low energy electroweak data, direct search constraints from Tevatron and from the LHC Run I with 7 and 8 TeV as well as at Run II with 13 TeV data.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1809.08933. v2: References added, version to appear in PR

A Simple Method to detect spontaneous CP Violation in multi-Higgs models

For models with several Higgs doublets we present an alternative method to the one proposed by Branco, Gerard and Grimus, in 1984, to check whether or not CP is spontaneously violated in the Higgs potential. The previous method is powerful and rigorous. It requires the identification of a matrix $U$ corresponding to a symmetry of the Lagrangian and verifying a simple relation involving the vacuum expectation values. The nonexistence of such a matrix signals spontaneous CP violation. However, as the number of Higgs doublets increases, finding such a matrix $U$ may not be straightforward and it may turn out to be easier to analyse the potential by going to the so-called Higgs basis. The transformation to the Higgs basis is straightforward once the vacuum expectation values are known. The method proposed in this work is also powerful and rigorous and can be particularly useful to analyse models with more than two Higgs doublets and with continuous symmetries.Comment: 9 pages, no figures. v2: minor changes, matching JHEP versio