arXiv subjects

Christoph Englert

Publications and source records attributed to Christoph Englert.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

Impact of New Physics on Momentum-Dependent Particle Widths and Propagators

We investigate the impact of momentum-dependent particle widths and propagators on gauge and Higgs bosons and the top quark within the Standard Model (SM) and its SMEFT extensions near thresholds. By incorporating self-energy corrections via Dyson resummation, we quantify deviations from the fixed-width approximation and assess their implications for collider observables. While effects on the Higgs boson are negligible and the $W$ boson shows percent-level deviations in reconstructed transverse mass distributions, the top quark exhibits significant sensitivity near its mass threshold. Future lepton colliders, e.g., electron-positron machines or muon colliders, can offer sensitivity to these effects, enabling constraints on SMEFT Wilson coefficients. We perform a representative case study for the precision frontier available with a staged future muon collider. Our results highlight that momentum dependencies can provide additional sensitivity at precision-era experiments, enhancing the potential for discovering new physics there.

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arXiv2025

Collider-Flavour Complementarity from the bottom to the top

Motivated by recently observed anomalies in the flavour sector, we analyse the potential of measurements of top quarks at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to provide complementary constraints on interactions that shape low-energy precision investigations in the $B$ sector. The measurement of top quark properties, such as the top width and the abundant top pair production channels, are already reaching the percent level at this relatively early stage of the LHC phenomenology program. A focused analysis of four-fermion interactions, employing effective field theory without flavour structure assumptions and incorporating renormalization group evolution effects, bridges $B$ meson scale phenomena with key top quark measurements. We demonstrate that the LHC is increasingly competitive with, and complementary to, flavour physics constraints. Our results, which include a first comprehensive analysis of non-leptonic B decays in this context, suggest that the LHC's top physics program could serve as a valuable, complementary tool in the search for physics beyond the Standard Model within the flavour sector.

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arXiv2025

Doubling down on down-type diquarks

Effective field theory-based searches for new physics at colliders are relatively insensitive to interactions involving only right-handed down-type quarks. These interactions can hide amongst jet backgrounds at the LHC, and their indirect effects in electroweak and Higgs processes are small. Identifying scenarios in which these interactions dominate, we can naturally pick out just two tree-level mediators, both scalar diquarks. Over the full parameter space of these states, we analyse exotics searches at current and future hadron colliders, Higgs signal strength constraints, and indirect constraints from flavour physics, finding genuine complementarity between the data sets. In particular, while flavour constraints can exclude diquarks in the hundreds of TeV mass range, these can be evaded once a flavour structure is imposed on the couplings, as we illustrate by embedding the diquarks within a composite Higgs model. In combination, however, we show that flavour and collider constraints exclude down-type diquarks to multi-TeV scales, thus narrowing the remaining hiding places for new interactions amongst LHC data.

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arXiv2025

Electroweak Scalar Effects Beyond Dimension-6 in SMEFT

The Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) provides a robust framework for probing deviations in the couplings of Standard Model particles from their theoretical predictions. This framework relies on an expansion in higher-dimensional operators, often truncated at dimension-six. In this work, we compute the effective dimension-eight operators generated by integrating out heavy scalar fields at one-loop order in the Green's basis within two extended scalar sector models: the Two Higgs Doublet Model and the Complex Triplet Scalar Model. We also investigate the impact of heavy scalar fields on the fermion sector, deriving the fermionic effective operators up to dimension eight for these models, and detail how contributions can be mapped onto non-redundant bases. To assess the importance of higher-order contributions in the SMEFT expansion, we analyze the dimension-eight effects for electroweak precision observables at the next frontier of precision lepton machines such as GigaZ.

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arXiv2025

Scalar radiation zeros at the LHC

We consider a class of singlet scalar extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics in which the scalar couples only to off-shell states. As a result, low-order tree-level processes involving the singlet scalar vanish, providing a unique phenomenology that may allow to evade existing constraints on new singlet scalar fields. We describe search strategies for such states at the Large Hadron Collider and identify the parameter space that can be explored in the future.

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arXiv2024

Implication of preheating on gravity assisted baryogenesis in $R^2$-Higgs inflation

We investigate the impact of preheating on baryogenesis in $R^2$-Higgs inflation. In this scenario, the inclusion of a dimension-six operator ${(R/ Λ^2)} B_{μν} \widetilde{B}^{μν} $ abundantly generates helical hypermagnetic fields during inflation, leading to a baryon asymmetric Universe at the electroweak crossover. Focusing on the $R^2$-like regime, we first derive the relevant dynamics of preheating using a doubly-covariant formalism. We find that preheating can happen for the Higgs, transverse gauge and Goldstone bosons, however, it is dependent on the value of the non-minimal coupling $ξ_H$ between the Standard Model Higgs field and the Ricci scalar. We identify the preheating temperature to determine the appropriate scale $Λ$ for driving baryogenesis, which is around $Λ\sim 2.2 \, (2.6) \times 10^{-5}\, M_{\rm P}$ for $ξ_H \sim 1 \, (10)$. Our results represent the most accurate estimation of the scale of gravity induced baryogenesis in $R^2$-Higgs inflation to date. Areas for further improvement are identified.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Double and Triple Higgs Production to probe the Electroweak Phase Transition

The production of three Higgs bosons could be a stretch goal for the LHC and a strategic case for future colliders. In this work, we analyse the phenomenological prospects of (neutral) triple Higgs compared to di-Higgs boson production, for a range of Higgs-sector extensions from a strong first-order electroweak phase transition perspective. In parallel, we include constraints from existing exotics and Higgs boson measurements that further limit the parameter space of such models. Resonance contributions offer large modifications in particular for triple Higgs production, albeit starting from a small SM expectation. With enhancements of order 40 over the SM, however, experimental efforts to obtain limits at the HL-LHC are well-motivated and well-placed. This is further highlighted by the potential of these processes to inform the investigation of the thermal history of our universe.

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arXiv2024

Resurrecting the LHC discovery potential in the extended Type-II Seesaw Model

The juxtaposition of the precision of lepton flavour measurements and the limited energy range of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to discover dynamical degrees of freedom linked to the generation of the observed lepton mass patterns naively suggests only a limited relevance of the LHC's high luminosity phase. This, potentially, extends to future colliders. Using the concrete example of the type-II seesaw model and its effective field theory extension, we show that blind directions create a rich phenomenological interplay of muon precision measurements and electroweak resonance searches at present and future colliders, with testable implications for the HL-LHC phase.

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arXiv2024

Density dependent displaced vertex signatures as a novel probe of light dark sector scalars at the LHC

Dynamical theories of dark energy predict new degrees of freedom with particular environmental sensitivity to avoid constraints on fifth forces. We show that the similar, yet complementary multi-purpose detector setup of the ATLAS and CMS experiments provides a unique opportunity to place sensitivity on such scenarios in a narrow, yet relevant parameter range. Furthermore, our investigation gives rise to a novel phenomenological signature that the LHC experiments can pursue to exploit their complementary detector design from a BSM perspective.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Equivariant, Safe and Sensitive -- Graph Networks for New Physics

This study introduces a novel Graph Neural Network (GNN) architecture that leverages infrared and collinear (IRC) safety and equivariance to enhance the analysis of collider data for Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) discoveries. By integrating equivariance in the rapidity-azimuth plane with IRC-safe principles, our model significantly reduces computational overhead while ensuring theoretical consistency in identifying BSM scenarios amidst Quantum Chromodynamics backgrounds. The proposed GNN architecture demonstrates superior performance in tagging semi-visible jets, highlighting its potential as a robust tool for advancing BSM search strategies at high-energy colliders.

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arXiv2024

Dispelling the $\sqrt{L}$ myth for the High-Luminosity LHC

Extrapolations of sensitivity to new interactions and standard model parameters critically inform the programme at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and potential future collider cases. To this end, statistical considerations based on inclusive quantities and established analysis strategies typically give rise to a sensitivity scaling with the square root of the luminosity, $\sqrt{L}$. This suggests only a mild sensitivity improvement for LHC's high-luminosity phase, compared to the collected data up to the year 2025. We discuss representative analyses in top quark, Higgs boson and electroweak gauge boson phenomenology and provide clear evidence that the assumption that the sensitivity in searches and measurement scales only with $\sqrt{L}$ at the High-Luminosity LHC is overly conservative at best, and unrealistic in practice. As kinematic coverage enables more targeted search strategies with sufficient statistical sensitivity, employing a multitude of features in data dispels the scaling based on more inclusive selections.

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arXiv2024

Non-linear gauge-Higgs CP violation

A critical element of the LHC physics program is the search for an additional source of CP violation. This is largely unexplored in the context of non-linear Higgs physics, which is naturally described in Higgs Effective Field Theory (HEFT). Relevant new higher-dimensional operators modify the production rate and branching ratios of the Higgs boson, de-correlating different Higgs multiplicities. In this work, we consider single Higgs and Higgs pair production via weak boson fusion from the perspective of gauge-Higgs CP violation through the lens of Higgs non-linearity. This generalizes existing rate-based searches and analyses by the ATLAS and CMS experiments. Particular focus is given to the phenomenological differences in the expected BSM sensitivity pattern when comparing HEFT constraints with Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) limits.

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arXiv2024

Higgs boson off-shell measurements probe non-linearities

The measurements of off-shell Higgs boson contributions in massive gauge boson pair production are known to probe its electroweak interactions across different energy scales. Often employed as an estimator of the Higgs boson width in restricted theories of beyond the Standard Model physics, we revisit this measurement and re-advertise its potential to constrain aspects of Higgs boson non-linearity. We show that this so-called off-shell measurement complements related analyses of multi-Higgs final states.

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arXiv2024

Bosonic multi-Higgs correlations beyond leading order

The production of multiple Higgs bosons at the LHC and beyond is a strong test of the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking. Taking inspiration from recent experimental efforts to move towards limits on triple Higgs production at the Large Hadron Collider, we consider generic bosonic deviations of $HH$ and $HHH$ production from the Standard Model in the guise of Higgs Effective Field Theory. Including one-loop radiative corrections within the HEFT and going up to ${\mathcal{O}}(p^4)$ in the momentum expansion, we provide a detailed motivation of the parameter range that the LHC (and future hadron colliders) can explore, through accessing non-standard coupling modifications and momentum dependencies that probe Higgs boson non-linearities. In particular, we find that radiative corrections can enhance the sensitivity to Higgs-self coupling modifiers and HEFT-specific momentum dependencies can vastly increase triple Higgs production thus providing further motivation to consider these processes during the LHC's high-luminosity phase.

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arXiv2024

EFT, decoupling, Higgs boson mixing, and higher dimensional operators

The effective field theory (EFT) framework is a precise approximation procedure when the inherent assumptions of a large-scale separation between the Standard Model (SM) and new interactions alongside perturbativity are realised. Constraints from available data might not automatically guarantee these circumstances when contrasted with UV scenarios that the EFT analysis wishes to inform. From an EFT perspective, achieving sufficient precision in navigating the alignment or decoupling limits beyond the SM scenarios can necessitate moving beyond the SM's leading, dimension six EFT deformation. Using the example of Higgs boson mixing, we demonstrated the importance of higher-dimensional terms in the EFT expansion. We analyse the relevance of virtual EFT corrections and dimension eight contributions for well-determined electroweak precision observables. We find that when moving away from the decoupling limit, the relevance of additional terms in the EFT expansion quickly becomes relevant. This demonstrates the necessity to move beyond dimension six interactions for any scenario that contains Higgs boson mixing.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Baryogenesis in $R^2$-Higgs Inflation: the Gravitational Connection

$R^2$-Higgs inflation stands out as one of the best-fit models of Planck data. Using a covariant formalism for the inflationary dynamics and the production of helical gauge fields, we show that the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe (BAU) can be obtained when this model is supplemented by a dimension-six CP-violating term $\sim (R/Λ^2)\, B_{μν} \widetilde{B}^{μν}$ in the hypercharge sector. At linear order, values of $Λ\simeq 2.5\times10^{-5}\ M_{\rm P}$ produce, in the $R^2$-like regime, sufficient helical hypermagnetic fields to create the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry during the electroweak crossover. However, the Schwinger effect of fermion pair production can play a critical role in this context, and that scale is significantly lowered when the backreaction of the fermion fields on the gauge field production is included. In all cases, the helical field configurations can remain robust against washout after the end of inflation.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

BSM patterns in scalar-sector coupling modifiers

We consider what multiple Higgs interactions may yet reveal about the scalar sector. We estimate the sensitivity of a Feynman topology-templated analysis of weak boson Higgs pair production at present and future colliders - where the signal is a function of the Higgs coupling modifiers $κ_V$, $κ_{2V}$, and $κ_λ$. While measurements are statistically limited at the LHC, they are under general perturbative control at present and future colliders, departures from the SM expectation give rise to a significant future potential for BSM discrimination in $κ_{2V}$. We explore the landscape of BSM models in the space of deviations in $κ_V$, $κ_{2V}$, and $κ_λ$, highlighting models that have measurable order-of-magnitude enhancements in either $κ_{2V}$ or $κ_λ$, relative to their deviation in the single Higgs coupling $κ_V$.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2023

Effective 2HDM Yukawa Interactions and a Strong First-Order Electroweak Phase Transition

The top quark as the heaviest particle in the Standard Model (SM) defines an important mass scale for Higgs physics and the electroweak scale itself. It is therefore a well-motivated degree of freedom which could reveal the presence of new interactions beyond the SM. Correlating modifications of the top-Higgs interactions in the 2-Higgs-Doublet Model (2HDM), we analyse effective field theory deformations of these interactions from the point of view of a strong first-order electroweak phase transition (SFOEWPT). We show that such modifications are compatible with current Higgs data and that an SFOEWPT can be tantamount to a current overestimate of exotic Higgs searches' sensitivity at the LHC in $t\bar t$ and four top quark final states. We argue that these searches remain robust from the point of accidental signal-background interference so that the current experimental strategy might well lead to 2HDM-like discoveries in the near future.

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