arXiv subjects

Alejandro Szynkman

Publications and source records attributed to Alejandro Szynkman.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Search strategies for pair production of heavy Higgs bosons decaying invisibly at the LHC

The search for heavy Higgs bosons at the LHC represents an intense experimental program, carried out by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, which includes the hunt for invisible Higgs decays and dark matter candidates. No significant deviations from the SM backgrounds have been observed in any of these searches, imposing significant constraints on the parameter space of different new physics models with an extended Higgs sector. Here we discuss an alternative search strategy for heavy Higgs bosons decaying invisibly at the LHC, focusing on the pair production of a heavy scalar $H$ together with a pseudoscalar $A$, through the production mode $q \bar q \to Z^\ast \to HA$. We identify as the most promising signal the final state made up of $4b + E_T^\text{miss}$, coming from the heavy scalar decay mode $H \to hh \to b \bar b b \bar b$, with $h$ being the discovered SM-like Higgs boson with $m_h=125$ GeV, together with the invisible channel of the pseudoscalar. We work within the context of simplified MSSM scenarios that contain quite heavy sfermions of most types with ${\cal O}(10)$ TeV masses, while the stops are heavy enough to reproduce the 125 GeV mass for the lightest SM-like Higgs boson. By contrast, the gauginos/higgsinos and the heavy MSSM Higgs bosons have masses near the EW scale. Our search strategies, for a LHC center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} =$ 14 TeV, allow us to obtain statistical significances of the signal over the SM backgrounds with values up to $\sim$ 1.6$σ$ and $\sim$ 3$σ$, for total integrated luminosities of 300 fb$^{-1}$ and 1000 fb$^{-1}$, respectively.

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arXiv2017

Higgs effective $Hl_il_j$ vertex from heavy $ν_R$ and applications to LFV phenomenology

We present a new computation of the Lepton Flavor Violating effective vertex involving the Higgs boson and two leptons with different flavors. This vertex is generated from the integration to one-loop level of the heavy right handed neutrinos which are considered here within the context of the Low Scale Seesaw Models and with masses close to the TeV scale. We apply the Mass Insertion Approximation technique to compute the loop contributions from these heavy $ν_R$ and derive a symple analytical formula for the $Hl_il_j$ effective vertex in terms of the input $Y_ν$ Yukawa coupling matrix and right handed $M_R$ neutrino masses. Some interesting phenomenological applications of this $Hl_il_j$ effective vertex are also included.

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arXiv2017

Four Tops for LHC

We design a search strategy for the Standard Model $t\bar t t \bar t$ production at the LHC in the same-sign dilepton and trilepton channels. We study different signal features and, given the small expected number of signal events, we scrutinize in detail all reducible and irreducible backgrounds. Our analysis shows that by imposing a set of basic jet and lepton selection criteria, the SM $pp \to t\bar t t \bar t$ process could be evidenced in the near future, within Run-II, when combining both multi-lepton search channels. We argue that this search strategy should also be used as a guideline to test New Physics coupling predominantly to top-quarks. In particular, we show that a non-resonant New Physics enhancement in the four-top final state would be detectable through this search strategy. We study two {\it top-philic} simplified models of this kind, a neutral scalar boson and a $Z^\prime$, and present current and future exclusion limits on their mass and couplings.

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arXiv2016

Graviton resonance phenomenology and a pNGB Higgs at the LHC

We present an effective description of a spin two massive state and a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson Higgs in a two site model. Using this framework we model the spin two state as a massive graviton and we study its phenomenology at the LHC. We find that a reduced set of parameters can describe the most important features of this scenario. We address the question of which channel is the most sensitive to detect this graviton. Instead of designing search strategies to estimate the significance in each channel, we compare the ratio of our theoretical predictions to the limits set by available experimental searches for all the decay channels and as a function of the free parameters in the model. We discuss the phenomenological details contained in the outcome of this simple procedure. The results indicate that, for the studied masses between 0.5 and 3 TeV, the channels to look for such a graviton resonance are mainly $ZZ$, $WW$ and $γγ$. This is the case even though top and bottom quarks dominate the branching ratios, since their experimental sensitivity is not as good as the one of the electro-weak gauge bosons. We find that as the graviton mass increases, the $ZZ$ and $WW$ channels become more important because of its relatively better enhancement over background, mainly due to fat jet techniques. We determine the region of the parameter space that has already been excluded and the reach for the LHC next stages. We also estimate the size of the loop-induced contributions to the production and decay of the graviton, and show in which region of the parameter space their effects are relevant for our analysis.

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arXiv2016

Implications of a Electroweak Triplet Scalar Leptoquark on the Ultra-High Energy Neutrino Events at IceCube

We study the production of scalar leptoquarks at IceCube, in particular, a particle transforming as a triplet under the weak interaction. The existence of electroweak-triplet scalars is highly motivated by models of grand unification and also within radiative seesaw models for neutrino mass generation. In our framework, we extend the Standard Model by a single colored electroweak-triplet scalar leptoquark and analyze its implications on the excess of ultra-high energy neutrino events observed by the IceCube collaboration. We consider only couplings between the leptoquark to first generation leptons and quarks and carry out a statistical analysis to determine the parameters that best describe the IceCube data as well as set $95\%$ CL upper bounds. We analyze whether this study is still consistent with most up-to-date LHC data and various low energy observables.

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arXiv2016

Pseudoscalar top-Higgs coupling: Exploration of $\mathrm{CP}$-odd observables to resolve the sign ambiguity

We present a collection of $\mathrm{CP}$-odd observables for the process $pp\to t\,\left(\rightarrow b {\ell}^+ ν_{\ell}\right) \bar{t}\,\left(\rightarrow \bar{b} {\ell}^-{\barν}_{\ell}\right)\,H$ that are linearly dependent on the scalar ($κ_t$) and pseudoscalar ($\tildeκ_t$) top-Higgs coupling and hence sensitive to the corresponding relative sign. The proposed observables are based on triple product (TP) correlations that we extract from the expression for the differential cross section in terms of the spin vectors of the top and antitop quarks. In order to explore other possibilities, we progressively modify these TPs, first by combining them, and then by replacing the spin vectors by the lepton momenta or the $t$ and $\bar{t}$ momenta by their visible parts. We generate Monte Carlo data sets for several benchmark scenarios, including the Standard Model ($κ_t=1$, $\tildeκ_t=0$) and two scenarios with mixed $\mathrm{CP}$ properties ($κ_t=1$, $\tildeκ_t=\pm 1$). Assuming an integrated luminosity that is consistent with that envisioned for the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider, using Monte Carlo-truth and taking into account only statistical uncertainties, we find that the most promising observable can disentangle the "$\mathrm{CP}$-mixed" scenarios with an effective separation of $\sim 19σ$. In the case of observables that do not require the reconstruction of the $t$ and $\bar{t}$ momenta, the power of discrimination is up to $\sim 13σ$ for the same number of events. We also show that the most promising observables can still disentangle the $\mathrm{CP}$-mixed scenarios when the number of events is reduced to values consistent with expectations for the Large Hadron Collider in the near term.

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arXiv2016

A 750 GeV graviton and the Higgs as a pNGB

We study the diphoton excess at 750 GeV reported by ATLAS and CMS, by assuming that it corresponds to a new spin-two resonant state. We model this state as a massive graviton in a two-site model. We show that the very stringent bounds from $VV$ final states can be evaded naturally by considering that the Higgs is a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson. In this case the couplings of the graviton to the longitudinal electroweak gauge bosons can be parametrically suppressed. On the other hand, partial compositeness allows to suppress the leptonic channels. We compute loop-induced contributions to the graviton couplings by the presence of the SM third generation of quarks and composite partners of the SM fermions and obtain that they are not important. We find that the diphoton signal and the experimental constraints from other decay channels can be reproduced in a large and natural region of the parameter space of the theory.

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arXiv2016

Measuring CP-Violating Observables in Rare Top Decays at the LHC

In this paper we consider CP-violating new-physics contributions to the decay $t \to b \bar b c$. We examine the prospects for detecting such new physics at the LHC, which requires studying the process $gg \to t (\to b \bar b c) \bar t (\to \bar b \ell \bar ν)$. We find two observables that can be used to reveal the presence of CP-violating new physics in $t \to b \bar b c$. They are (i) the partial-rate asymmetry and (ii) the triple-product correlations involving the momenta of various particles associated with the interaction. A Monte Carlo analysis is performed to determine how well these observables can be used to detect the presence of new physics, and to measure its parameters. We find that there is little difficulty in extracting the value of the relevant new-physics parameter from the partial-rate asymmetry. For the triple-product correlations, we test multiple strategies that can be used for the extraction of the corresponding combination of new-physics parameters.

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arXiv2016

Long-lived Colored Scalars at the LHC

We study the collider signatures of a long-lived massive colored scalar transforming trivially under the weak interaction and decaying within the inner sections of a detector such as ATLAS or CMS. In our study, we assume that the colored scalar couples at tree-level to a top quark and a stable fermion, possibly arising from a dark sector or from supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model. After implementing the latest experimental searches for long-lived colored scalars, we observe a region of parameter space consistent with a colored electroweak-singlet scalar with mass between $\sim200-350$ GeV and a lifetime between $0.1-1$ $\text{mm}/c$ together, with a nearly degenerate dark fermion that may be probed at the $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV LHC. We show that a search strategy using a combination of cuts on missing transverse energy and impact parameters can exclude regions of parameter space not accessed by prompt searches. We show that a region of parameter space within our simplified model may naturally arise from the light-stop window regime of supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model, where a light mostly right-handed stop has a mass slightly larger than the lightest neutralino and decays through a four-body process.

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arXiv2015

Search for New Physics in Rare Top Decays: $t \bar t$ Spin Correlations and Other Observables

In this paper we study new-physics contributions to the top-quark decay $t \to b \bar b c$. We search for ways of detecting such new physics via measurements at the LHC. As top quarks are mainly produced at the LHC in $t \bar t$ production via gluon fusion, we analyze the process $gg \to t \bar t \to (b \bar b c) (\bar b \ell \bar ν)$. We find six observables that can be used to reveal the presence of new physics in $t \to b \bar b c$. Three are invariant mass-squared distributions involving two of the final-state particles in the top decay, and three are angular correlations between the final-state quarks coming from the $t$ decay and the $\ell^-$ coming from the $\bar t$ decay. The angular correlations are related to the $t \bar t$ spin correlation.

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arXiv2015

Detecting New Physics in Rare Top Decays at the LHC

In the companion paper it was shown that there are six observables in $gg\to t \bar t \to (b \bar b c) (\bar b \ell \bar ν)$ that can be used to reveal the presence of new physics (NP) in $t \to b \bar b c$. In the present paper we examine the prospects for detecting and identifying such NP at the LHC, in both the short term and long term. To this end, we develop an algorithm for extracting the NP parameters from measurements of the observables. In the short term, depending on what measurements have been made, there are several different ways of detecting the presence of NP. It may even be possible to approximately determine the values of certain NP parameters. In the long term, it is expected that all six observables will be measured. The values of the NP parameters can then be determined reasonably precisely from a fit to these measurements, which will provide good information about the type of NP present in $t \to b \bar b c$.

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arXiv2015

Probing sensitivity to charged scalars through partial differential widths: $τ\rightarrow Kππν_τ$ decays

We define and test $\mathrm{CP}$-even and $\mathrm{CP}$-odd partial differential widths for the process $τ\rightarrow Kππν_τ$ assuming that an intermediate heavy charged scalar contributes to the decay amplitude. Adopting a model-independent approach, we use a Monte Carlo simulation in order to study the number of events needed to recover information on the new physics from these observables. Our analysis of the $\mathrm{CP}$-odd observables indicates that the magnitude of $f_H η_P$, which is related to the new-physics contribution, can be recovered with an uncertainty smaller than $3%$ for $3\times 10^6$ events. This number of events would also allow one to retrieve certain parameters appearing in the SM amplitude at the percent level. In addition, we discuss the possibility of using the proposed observables to study specific models involving two Higgs doublets, such as the aligned two-Higgs-doublet model (A2HDM). This analysis is undertaken within the context of the upcoming Super B-factories, which are expected to provide a considerably larger number of events than that which was supplied by the B-factories. Moreover, a similar set of observables could be employed to study other decay modes such as $τ\rightarrowπππν_τ,\,τ\rightarrow KKπν_τ$ and $τ\rightarrow KKKν_τ$.

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arXiv2013

Slim SUSY

The new SM-like Higgs boson discovered recently at the LHC, with mass $m_h \simeq$ 125 GeV, as well as the direct LHC bounds on the mass of superpartners, which are entering into the TeV range, suggest that the minimal surviving supersymmetric extension of the SM (MSSM), should be characterized by a heavy SUSY-breaking scale. Several variants of the MSSM have been proposed to account for this result, which vary according to the accepted degree of fine-tuning. We propose an alternative scenario here, Slim SUSY, which contains sfermions with multi-TeV masses and gauginos/higgsinos near the EW scale, but it includes the heavy MSSM Higgs bosons ($H^0$, $A^0$, $H^\pm$) near the EW scale too. We discuss first the formulation and constraints of the Slim SUSY scenario, and then identify distinctive heavy Higgs signals that could be searched at the LHC, within scenarios with the minimal number of superpartners with masses near the EW scale.

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arXiv2013

Decays of $H^0/A^0$ in supersymmetric scenarios with heavy sfermions

The recent discovery of a new boson at the LHC, which resembles a SM-like Higgs boson with $m_h=125$ GeV, is starting to provide strong guidelines into SUSY model building. For instance, the identification of such a state with the lightest CP-even Higgs boson of the MSSM ($h^0$), requires large values of $\tanβ$ and/or heavy sfermions. One outcome of this result is the possibility to solve the SUSY flavor and CP problems by decoupling, which points towards some realization of Split-inspired SUSY scenarios, in which scalars are much heavier than gauginos and higgsinos. However, we argue here that the remaining Higgs bosons of the MSSM ($H^0$, $A^0$, $H^{\pm}$) do not have to be as heavy as the sfermions, and having them with masses near the EW scale does not pose any conflict with current MSSM constraints. We discuss then some SUSY scenarios with heavy sfermions, from a bottom-up approach, which contain the full Higgs sector, as well as a possible dark matter candidate, with masses near the EW scale, and identify distinctive signals from these scenarios that could be searched at the LHC.

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arXiv2012

Top-antitop resonance searches beyond 1 TeV

We perform a general parton level analysis for the search of heavy resonant states in the production of top-antitop pairs at the LHC with an integrated luminosity of 30 fb^-1. We assume the existence of resonances that only couple to quarks and propose kinematic cuts in order to increase the amount of events produced through quark-annihilation. We study the interplay between different variables and their impact on the purity of the selected sample. We make focus on the longitudinal ($β$) and transverse ($p_T$) momentum of the top-antitop pair, and the scattering angle ($θ$) in the center of mass reference frame. We observe that $β$ is replaced by $θ$ as a suitable discriminating variable of quark-annihilation processes for invariant masses above 1 TeV. Finally, we illustrate the analysis with a gluon resonance of 1.5 TeV and show the improvement in the sensitivity of the signal when cuts on $θ$ are imposed.

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arXiv2011

Using t -> b \bar{b} c to Search for New Physics

We consider new-physics (NP) contributions to the decay t -> b \bar{b} c. We parameterize the NP couplings by an effective Lagrangian consisting of 10 Lorentz structures. We show that the presence of NP can be detected through the measurement of the partial width. A partial identification of the NP can be achieved through the measurements of a forward-backward-like asymmetry, a top-quark-spin-dependent asymmetry, the partial rate asymmetry, and a triple-product asymmetry. These observables, which vanish in the standard model, can all take values in the 10-20% range in the presence of NP. Since |V_{tb}V_{cb}| \simeq |V_{ts} V_{cs}|, most of our results also hold, with small changes, for t -> s \bar{s} c.

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arXiv2011

A composite Higgs model analysis of forward-backward asymmetries in the production of tops at Tevatron and bottoms at LEP and SLC

We perform a joint analysis of the prediction of composite Higgs models for the discrepancies of the forward-backward asymmetries of top and bottom quarks at Tevatron and LEP+SLC, respectively. We build a two sector model which can be thought as an effective low energy description of 5D warped models and choose the quantum numbers of the fermionic resonances to protect the Z-couplings of the partially composite Standard Model light quarks. We analyze the cross section, forward-backward asymmetry and invariant mass distribution of the top anti-top production at Tevatron, as well as the bottom forward-backward asymmetry and the Z-branching fraction into b-quarks at LEP and SLC, for the two sector model. In the region of the parameter space that naturally leads to the Standard Model spectrum and solves the bottom anomaly, the model improves the top forward-backward asymmetry, giving a prediction of up to 10%, and predicts a small decrease of the $t \bar t$ cross section. It also predicts non-universal corrections of the Z-couplings to the light quarks of order 0.001.

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arXiv2011

Phenomenology of a light gluon resonance in top-physics at Tevatron and LHC

We present a phenomenological analysis of the recent Tevatron results on the $t \bar t$ forward-backward asymmetry and invariant-mass spectrum assuming a new contribution from an s-channel gluon resonance with a mass in the range from 700 to 2500 GeV. In contrast to most of the previous works, this analysis shows that for masses below ~1 TeV resonant New Physics could accommodate the experimental data. In general, we find that axial-like couplings are preferred for light and top quark couplings, and that only top quark couples strongly to New Physics. We find that composite model scenarios arise naturally from only phenomenological analyses of the experimental results. We show that our results are compatible with recent LHC limits in dijet and $t \bar t$ production, and find some tension for large resonance mass ~2.5 TeV. We indicate as best observables for discriminating a relatively light new gluon a better resolution in CDF forward-backward asymmetry, as well as the $t \bar t$ charge asymmetry and invariant-mass spectrum at the LHC.

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