arXiv subjects

A. Freitas

Publications and source records attributed to A. Freitas.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

High Energy WW Scattering at the LHC with the Matrix Element Method

Perhaps the most important question in particle physics today is whether the boson with mass near 125 GeV discovered at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the Higgs Boson of the Standard Model. Since a particularly important property of the Standard Model Higgs is its role in unitarizing longitudinal WW scattering, we study the ability of the LHC to probe this process in the case of same-sign W pair production. We find that the use of the Matrix Element Method increases the significance with which the Higgs sector can be probed in this channel. In particular, it allows one to distinguish between a light and heavy SM Higgs in this channel alone with a high degree of significance, as well as to set important limits in the parameter space of the Two Higgs Doublet Model and the Strongly-Interacting Light Higgs Model with less than 200/fb at the 14-TeV LHC, thus providing crucial information about the putative Higgs boson's role in electroweak symmetry breaking.

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arXiv2012

Numerical evaluation of multi-loop integrals using subtraction terms

A formalism for the numerical integration of one- and two-loop integrals is presented. It is based on subtraction terms which remove the soft, collinear and some of the ultraviolet divergences from the integrand. The numerical integral is performed in the Feynman parameter space, using a complex contour deformation to ensure robust convergence even in the presence of physical thresholds. The application of the proposed procedure is demonstrated with several one- and two-loop examples. An implementation in the program NICODEMOS is publicly available, which currently incorporates only one-loop functionality, but an extension to two-loop cases is planned for future versions.

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arXiv2011

General analysis of decay chains with three-body decays involving missing energy

A model-independent analysis of decays of the form C -> l+ l- A (l=e,mu) is presented, including the possibility that this three-body decay is preceded by an additional decay step D -> j C. Here A, C and D are heavy new-physics particles and j stands for a quark jet. It is assumed that A escapes direct detection in a collider experiment, so that one cannot kinematically reconstruct the momenta of the new particles. Instead, information about their properties can be obtained from invariant-mass distributions of the visible decay products, i.e. the di-lepton (ll) and jet-lepton (jl) invariant-mass distributions. All possible spin configurations and renormalizable couplings of the new particles are considered, and explicit expressions for the invariant-mass distributions are derived, in a formulation that separates the coupling parameters from the spin and kinematic information. In a numerical analysis, it is shown how these properties can be determined independently from a fit to the m(ll) and m(jl) distributions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Feasibility of slepton precision measurements at a muon collider

Detectors at a high-energy muon collider must be protected from the decay products of beam muons by installing shielding material around the beam pipe. In this article, the impact of these blind detector regions on new-physics signatures with invisible final-state particles is shown by studying the production of sleptons, the superpartners of leptons. Special attention is given to large backgrounds from two-photon collisions. It is demonstrated how the influence of these backgrounds can be controlled by implementing suitable cuts or running at two different center-of-mass energies, thus permitting precision measurements of the mass and spin of the sleptons. However, these methods become ineffective for small mass differences between the sleptons and their decay products, and it will be difficult to analyze the slepton signal at a muon collider in this case.

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arXiv2011

The Matrix Element Method and QCD Radiation

The matrix element method (MEM) has been extensively used for the analysis of top-quark and W-boson physics at the Tevatron, but in general without dedicated treatment of initial state QCD radiation. At the LHC, the increased center of mass energy leads to a significant increase in the amount of QCD radiation, which makes it mandatory to carefully account for its effects. We here present several methods for inclusion of QCD radiation effects in the MEM, and apply them to mass determination in the presence of multiple invisible particles in the final state. We demonstrate significantly improved results compared to the standard treatment.

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arXiv2011

The Extended Higgs System in $R$-symmetric Supersymmetry Theories

The Higgs sector is extended in $R$-symmetric supersymmetry theories by two iso-doublets $R_{d,u}$ which complement the standard iso-doublets $H_{d,u}$. We have analyzed masses and interactions of these novel states and describe their [non-standard] decay modes and their production channels at the LHC and $e^+e^-$ colliders.

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arXiv2011

A Little Higgs Model with Exact Dark Matter Parity

Based on a recent idea by Krohn and Yavin, we construct a little Higgs model with an internal parity that is not broken by anomalous Wess-Zumino-Witten terms. The model is a modification of the "minimal moose" models by Arkani-Hamed et al. and Cheng and Low. The new parity prevents large corrections to oblique electroweak parameters and leads to a viable dark matter candidate. It is shown how the complete Standard Model particle content, including quarks and leptons together with their Yukawa couplings, can be implemented. Successful electroweak symmetry breaking and consistency with electroweak precision constraints is achieved for natural paramters choices. A rich spectrum of new particles is predicted at the TeV scale, some of which have sizable production cross sections and striking decay signatures at the LHC.

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arXiv2010

General analysis of signals with two leptons and missing energy at the Large Hadron Collider

A signal of two leptons and missing energy is challenging to analyze at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) since it offers only few kinematical handles. This signature generally arises from pair production of heavy charged particles which each decay into a lepton and a weakly interacting stable particle. Here this class of processes is analyzed with minimal model assumptions by considering all possible combinations of spin 0, 1/2 or 1, and of weak iso-singlets, -doublets or -triplets for the new particles. Adding to existing work on mass and spin measurements, two new variables for spin determination and an asymmetry for the determination of the couplings of the new particles are introduced. It is shown that these observables allow one to independently determine the spin and the couplings of the new particles, except for a few cases that turn out to be indistinguishable at the LHC. These findings are corroborated by results of an alternative analysis strategy based on an automated likelihood test.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2010

Dirac Neutralinos and Electroweak Scalar Bosons of N=1/N=2 Hybrid Supersymmetry at Colliders

In the N=1 supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model, neutralinos associated in supermultiplets with the neutral electroweak gauge and Higgs bosons are, as well as gluinos, Majorana fermions. They can be paired with the Majorana fermions of novel gaugino/scalar supermultiplets, as suggested by extended N=2 supersymmetry, to Dirac particles. Matter fields are not extended beyond the standard N=1 supermultiplets in N=1/N=2 hybrid supersymmetry to preserve the chiral character of the theory. Complementing earlier analyses in the color sector, central elements of such an electroweak scenario are analyzed in the present study. The decay properties of the Dirac fermions and of the scalar bosons are worked out, and the single and pair production channels of the new particles are described for proton collisions at the LHC, and electron/positron and photon-photon collisions at linear colliders. Special attention is paid to modifications of the Higgs sector, identified with an N=2 hypermultiplet, by the mixing with the novel electroweak scalar sector.

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arXiv2009

Phenomenology of the Little Higgs model with X-Parity

In the popular littlest Higgs model, T-parity can be broken by Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) terms induced by a strongly coupled UV completion. On the other hand, certain models with multiple scalar multiplets (called moose models) permit the implementation of an exchange symmetry (X-parity) such that it is not broken by the WZW terms. Here we present a concrete and realistic construction of such a model. The little Higgs model with X-Parity is a concrete and realistic implementation of this idea. In this contribution, the properties of the model are reviewed and the collider phenomenology is discussed in some detail. We also present new results on the decay properties and LHC signatures of the light triplet scalars that are predicted by this model.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

Distinguishing Majorana and Dirac Gluinos and Neutralinos

While gluinos and neutralinos are Majorana fermions in the MSSM, they can be Dirac fermion fields in extended supersymmetry models. The difference between the two cases manifests itself in production and decay processes at colliders. In this contribution, results are presented for how the Majorana or Dirac nature of gluinos and neutralinos can be extracted from di-lepton signals at the LHC.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

Two-loop electroweak fermionic corrections to sin^2 theta_{eff}^{b anti-b}

We present the first calculation of the two-loop electroweak fermionic correction to the flavour-dependent effective weak-mixing angle for bottom quarks, sin^2 theta_{eff}^{b anti-b}. For the evaluation of the missing two-loop vertex diagrams, two methods are employed, one based on a semi-numerical Bernstein-Tkachov algorithm and the second on asymptotic expansions in the large top-quark mass. A third method based on dispersion relations is used for checking the basic loop integrals. We find that for small Higgs-boson mass values, M_H ~ 100 GeV, the correction is sizable, of order O(10^{-4}).

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Testing the Majorana Nature of Gluinos and Neutralinos

Gluinos and neutralinos, supersymmetric partners of gluons and neutral electroweak gauge and Higgs bosons, are Majorana particles in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model [MSSM]. Decays of such self-conjugate particles generate charge symmetric ensembles of final states. Moreover, production channels of supersymmetric particles at colliders are characteristically affected by the Majorana nature of particles exchanged in the production processes. The sensitivity to the Majorana character of the particles can be quantified by comparing the predictions with Dirac exchange mechanisms. A consistent framework for introducing gluino and neutralino Dirac fields can be designed by extending the N=1 supersymmetry of the MSSM to N=2 in the gauge sector. We examine to which extent like-sign dilepton production in the processes q q -> ~q ~q and e- e- -> ~e- ~e- is affected by the exchange of either Majorana or Dirac gluinos and neutralinos, respectively, at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and in the prospective e- e- mode of a lepton linear collider.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Examining the Identity of Yukawa with Gauge Couplings in Supersymmetric QCD at LHC

The identity of the quark-squark-gluino Yukawa coupling with the corresponding quark-quark-gluon QCD coupling in supersymmetric theories can be examined experimentally at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Extending earlier investigations of like-sign di-lepton final states, we include jets in the analysis of the minimal supersymmetric standard model, adding squark-gluino and gluino-pair production to squark-pair production. Moreover we expand the method towards model-independent analyses which cover more general scenarios. In all cases, squark decays to light charginos and neutralinos persist to play a dominant role.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Reconstructing SUSY and R-Neutrino Masses in SO(10)

We report on the extrapolation of scalar mass parameters in the lepton sector to reconstruct SO(10) scenarios close to the unification scale. The method is demonstrated for an example in which SO(10) is broken directly to the Standard Model, based on the expected precision from coherent LHC and ILC collider analyses. In addition to the fundamental scalar mass parameters at the unification scale, the mass of the heaviest right-handed neutrino can be estimated in the seesaw scenario.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Status of Constraints on Supersymmetry

A short summary of constraints on the parameter space of supersymmetric models is given. Experimental limits from high energy colliders, electroweak precision data, flavor and Higgs physics, and cosmology are considered. The main focus is on the MSSM with conserved R- and CP-parity and minimal flavor violation, but more general scenarios and extended models will also be discussed briefly.

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arXiv2008

Light Stop Searches at the LHC in Events with One Hard Photon or Jet and Missing Energy

Low energy supersymmetric models provide a solution to the hierarchy problem and also have the necessary ingredients to solve two of the most outstanding issues in cosmology: the origin of the baryon asymmetry and the source of dark matter. In the MSSM, weak scale generation of the baryon asymmetry may be achieved in the presence of light stops, with masses lower than about 130 GeV. Moreover, the proper dark matter density may be obtained in the stop-neutralino co-annihilation region, where the stop-neutralino mass difference is smaller than a few tens of GeV. Searches for scalar top quarks (stops) in pair production processes at the Tevatron and at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) become very challenging in this region of parameters. At the LHC, however, light stops proceeding from the decay of gluino pairs may be identified, provided the gluino mass is smaller than about 900 GeV. In this article we propose an alternative method for stop searches in the co-annihilation region, based on the search for these particles in events with missing energy plus one hard photon or jet. We show that this method is quite efficient and, when complemented with ongoing Tevatron searches, allows to probe stop masses up to about 160 GeV, fully probing the region of parameters consistent with electroweak baryogenesis in the MSSM.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Consequences of T-parity breaking in the Littlest Higgs model

In this paper we consider the effects of the T-parity violating anomalous Wess-Zumino-Witten-Term in the Littlest Higgs model. Apart from tree level processes, the loop induced decays of the heavy mirror particles into light standard model fermions lead to a new and rich phenomenology in particular at breaking scales f below 1 TeV. Various processes are calculated and their signatures at present and future colliders are discussed. As a byproduct we find an alternative production mechanism for the Higgs boson.

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