arXiv subjects

Aleksandr Azatov

Publications and source records attributed to Aleksandr Azatov.

46 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Determining Higgs couplings with a model-independent analysis of h ->gamma gamma

Discovering a Higgs boson at the LHC will address a major outstanding issue in particle physics but will also raise many new questions. A concerted effort to determine the couplings of this new state to other Standard Model fields will be of critical importance. Precise knowledge of these couplings can serve as a powerful probe of new physics, and will be needed in attempts to accommodate such a new boson within specific models. In this paper, we present a method for constraining these couplings in a model-independent way, focusing primarily on an exclusive analysis of the gamma gamma final state. We demonstrate the discriminating power of fully exclusive analyses, and discuss ways in which information can be shared between experimentalists and theorists in order to facilitate collaboration in the task of establishing the true origins of any new physics discovered at the LHC.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Light Custodians and Higgs Physics in Composite Models

Composite Higgs models involving partial compositeness of Standard Model fermions typically require the introduction of fermionic partners which are relatively light in realistic scenarios. In this paper, we analyze the role of these light custodian fermions in the phenomenology of the composite Higgs models and show that they significantly modify couplings of the Higgs field. We focus on the coupling to gluons in particular, which is of central importance for Higgs production at the LHC. We show that this coupling can be increased as well as decreased depending on the SM fermion embedding in the composite multiplets. We also discuss modification of the Higgs couplings to bottom and top quarks and show that modifications to all these three couplings Hgg, Htt, and Hbb are generically independent parameters.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Improving the tunings of the MSSM by adding triplets and singlet

We study an extension of the MSSM which includes both new SU(2) triplets with hypercharge $\pm 1$ and a SM gauge singlet (a la NMSSM) which are coupled to each other. We are motivated by the little hierarchy problem, as well as by the $μ$ problem of the MSSM. We show that the NMSSM and the triplet-extended MSSM can successfully solve problems of one another: while triplets are responsible for large correction to the lightest physical Higgs mass, the singlet's VEV explains why the $μ$ terms (for the Higgs doublets and the new triplets) are naturally of order the electroweak (EW) scale. We also show that singlet-triplet coupling significantly changes the RG evolution of the singlet mass squared, helping to render this mass squared negative, as required for the singlet to acquire a VEV. We analyze constrains on this scenario from EW precision measurements and find that a relatively large region of the parameter space of this model is viable, especially with the triplet fermions (including doubly-charged) being light.

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arXiv2011

Superconformal Technicolor: Models and Phenomenology

In supersymmetric theories with a strong conformal sector, soft supersymmetry breaking naturally gives rise to confinement and chiral symmetry breaking in the strong sector at the TeV scale. We construct and analyze models where such a sector dynamically breaks electroweak symmetry, and take the first steps in studying their phenomenology. We consider two scenarios, one where the strong dynamics induces vacuum expectation values for elementary Higgs fields, and another where the strong dynamics is solely responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking. In both cases there is no fine tuning required to explain the absence of a Higgs boson below the LEP bound, solving the supersymmetry naturalness problem. Quark and lepton masses arise from conventional Yukawa couplings to elementary Higgs bosons, so there are no additional flavor-changing effects associated with the strong dynamics. A good precision electroweak fit can be obtained because the strong sector is an SU(2) gauge theory with one weak doublet, and has adjustable parameters that control the violation of custodial symmetry. In addition to the the standard supersymmetry signals, these models predict production of multiple heavy standard model particles (t, W, Z, and b) from decays of resonances in the strong sector. The strong sector has no approximate parity symmetry, so WW scattering is unitarized by states that can decay to WWW as well as WW.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Superconformal Technicolor

In supersymmetric theories with a strong conformal sector, soft supersymmetry breaking at the TeV scale naturally gives rise to confinement and chiral symmetry breaking at the same scale. We investigate models where such a sector dynamically breaks electroweak symmetry. We consider two scenarios, one where the strong dynamics induces vacuum expectation values for elementary Higgs fields, and another where the strong dynamics is solely responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking. In both cases there is no fine tuning required to explain the absence of a Higgs boson below the LEP bound, solving the supersymmetry naturalness problem. A good precision electroweak fit can be obtained, and quark and lepton masses are generated without flavor-changing neutral currents. Electroweak symmetry breaking may be dominated either by the elementary Higgs bosons or by the strong dynamics. In addition to standard superymmetry collider signals, these models predict production of multiple heavy standard model particles (t, W, Z, and b) from decays of resonances in the strong sector.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2010

Higgs Production from Gluon Fusion in Warped Extra Dimensions

We present an analysis of the loop-induced couplings of the Higgs boson to the massless gauge fields (gluons and photons) in the warped extra dimension models where all Standard Model fields propagate in the bulk. We show that in such models corrections to the hgg and $hγγ$ couplings are potentially very large. These corrections can lead to generically sizable deviations in the production and decay rates of the Higgs boson, even when the new physics states lie beyond the direct reach of the LHC.

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arXiv2010

LHC Signals for Coset Electroweak Gauge Bosons in Warped/Composite PGB Higgs Models

The framework of a warped extra dimension with the Standard Model (SM) fields propagating in it is a very well-motivated extension of the SM since it can address both the Planck-weak and flavor hierarchy problems of the SM. Within this framework, solution to the little hierarchy problem motivates extending the SM electroweak (EW) 5D gauge symmetry in such a way that its breakdown to the SM delivers the SM Higgs boson. We study signals at the large hadron collider (LHC) for the extra EW (called coset) gauge bosons, a fundamental ingredient of this framework. The coset gauge bosons, due to their unique EW gauge quantum numbers [doublets of SU(2)_L], do not couple at leading order to two SM particles. We find that, using the associated production of the charged coset gauge bosons via their coupling to SM bottom quark and a (light) KK top quark, the LHC can have a 3σreach of \sim 2 (2.6) TeV for the coset gauge boson masses with \sim 100 (1000) fb^{-1} luminosity. Since current theoretical framework(s) suggest an {\em indirect} lower limit on coset gauge boson masses of >3 TeV, luminosity or energy upgrade of LHC is likely to be crucial in observing these states.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

Higgs Mediated FCNC's in Warped Extra Dimensions

In the context of a warped extra-dimension with Standard Model fields in the bulk, we obtain the general flavor structure of the Higgs couplings to fermions. These couplings will be generically misaligned with respect to the fermion mass matrix, producing large and potentially dangerous flavor changing neutral currents (FCNC's). As recently pointed out in [arXiv:0906.1542], a similar effect is expected from the point of view of a composite Higgs sector, which corresponds to a 4D theory dual to the 5D setup by the AdS-CFT correspondence. We also point out that the effect is independent of the geographical nature of the Higgs (bulk or brane localized), and specifically that it does not go away as the Higgs is pushed towards the IR boundary. The FCNC's mediated by a light enough Higgs (specially their contribution to $ε_K$) could become of comparable size as the ones coming from the exchange of Kaluza-Klein (KK) gluons. Moreover, both sources of flavor violation are complementary since they have inverse dependence on the 5D Yukawa couplings, such that we cannot decouple the flavor violation effects by increasing or decreasing these couplings. We also find that for KK scales of a few TeV, the Higgs couplings to third generation fermions could experience suppressions of up to 40% while the rest of diagonal couplings would suffer much milder corrections. Potential LHC signatures like the Higgs flavor violating decays $h\toμτ$ or $h\to tc$, or the exotic top decay channel $t\to c h$, are finally addressed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Radion Mediated Flavor Changing Neutral Currents

In the context of a warped extra-dimension with Standard Model fields in the bulk, we obtain the general flavor structure of the Radion couplings to fermions and show that the result is independent on the particular nature of the Higgs mechanism (bulk or brane localized). These couplings will be generically misaligned with respect to the fermion mass matrix when the fermion bulk mass parameters are not all degenerate. When the Radion is light enough, the generic size of these tree-level flavor changing couplings will be strongly constrained by the experimental bounds on $ΔF=2$ processes. At the LHC the possibility of a heavier Radion decaying into top and charm quarks is then considered as a promising signal to probe the flavor structure of both the Radion sector and the whole scenario.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Flavor Violation Tests of Warped/Composite SM in the Two-Site Approach

We study flavor violation in the quark sector in a purely 4D, two-site effective field theory description of the Standard Model and just their first Kaluza-Klein excitations from a warped extra dimension. The warped 5D framework can provide solutions to both the Planck-weak and flavor hierarchies of the SM. It is also related (via the AdS/CFT correspondence) to partial compositeness of the SM. We focus on the dominant contributions in the two-site model to two observables which we argue provide the strongest flavor constraints, namely, epsilon_K and BR(b -> s gamma), where contributions in the two-site model occur at tree and loop-level, respectively. In particular, we demonstrate that a "tension" exists between these two observables in the sense that they have opposite dependence on composite site Yukawa couplings, making it difficult to decouple flavor-violating effects using this parameter. We choose the size of the composite site QCD coupling based on the relation of the two-site model to the 5D model (addressing the Planck-weak hierarchy), where we match the 5D QCD coupling to the 4D coupling at the loop-level and assuming negligible tree-level brane-localized kinetic terms. We estimate that a larger size of the 5D gauge coupling is constrained by the requirement of 5D perturbativity. We find that \sim O(5) TeV mass scale for the new particles in the two-site model can then be consistent with both observables. We also compare our analysis of epsilon_K in the two-site model to that in 5D models, including both the cases of a brane-localized and bulk Higgs.

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