arXiv subjects

Andre Lessa

Publications and source records attributed to Andre Lessa.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

OperatorToC++: Transpiling Matched EFT Coefficients to Low-Level Routines

In recent years, significant progress has been made in the development of automated tools that match the parameters of new physics models and the appropriate low-energy Effective Field Theories. This work introduces an extensible, hybrid tool, OperatorToC++, that combines the strengths of Mathematica and C++ to facilitate the next steps beyond the matching. OperatorToC++ efficiently tackles the complexities within the analytical matched expressions such as intricate loop-functions and lengthy sums and products involving tensor objects. It then translates and bundles the results into C++ classes and functions which provide a convenient platform for further numerical analyses. Finally, it offers the possibility of calling the compiled Wilson coefficient methods as Python functions, thus enabling to link them with the vast Python library ecosystem for High Energy Physics workflows.

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arXiv2026

Freeze-in at all couplings

We perform a comprehensive analysis of a charged parent freeze-in dark matter model, focusing on scenarios where the Universe reheats to a temperature comparable to or lower than the mass scales of the theory. In such configurations, dark matter production is Boltzmann-suppressed, allowing for stronger couplings between dark matter and the Standard Model thermal bath while still reproducing the observed relic abundance. We emphasize the non-trivial interplay between the reheating temperature, the mediator and dark matter masses and the coupling strength. We show that tracking the number density evolution of both dark matter and the mediator is essential to obtain reliable predictions, including unexpected behaviors such as the mediator non-equilibration due to fast decays. Lastly, we explore the phenomenological implications of this scenario, updating constraints from LHC searches and lepton flavour-violating decays and highlighting the complementarity of these searches in probing the cosmologically viable parameter space.

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arXiv2025

On the coverage of electroweak-inos within the pMSSM with SModelS -- a comparison with the ATLAS pMSSM study

The ATLAS collaboration has recently performed a vast scan of the phenomenological Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (pMSSM) with a focus on the electroweak-ino sector, and analysed how their Run 2 searches for electroweak production of supersymmetric (SUSY) particles constrain this dataset. All the SLHA files from the scan as well as the constraints from the eight individual searches considered by ATLAS were made publicly available. We use this material to study how well the ATLAS constraints can be reproduced with SModelS v3.0. Moreover, we explore how the picture changes when also including CMS results, and what can be gained by the statistical combination of analyses. Finally, we discuss the part of parameter space with light electroweak-inos that remains valid despite the stringent LHC limits. Our results underscore the need of a broad, multifaceted approach for maximising sensitivity and closing loopholes in the extensive SUSY parameter space.

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arXiv2025

SUSY meets SMEFT: Complete one-loop matching of the general MSSM

We present the complete one-loop matching of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) onto the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT), considering the most general case for the MSSM with conserved $R$-parity, which has 124 free parameters. The matching is performed with the Matchete package, which integrates out all superpartners at once with non-degenerate masses, while also retaining the most general flavor structure. Our results include all correlations among the different SMEFT Wilson coefficients that are governed by supersymmetry and thus provide a basis for future systematic and global studies of the MSSM parameter space employing EFT methods. A detailed discussion is provided on the treatment of the Higgs sector and electroweak symmetry breaking, along with the reduction of redundant operators in the EFT Lagrangian to the Warsaw basis. Furthermore, we validate against existing results in the literature and present a minimal phenomenological example. As an alternative low-energy scenario, we also provide the complete one-loop matching of the MSSM onto the two-Higgs-doublet-model EFT, where the second Higgs doublet is retained in the infrared spectrum. Extensive auxiliary material, including the code utilized for the matching, is available on GitHub.

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arXiv2025

t-channel dark matter at the LHC -- a whitepaper

This report, summarising work achieved in the context of the LHC Dark Matter Working Group, investigates the phenomenology of $t$-channel dark matter models, spanning minimal setups with a single dark matter candidate and mediator to more complex constructions closer to UV-complete models. For each considered class of models, we examine collider, cosmological and astrophysical implications. In addition, we explore scenarios with either promptly decaying or long-lived particles, as well as featuring diverse dark matter production mechanisms in the early universe. By providing a unified analysis framework, numerical tools and guidelines, this work aims to support future experimental and theoretical efforts in exploring $t$-channel dark matter models at colliders and in cosmology.

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arXiv2024

SModelS v3: Going Beyond Z2 Topologies

SModelS is a public tool for fast reinterpretation of LHC searches for new physics based on a large database of simplified model results. While previous versions were limited to models with a Z2-type symmetry, such as R-parity conserving supersymmetry, version 3 can now handle arbitrary signal topologies. To this end, the tool was fully restructured and now relies on a graph-based description of simplified model topologies. In this work, we present the main conceptual changes and novel features of SModelS v3, together with the inclusion of new experimental searches for resonant production of spin-1 and spin-0 mediators with decays to quarks or to dark matter. Applying these results to a model containing two mediators, we discuss the interplay of resonance and missing energy searches, and the model's coverage by the currently available simplified model results.

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arXiv2024

Probing conversion-driven freeze-out at the LHC

Conversion-driven freeze-out is an appealing mechanism to explain the observed relic density while naturally accommodating the null-results from direct and indirect detection due to a very weak dark matter coupling. Interestingly, the scenario predicts long-lived particles decaying into dark matter with lifetimes favorably coinciding with the range that can be resolved at the LHC. However, the small mass splitting between the long-lived particle and dark matter renders the visible decay products soft, challenging current search strategies. We consider four different classes of searches covering the entire range of lifetimes: heavy stable charge particles, disappearing tracks, displaced vertices, and missing energy searches. We discuss the applicability of these searches to conversion-driven freeze-out and derive current constraints highlighting their complementarity. For the displaced vertices search, we demonstrate how a slight modification of the current analysis significantly improves its sensitivity to the scenario.

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arXiv2024

Global LHC constraints on electroweak-inos with SModelS v2.3

Electroweak-inos, superpartners of the electroweak gauge and Higgs bosons, play a special role in supersymmetric theories. Their intricate mixing into chargino and neutralino mass eigenstates leads to a rich phenomenology, which makes it difficult to derive generic limits from LHC data. In this paper, we present a global analysis of LHC constraints for promptly decaying electroweak-inos in the context of the minimal supersymmetric standard model, exploiting the SModelS software package. Combining up to 16 ATLAS and CMS searches for which electroweak-ino efficiency maps are available in SModelS, we study which combinations maximise the sensitivity in different regions of the parameter space, how fluctuations in the data in individual analyses influence the global likelihood, and what is the resulting exclusion power of the combination compared to the analysis-by-analysis approach.

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arXiv2023

Les Houches guide to reusable ML models in LHC analyses

With the increasing usage of machine-learning in high-energy physics analyses, the publication of the trained models in a reusable form has become a crucial question for analysis preservation and reuse. The complexity of these models creates practical issues for both reporting them accurately and for ensuring the stability of their behaviours in different environments and over extended timescales. In this note we discuss the current state of affairs, highlighting specific practical issues and focusing on the most promising technical and strategic approaches to ensure trustworthy analysis-preservation. This material originated from discussions in the LHC Reinterpretation Forum and the 2023 PhysTeV workshop at Les Houches.

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arXiv2023

SModelS v2.3: enabling global likelihood analyses

We present version 2.3 of SModelS, a public tool for the fast reinterpretation of LHC searches for new physics on the basis of simplified-model results. The main new features are a database update with the latest available experimental results for full Run 2 luminosity, comprising in particular a large variety of electroweak-ino searches, and the ability to combine likelihoods from different analyses. This enables statistically more rigorous constraints and opens the way for global likelihood analyses for LHC searches. The physics impact is demonstrated for the electroweak-ino sector of the minimal supersymmetric standard model.

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arXiv2022

Data and Analysis Preservation, Recasting, and Reinterpretation

We make the case for the systematic, reliable preservation of event-wise data, derived data products, and executable analysis code. This preservation enables the analyses' long-term future reuse, in order to maximise the scientific impact of publicly funded particle-physics experiments. We cover the needs of both the experimental and theoretical particle physics communities, and outline the goals and benefits that are uniquely enabled by analysis recasting and reinterpretation. We also discuss technical challenges and infrastructure needs, as well as sociological challenges and changes, and give summary recommendations to the particle-physics community.

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arXiv2022

Leptoquark manoeuvres in the dark: a simultaneous solution of the dark matter problem and the $R_{D^{(*)}}$ anomalies

The measured branching fractions of $B$-mesons into leptonic final states derived by the LHCb collaboration hint towards the breakdown of lepton flavour universality. In this work we take at face value the so-called $R_{D^{(*)}}$ observables that are defined as the ratios of neutral $B$-meson charged-current decays into a charged $D$-meson, a charged lepton and a neutrino final state in the tau and muon channels. A well-studied and simple solution to this charged current anomaly is to introduce a scalar leptoquark $S_1$ that couples to the second and third generation of fermions. We investigate how $S_1$ can also serve as a mediator between the Standard Model and a dark sector. We study this scenario in detail and estimate the constraints arising from collider searches for leptoquarks, collider searches for missing energy signals, direct detection experiments and the dark matter relic abundance. We stress that the production of a pair of leptoquarks that decays into different final states (i.e. the commonly called "mixed" channels) provides critical information for identifying the underlying dynamics, and we exemplify this by studying the $t τb ν$ and the resonant $S_1$ plus missing energy channels. We find that direct detection data provides non-negligible constraints on the leptoquark coupling to the dark sector, which in turn affects the relic abundance. We also show that the correct relic abundance can not only arise via standard freeze-out, but also through conversion-driven freeze-out. We illustrate the rich phenomenology of the model with a few selected benchmark points, providing a broad stroke of the interesting connection between lepton flavour violation and dark matter.

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arXiv2021

Constraining new physics with SModelS version 2

We present version 2 of SModelS, a program package for the fast reinterpretation of LHC searches for new physics on the basis of simplified model results. The major novelty of the SModelS v2 series is an extended topology description with a flexible number of particle attributes, such as spin, charge, decay width, etc. This enables, in particular, the treatment of a wide range of signatures with long-lived particles. Moreover, constraints from prompt and long-lived searches can be evaluated simultaneously in the same run. The current database includes results from searches for heavy stable charged particles, disappearing tracks, displaced jets and displaced leptons, in addition to a large number of prompt searches. The capabilities of the program are demonstrated by two physics applications: constraints on long-lived charged scalars in the scotogenic model, and constraints on the electroweak-ino sector in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.

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arXiv2021

Artificial proto-modelling with simplified-model results from the LHC

We present a novel approach to identify potential dispersed signals of new physics in the slew of published LHC results. It employs a random walk algorithm to introduce sets of new particles, dubbed "proto-models", which are tested against simplified-model results from ATLAS and CMS searches for new physics by exploiting the SModelS software framework. A combinatorial algorithm identifies the set of analyses and/or signal regions that maximally violates the Standard Model hypothesis, while remaining compatible with the entirety of LHC constraints in our database. Crucial to the method is the ability to construct a reliable likelihood in proto-model space; we explain the various approximations which are needed depending on the information available from the experiments, and how they impact the whole procedure.

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arXiv2020

New developments in SModelS

SModelS is an automatized tool enabling the fast interpretation of simplified model results from the LHC within any model of new physics respecting a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. In this contribution, we report on two important updates of SModelS during 2020: the extension of the SModelS' database with 13 ATLAS and 10 CMS analyses, including 5 ATLAS and 1 CMS analyses at full Run~2 luminosity, and the ability to use full likelihoods now provided by ATLAS in the form of pyhf JSON files. Moreover, we briefly explain how to use SModelS and give an overview of ongoing developments.

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arXiv2020

SModelS database update v1.2.3

We present an update of the SModelS database with simplified model results from 13 ATLAS and 10 CMS searches for supersymmetry at Run 2. This includes 5 ATLAS and 1 CMS analyses for full Run 2 luminosity, i.e. close to 140/fb of data. In total, 76 official upper limit and efficiency map results have been added. Moreover, 21 efficiency map results have been produced by us using MadAnalysis5, to improve the coverage of gluino-squark production. The constraining power of the new database, v1.2.3, is compared to that of the previous release, v1.2.2. SModelS v1.2.3 is publicly available and can readily be employed for physics studies.

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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.

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arXiv2019

Searching for long-lived particles beyond the Standard Model at the Large Hadron Collider

Particles beyond the Standard Model (SM) can generically have lifetimes that are long compared to SM particles at the weak scale. When produced at experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, these long-lived particles (LLPs) can decay far from the interaction vertex of the primary proton-proton collision. Such LLP signatures are distinct from those of promptly decaying particles that are targeted by the majority of searches for new physics at the LHC, often requiring customized techniques to identify, for example, significantly displaced decay vertices, tracks with atypical properties, and short track segments. Given their non-standard nature, a comprehensive overview of LLP signatures at the LHC is beneficial to ensure that possible avenues of the discovery of new physics are not overlooked. Here we report on the joint work of a community of theorists and experimentalists with the ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb experiments --- as well as those working on dedicated experiments such as MoEDAL, milliQan, MATHUSLA, CODEX-b, and FASER --- to survey the current state of LLP searches at the LHC, and to chart a path for the development of LLP searches into the future, both in the upcoming Run 3 and at the High-Luminosity LHC. The work is organized around the current and future potential capabilities of LHC experiments to generally discover new LLPs, and takes a signature-based approach to surveying classes of models that give rise to LLPs rather than emphasizing any particular theory motivation. We develop a set of simplified models; assess the coverage of current searches; document known, often unexpected backgrounds; explore the capabilities of proposed detector upgrades; provide recommendations for the presentation of search results; and look towards the newest frontiers, namely high-multiplicity "dark showers", highlighting opportunities for expanding the LHC reach for these signals.

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