arXiv subjects

Alex Pomarol

Publications and source records attributed to Alex Pomarol.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Top Quark Compositeness: Feasibility and Implications

In models of electroweak symmetry breaking in which the SM fermions get their masses by mixing with composite states, it is natural to expect the top quark to show properties of compositeness. We study the phenomenological viability of having a mostly composite top. The strongest constraints are shown to mainly come from one-loop contributions to the T-parameter. Nevertheless, the presence of light custodial partners weakens these bounds, allowing in certain cases for a high degree of top compositeness. We find regions in the parameter space in which the T-parameter receives moderate positive contributions, favoring the electroweak fit of this type of models. We also study the implications of having a composite top at the LHC, focusing on the process pp-> t\bar t t\bar t (b\bar b) whose cross-section is enhanced at high-energies.

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arXiv2007

Stable skyrmions from extra dimensions

We show that skyrmions arising from compact five dimensional models have stable sizes. We numerically obtain the skyrmion configurations and calculate their size and energy. Although their size strongly depends on the magnitude of localized kinetic-terms, their energy is quite model-independent ranging between 50-65 times F_pi^2/m_rho, where F_pi is the Goldstone decay constant and m_rho the lowest Kaluza-Klein mass. These skyrmion configurations interpolate between small 4D YM instantons and 4D skyrmions made of Goldstones and a massive vector boson. Contrary to the original 4D skyrmion and previous 5D extensions, these configurations have sizes larger than the inverse of the cut-off scale and therefore they are trustable within our effective 5D approach. Such solitonic particles can have interesting phenomenological consequences as they carry a conserved topological charge analogous to baryon number.

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arXiv2006

Light custodians in natural composite Higgs models

We present a class of composite Higgs models arising from a warped extra dimension that can satisfy all the electroweak precision tests in a significant portion of their parameter space. A custodial symmetry plays a crucial role in keeping the largest corrections to the electroweak observables below their experimental limits. In these models the heaviness of the top quark is not only essential to trigger the electroweak symmetry breaking, but it also implies that the lowest top resonance and its custodial partners, the custodians, are significantly lighter than the other resonances. These custodians are the trademark of these scenarios. They are exotic colored fermions of electromagnetic charges 5/3, 2/3 and -1/3, with masses predicted roughly in the range 500-1500 GeV. We discuss their production and detection at the LHC.

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arXiv2006

A custodial symmetry for Zbb

We show that a subgroup of the custodial symmetry O(3) that protects delta rho from radiative corrections can also protect the Zbb coupling. This allows one to build models of electroweak symmetry breaking, such as Higgsless, Little Higgs or 5D composite Higgs models, that are safe from corrections to Z-> bb. We show that when this symmetry protects Zbb it cannot simultaneously protect Ztt and Wtb. Therefore one can expect to measure sizable deviations from the SM predictions of these couplings at future collider experiments. We also show under what circumstances Zb_R b_R can receive corrections in the right direction to explain the anomaly in the LEP/SLD forward-backward asymmetry A^b_{FB}.

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arXiv2005

The scalar and pseudoscalar sector in a five-dimensional approach to chiral symmetry breaking

We study the scalar and pseudoscalar sector in a five-dimenional model describing chiral symmetry breaking. We calculate the scalar and pseudoscalar two-point correlator, the mass spectrum and interactions. We also obtain the scalar and pseudoscalar contributions to the coefficients of the chiral lagrangian and determine the scalar form factor of the pseudo-Goldstone bosons. Most quantities show a good agreement with QCD.

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arXiv2005

The Minimal Composite Higgs Model

We study the idea of a composite Higgs in the framework of a five-dimensional AdS theory. We present the minimal model of the Higgs as a pseudo-Goldstone boson in which electroweak symmetry is broken dynamically via top loop effects, all flavour problems are solved, and contributions to electroweak precision observables are below experimental bounds. Since the 5D theory is weakly coupled, we are able to fully determine the Higgs potential and other physical quantities. The lightest resonances are expected to have a mass around 2 TeV and should be discovered at the LHC. The top sector is mostly composite and deviations from Standard Model couplings are expected.

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arXiv2005

Chiral symmetry breaking from five dimensional spaces

Based on the AdS/CFT correspondence we study the breaking of the chiral symmetry in QCD using a simple five dimensional model. The model gives definite predictions for the spectrum of vector mesons, their decay constants and interactions as a function of one parameter related to the quark condensate. We calculate the coefficients $L_i$ of the low-energy QCD chiral lagrangian, as well as other physical quantities for the pions. All the predictions are shown to be in good agreement with the experimental data. We also show that they are robust under modifications of the 5D metric in the IR, and that some of them arise as a consequence of the higher-dimensional gauge symmetry. For example, at the tree-level, we find $M_ρ\simeq \sqrt{3} g_{ρππ} F_π$, $F_ρ\simeq \sqrt{3} F_π$ and BR($a_1\to πγ)=0$.

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arXiv2005

Holography for fermions

The holographic interpretation is a useful tool to describe 5D field theories in a 4D language. In particular it allows one to relate 5D AdS theories with 4D CFTs. We elaborate on the 5D/4D dictionary for the case of fermions in AdS$_5$ with boundaries. This dictionary is quite useful to address phenomenological issues in a very simple manner, as we show by giving some examples.

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arXiv2004

Electroweak symmetry breaking after LEP1 and LEP2

In a generic 'universal' theory of electroweak symmetry breaking, non fine-tuned heavy new physics affects the low-energy data through four parameters, which include and properly extend the generally insufficient S and T. Only by adding the LEP2 data to the global electroweak fit, can all these four form factors be determined and deviations from the SM be strongly constrained. Several of the recently proposed models (little Higgs, gauge bosons in extra dimensions or Higgsless models in 5D) are recognized to be 'universal' in a straightforward way after a proper definition of the effective vector boson fields. Among various applications, we show that proposed Higgsless models in 5D, when calculable, do not provide a viable description of electroweak symmetry breaking in their full range of parameters.

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arXiv2003

Weakly coupled Higgsless theories and precision electroweak tests

In 5 dimensions the electroweak symmetry can be broken by boundary conditions, leading to a new type of Higgsless theories. These could in principle improve on the 4D case by extending the perturbative domain to energies higher than $4 πv$ and by allowing a better fit to the electroweak precision tests. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that both these improvements can be achieved, as we show by discussing these problems in an explicit model.

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arXiv2003

Higgs as a Holographic Pseudo-Goldstone Boson

The AdS/CFT correspondence allows to relate 4D strongly coupled theories to weakly coupled theories in 5D AdS. We use this correspondence to study a scenario in which the Higgs appears as a composite pseudo-Goldstone boson (PGB) of a strongly coupled theory. We show how a non-linearly realized global symmetry protects the Higgs mass and guarantees the absence of quadratic divergences at any loop order. The gauge and Yukawa interactions for the PGB Higgs are introduced in a simply way in the 5D AdS theory, and their one-loop contributions to the Higgs potential are calculated using perturbation theory. These contributions are finite, giving a squared-mass to the Higgs which is one-loop smaller than the mass of the first Kaluza-Klein state. We also show that if the symmetry breaking is caused by boundary conditions in the extra dimension, the PGB Higgs corresponds to the fifth component of the bulk gauge boson. To make the model fully realistic, a tree-level Higgs quartic coupling must be induced. We present a possible mechanism to generate it and discuss the conditions under which an unwanted large Higgs mass term is avoided.

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arXiv2003

The Standard Model Partly Supersymmetric

We present a novel class of theories where supersymmetry is only preserved in a partial (non-isolated) sector. The supersymmetric sector consists of CFT bound-states that can coexist with fundamental states which do not respect supersymmetry. These theories arise from the 4D holographic interpretation of 5D theories in a slice of AdS where supersymmetry is broken on the UV boundary. In particular, we consider the Standard Model where only the Higgs sector (and possibly the top quark) is supersymmetric. The Higgs mass-parameter is then protected by supersymmetry, and consequently the electroweak scale is naturally smaller than the composite Higgs scale. This not only provides a solution to the hierarchy problem, but predicts a ``little'' hierarchy between the electroweak and new physics scale. Remarkably, the model only contains a single supersymmetric partner, the Higgsino (and possibly the stop), and as in the usual MSSM, predicts a light Higgs boson.

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arXiv2002

A stable hierarchy from Casimir forces and the holographic interpretation

We show that in the Randall-Sundrum model the Casimir energy of bulk gauge fields (or any of their supersymmetric relatives) has contributions that depend logarithmically on the radion. These contributions satisfactorily stabilize the radion, generating a large hierarchy of scales without fine-tuning. The logarithmic behaviour can be understood, in a 4D holographic description, as the running of gauge couplings with the infrared cut-off scale.

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arXiv2002

Fayet-Iliopoulos terms in 5d theories and their phenomenological implications

Supersymmetric theories in 5d orbifold can have Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) terms on the boundaries. These terms induce a 5d mass for the bulk matter fields. We analyze this effect using N=1 superfields and show how it can be understood as a mixing between the U(1) gauge boson and the graviphoton. We also study the implications of the FI-terms in the mass spectrum of theories with Scherk-Schwarz supersymmetry breaking. We present a new 5d supersymmetric model that has the massless spectrum of the Standard Model and predicts a Higgs boson with a mass around the present experimental limit.

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arXiv2002

A Stuckelberg formalism for the gravitino from warped extra dimensions

We consider supersymmetric theories with a warped extra dimension where supersymmetry is broken by boundary conditions that preserve an R-symmetry. It is shown that this supersymmetry breaking mechanism naturally invokes the Stuckelberg formalism for the gravitino in order to give a four-dimensional theory with a smooth massless limit.

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arXiv2001

Supersymmetric theories with compact extra dimensions in N=1 superfields

We present an N=1 superfield formulation of supersymmetric gauge theories with a compact extra dimension. The formulation incorporates the radion superfield and allows to write supersymmetric theories on warped gravitational backgrounds. We apply it to study the breaking of supersymmetry by the F-term of the radion, and show that, for flat extra dimensions, this leads to the same mass spectrum as in Scherk-Schwarz models of supersymmetry breaking. We also consider scenarios where supersymmetry is broken on a boundary of a warped extra dimension and compare them with anomaly mediated models.

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arXiv2001

A Warped Supersymmetric Standard Model

We study the breaking of supersymmetry in five-dimensional (5d) warped spaces, using the Randall-Sundrum model as a prototype. In particular, we present a supersymmetry-breaking mechanism which has a geometrical origin, and consists of imposing different boundary conditions between the fermions and bosons living in the 5d bulk. The scale of supersymmetry breaking is exponentially small due to the warp factor of the AdS metric. We apply this mechanism to a supersymmetric standard model where supersymmetry breaking is transmitted through the AdS bulk to matter fields confined on the Planck-brane. This leads to a predictable superparticle mass spectrum where the gravitino mass is $10^{-3}$eV and scalar particles receive masses at the one-loop level via bulk gauge interactions. We calculate the mass spectrum in full detail using the 5d AdS propagators. The AdS/CFT correspondence suggests that our 5d warped model is dual to the ordinary 4d MSSM with a strongly coupled CFT sector responsible for the breaking of supersymmetry.

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arXiv2000

Grand Unified Theories without the Desert

We present a Grand Unified Theory (GUT) that has GUT fields with masses of the order of a TeV, but at the same time preserves (at the one-loop level) the success of gauge-coupling unification of the MSSM and the smallness of proton decay operators. This scenario is based on a five-dimensional theory with the extra dimension compactified as in the Randall-Sundrum model. The MSSM gauge sector and its GUT extension live in the 5D bulk, while the matter sector is localized on a 4D boundary.

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