arXiv subjects

Alexandre Arbey

Publications and source records attributed to Alexandre Arbey.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Reinterpretation of LHC Results for New Physics: Status and Recommendations after Run 2

We report on the status of efforts to improve the reinterpretation of searches and measurements at the LHC in terms of models for new physics, in the context of the LHC Reinterpretation Forum. We detail current experimental offerings in direct searches for new particles, measurements, technical implementations and Open Data, and provide a set of recommendations for further improving the presentation of LHC results in order to better enable reinterpretation in the future. We also provide a brief description of existing software reinterpretation frameworks and recent global analyses of new physics that make use of the current data.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Stellar Signatures of Inhomogeneous Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

We evaluate abundance anomalies generated in patches of the universe where the baryon-to-photon ratio was locally enhanced by possibly many orders of magnitude in the range $η= 10^{-10} - 10^{-1}$. Our study is motivated by the possible survival of rare dense regions in the early universe, the most extreme of which, above a critical threshold, collapsed to form primordial black holes. If this occurred, one may expect there to also be a significant population of early-forming stars that formed in similar but subthreshold patches. We derive a range of element abundance signatures by performing BBN simulations at high values of the baryon-to-photon ratio that may be detectable in any surviving first generation stars of around a solar mass. Our predictions apply to metal-poor galactic halo stars, to old globular star clusters and to dwarf galaxies, and we compare with observations in each of these cases.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Evolution of primordial black hole spin due to Hawking radiation

Near extremal Kerr black holes are subject to the Thorne limit $a<a^*_{\rm lim}=0.998$ in the case of thin disc accretion, or some generalized version of this in other disc geometries. However any limit that differs from the thermodynamics limit $a^* < 1$ can in principle be evaded in other astrophysical configurations, and in particular if the near extremal black holes are primordial and subject to evaporation by Hawking radiation only. We derive the lower mass limit above which Hawking radiation is slow enough so that a primordial black hole with a spin initially above some generalized Thorne limit can still be above this limit today. Thus, we point out that the observation of Kerr black holes with extremely high spin should be a hint of either exotic astrophysical mechanisms or primordial origin.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Cusp-to-core transition in low-mass dwarf galaxies induced by dynamical heating of cold dark matter by primordial black holes

We performed a series of high-resolution $N$-body simulations to examine whether dark matter candidates in the form of primordial black holes (PBHs) can solve the cusp-core problem in low-mass dwarf galaxies. If some fraction of the dark matter in low-mass dwarf galaxies consists of PBHs and the rest is cold dark matter, dynamical heating of the cold dark matter by the PBHs induces a cusp-to-core transition in the total dark matter profile. The mechanism works for PBHs in the 25-100 M$_{\sun}$ mass window, consistent with the LIGO detections, but requires a lower limit on the PBH mass fraction of 1$\%$ of the total dwarf galaxy dark matter content. The cusp-to-core transition time-scale is between 1 and 8 Gyr. This time-scale is also a constant multiple of the relaxation time between cold dark matter particles and PBHs, which depends on the mass, the mass fraction and the scale radius of the initial density profile of PBHs. We conclude that dark matter cores occur naturally in halos comprised of cold dark matter and PBHs, without the need to invoke baryonic processes.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

Constraining primordial black hole masses with the isotropic gamma ray background

Primordial black holes can represent all or most of the dark matter in the window $10^{17}-10^{22}\,$g. Here we present an extension of the constraints on PBHs of masses $10^{13}-10^{18}\,$g arising from the isotropic diffuse gamma ray background. Primordial black holes evaporate by emitting Hawking radiation that should not exceed the observed background. Generalizing from monochromatic distributions of Schwarzschild black holes to extended mass functions of Kerr rotating black holes, we show that the lower part of this mass window can be closed for near-extremal black holes.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

The correlation matrix of Higgs rates at the LHC

The imperfect knowledge of the Higgs boson decay rates and cross sections at the LHC constitutes a critical systematic uncertainty in the study of the Higgs boson properties. We show that the full covariance matrix between the Higgs rates can be determined from the most elementary sources of uncertainty by a direct application of probability theory. We evaluate the error magnitudes and full correlation matrix on the set of Higgs cross sections and branching ratios at $\sqrt{s}=7$, $8$, $13$ and $14$ TeV, which are provided in ancillary files. The impact of this correlation matrix on the global fits is illustrated with the latest $7$+$8$ TeV Higgs dataset.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Simplified Models for Dark Matter Searches at the LHC

This document outlines a set of simplified models for dark matter and its interactions with Standard Model particles. It is intended to summarize the main characteristics that these simplified models have when applied to dark matter searches at the LHC, and to provide a number of useful expressions for reference. The list of models includes both s-channel and t-channel scenarios. For s-channel, spin-0 and spin-1 mediation is discussed, and also realizations where the Higgs particle provides a portal between the dark and visible sectors. The guiding principles underpinning the proposed simplified models are spelled out, and some suggestions for implementation are presented.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

LHC constraints on Gravitino Dark Matter

Gravitino Dark Matter represents a compelling scenario in Supersymmetry, which brings together a variety of data from cosmology and collider physics. We discuss the constraints obtained from the LHC on supersymmetric models with gravitino dark matter and neutralino NLSP, which is the case most difficult to disentangle at colliders from a neutralino LSP forming DM. The phenomenological SUSY model with 19+1 free parameters is adopted. Results are obtained from broad scans of the phase space of these uncorrelated parameters. The relation between gravitino mass, gluino mass and reheating temperature as well as the derived constraints on these parameters are discussed in detail. This relation offers a unique opportunity to place stringent bounds on the cosmological model, within the gravitino dark matter scenario, from the results of the LHC searches in Run-2 and the planned High-Luminosity upgrade.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Flavour, Electroweak Symmetry Breaking and Dark Matter: state of the art and future prospects

With the discovery of the Higgs boson the Standard Model has become a complete and comprehensive theory, which has been verified with unparalleled precision and in principle might be valid at all scales. However, several reasons remain why we firmly believe that there should be physics beyond the Standard Model. Experiments such as the LHC, new $B$ factories, and earth- and space-based astro-particle experiments provide us with unique opportunities to discover a coherent framework for many of the long-standing puzzles of our field. Here we explore several significant interconnections between the physics of the Higgs boson, the physics of flavour, and the experimental clues we have about dark matter.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Dark Matter Benchmark Models for Early LHC Run-2 Searches: Report of the ATLAS/CMS Dark Matter Forum

This document is the final report of the ATLAS-CMS Dark Matter Forum, a forum organized by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations with the participation of experts on theories of Dark Matter, to select a minimal basis set of dark matter simplified models that should support the design of the early LHC Run-2 searches. A prioritized, compact set of benchmark models is proposed, accompanied by studies of the parameter space of these models and a repository of generator implementations. This report also addresses how to apply the Effective Field Theory formalism for collider searches and present the results of such interpretations.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2015

The Higgs boson, Supersymmetry and Dark Matter: Relations and Perspectives

The discovery of a light Higgs boson at the LHC opens a broad program of studies and measurements to understand the role of this particle in connection with New Physics and Cosmology. Supersymmetry is the best motivated and most thoroughly formulated and investigated model of New Physics which predicts a light Higgs boson and can explain dark matter. This paper discusses how the study of the Higgs boson connects with the search for supersymmetry and for dark matter at the LHC and at a future $e^+e^-$ collider and with dedicated underground dark matter experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Fundamental Composite Electroweak Dynamics: Status at the LHC

We determine the current status of the fundamental composite electroweak dynamics paradigm after the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider experiments. Our analysis serves as universal and minimal template for a wide class of models with the two limits in parameter space being composite Goldstone Higgs models and Technicolor. This is possible because of the existence of a unified description, both at the effective and fundamental Lagrangian levels, of models of composite Higgs dynamics where the Higgs boson itself can emerge, depending on the way the electroweak symmetry is embedded, either as a pseudo-Goldstone boson or as a massive excitation of the condensate. We constrain the available parameter space at the effective Lagrangian level. We show that a wide class of models of fundamental composite electroweak dynamics, including Technicolor, are compatible with experiments. The results are relevant for future searches of a fundamental composite nature of the Higgs mechanism at the Large Hadron Collider.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Higgs Production in Neutralino Decays in the MSSM - The LHC and a Future e+e- Collider

The search for the production of weakly-interacting SUSY particles at the LHC is crucial for testing supersymmetry in relation to dark matter. Decays of neutralinos into Higgs bosons occur over some significant part of the SUSY parameter space and represent the most important source of $h$ boson production in SUSY decay chains in the MSSM. We study h production in neutralino decays using scans of the phenomenological MSSM. Whilst in constrained MSSM scenarios the decay chi^0_2 -> h chi^0_1 is the dominant channel, this does not hold in more general MSSM scenarios. On the other hand, the chi^0_2,3 -> h chi^0_1 decays remain important and are highly complementary to multi-lepton final states in the LHC searches. The perspectives for the LHC analyses at 8 and 14 TeV as well as the reach of an e+e- collider at 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 3 TeV are discussed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Complementarity of WIMP Sensitivity with direct SUSY, Monojet and Dark Matter Searches in the MSSM

This letter presents new results on the combined sensitivity of the LHC and underground dark matter search experiments to the lightest neutralino as WIMP candidate in the minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model. We show that monojet searches significantly extend the sensitivity to the neutralino mass in scenarios where scalar quarks are nearly degenerate in mass with it. The inclusion of the latest bound by the LUX experiment on the neutralino-nucleon spin-independent scattering cross section expands this sensitivity further, highlighting the remarkable complementarity of jets/$\ell$s+MET and monojet at LHC and dark matter searches in probing models of new physics with a dark matter candidate. The qualitative results of our study remain valid after accounting for theoretical uncertainties.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Supersymmetry with Light Dark Matter confronting the recent CDMS and LHC Results

We revisit MSSM scenarios with light neutralino as a dark matter candidate in view of the latest LHC and dark matter direct and indirect detection experiments. We show that scenarios with a very light neutralino (~ 10 GeV) and a scalar bottom quark close in mass, can satisfy all the available constraints from LEP, Tevatron, LHC, flavour and low energy experiments and provide solutions in agreement with the bulk of dark matter direct detection experiments, and in particular with the recent CDMS results.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Supersymmetric Heavy Higgs Bosons at the LHC

The search for heavy Higgs bosons is an essential step in the exploration of the Higgs sector and in probing the Supersymmetric parameter space. This paper discusses the constraints on the M(A) and tan beta parameters derived from the bounds on the different decay channels of the neutral H and A bosons accessible at the LHC, in the framework of the phenomenological MSSM. The implications from the present LHC results and the expected sensitivity of the 14 TeV data are discussed in terms of the coverage of the [M(A) - tan beta] plane. New channels becoming important at 13 and 14 TeV for low values of tan beta are characterised in terms of their kinematics and the reconstruction strategies. The effect of QCD systematics, SUSY loop effects and decays into pairs of SUSY particles on these constraints are discussed in details.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Dark Matter in a twisted bottle

The real projective plane is a compact, non-orientable orbifold of Euler characteristic 1 without boundaries, which can be described as a twisted Klein bottle. We shortly review the motivations for choosing such a geometry among all possible two-dimensional orbifolds, while the main part of the study will be devoted to dark matter study and limits in Universal Extra Dimensional (UED) models based on this peculiar geometry. In the following we consider such a UED construction based on the direct product of the real projective plane with the standard four-dimensional Minkowski space-time and discuss its relevance as a model of a weakly interacting Dark Matter candidate. One important difference with other typical UED models is the origin of the symmetry leading to the stability of the dark matter particle. This symmetry in our case is a remnant of the six-dimensional Minkowski space-time symmetry partially broken by the compactification. Another important difference is the very small mass splitting between the particles of a given Kaluza-Klein tier, which gives a very important role to co-annihilation effects. Finally the role of higher Kaluza-Klein tiers is also important and is discussed together with a detailed numerical description of the influence of the resonances.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

The Higgs sector of the phenomenological MSSM in the light of the Higgs boson discovery

The long awaited discovery of a new light scalar at the LHC opens up a new era of studies of the Higgs sector in the SM and its extensions. In this paper we discuss the consequences of the observation of a light Higgs boson with the mass and rates reported by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations on the parameter space of the phenomenological MSSM, including also the so far unsuccessful LHC searches for the heavier Higgs bosons and supersymmetric particle partners in missing transverse momentum as well as the constraints from B physics and dark matter. We explore the various regimes of the MSSM Higgs sector depending on the parameters MA and tan beta and show that only two of them are still allowed by all present experimental constraints: the decoupling regime where there is only one light and standard--like Higgs boson and the supersymmetric regime in which there are light supersymmetric particle partners affecting the decay properties of the Higgs boson, in particular its di-photon and invisible decays.

hep-ph↗