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D. Barducci

Publications and source records attributed to D. Barducci.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Bottom quark electroweak dipole moments at a high-energy $\mu-$collider

We study the sensitivity of a high-energy $\mu-$collider with center of mass energy in the multi--TeV range in testing electroweak dipole interactions of the $b-$quark. We parametrize the relevant deformations in the language of the Standard Model effective field theory, where the dominant modifications arise at the $d=6$ level. We analyse $\mu^+ \mu^- \to b \bar b$ and $\mu^+ \mu^- \to b \bar b h$ scatterings, performing a study at the level of a fast detector simulation. Owing the chiral structure of the dipole interaction, the study of the $\mu^+ \mu^- \to b \bar b h$ process allows to enforce the stronger bounds on the Wilson coefficients of the $d=6$ operators. The limits that can be obtained surpass present and future bounds from EW precision measurements also improving upon the ones arising from the measurement of the $\Delta F=1$ transitions $B\to X_s\gamma$.

hep-ph

ECFA Higgs, electroweak, and top Factory Study

The ECFA Higgs, electroweak, and top Factory Study ran between 2021 and 2025 as a broad effort across the experimental and theoretical particle physics communities, bringing together participants from many different proposed future collider projects. Activities across three main working groups advanced the joint development of tools and analysis techniques, fostered new considerations of detector design and optimisation, and led to a new set of studies resulting in improved projected sensitivities across a wide physics programme. This report demonstrates the significant expansion in the state-of-the-art understanding of the physics potential of future e+e- Higgs, electroweak, and top factories, and has been submitted as input to the 2025 European Strategy for Particle Physics Update.

hep-ex

Illuminating the dark: mono-$\gamma$ signals at NA62

Dipole interactions between dark sector states or between a Standard Model particle and a dark state can efficiently be searched for via high-intensity fixed-target facilities. We propose to look for the associated mono-$\gamma$ signature at the NA62 experiment running in beam dump mode. Focusing on models of dipole inelastic Dark Matter and active-sterile neutrino dipole interactions, we compute the corresponding expected sensitivities finding promising prospects for discovery already with $\sim10^{17}$ proton-on-target, corresponding to the present accumulated dataset.

hep-ph

Enlarging the scope of resonant di-Higgs searches: Hunting for Higgs-to-Higgs cascades in $4b$ final states at the LHC and future colliders

We extend the coverage of resonant di-Higgs searches in the $b \bar{b} b \bar{b}$ final state to the process $p p \to H_1 \to H_2 H_2 \to b \bar{b} b \bar{b}$, where both $H_{1,2}$ are spin-$0$ states beyond the Standard Model. Such a process constitutes a joint discovery mode for the new states $H_1$ and $H_2$. We present the first sensitivity study of this channel, using public LHC data to validate our analysis. We also provide a first estimate of the sensitivity of the search for the HL-LHC and future facilities like the HE-LHC and FCC-hh. We analyze the discovery potential of this search for several non-minimal scalar sector scenarios: an extension of the SM with two extra singlet scalar fields, the two-Higgs-doublet model and a two-Higgs doublet model plus a singlet, which captures the scalar potential features of the NMSSM. We find that this channel represents a novel, very powerful probe for extended Higgs sectors, offering complementary sensitivity to existing analyses.

hep-ph

Beyond the Standard Model Physics at the HL-LHC and HE-LHC

This is the third out of five chapters of the final report [1] of the Workshop on Physics at HL-LHC, and perspectives on HE-LHC [2]. It is devoted to the study of the potential, in the search for Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics, of the High Luminosity (HL) phase of the LHC, defined as $3~\mathrm{ab}^{-1}$ of data taken at a centre-of-mass energy of $14~\mathrm{TeV}$, and of a possible future upgrade, the High Energy (HE) LHC, defined as $15~\mathrm{ab}^{-1}$ of data at a centre-of-mass energy of $27~\mathrm{TeV}$. We consider a large variety of new physics models, both in a simplified model fashion and in a more model-dependent one. A long list of contributions from the theory and experimental (ATLAS, CMS, LHCb) communities have been collected and merged together to give a complete, wide, and consistent view of future prospects for BSM physics at the considered colliders. On top of the usual standard candles, such as supersymmetric simplified models and resonances, considered for the evaluation of future collider potentials, this report contains results on dark matter and dark sectors, long lived particles, leptoquarks, sterile neutrinos, axion-like particles, heavy scalars, vector-like quarks, and more. Particular attention is placed, especially in the study of the HL-LHC prospects, to the detector upgrades, the assessment of the future systematic uncertainties, and new experimental techniques. The general conclusion is that the HL-LHC, on top of allowing to extend the present LHC mass and coupling reach by $20-50\%$ on most new physics scenarios, will also be able to constrain, and potentially discover, new physics that is presently unconstrained. Moreover, compared to the HL-LHC, the reach in most observables will generally more than double at the HE-LHC, which may represent a good candidate future facility for a final test of TeV-scale new physics.

hep-ph

Precision diboson measurements at hadron colliders

We discuss the measurements of the anomalous triple gauge couplings at Large Hadron Collider focusing on the contribution of the ${\cal O}_{3W}$ and ${\cal O}_{3\tilde W}$ operators. These deviations were known to be particularly hard to measure due to their suppressed interference with the SM amplitudes in the inclusive processes, leading to approximate flat directions in the space of these Wilson coefficients. We present the prospects for the measurements of these interactions at HL-LHC and HE-LHC using exclusive variables sensitive to the interference terms and taking carefully into account effects appearing due to NLO QCD corrections.

hep-ph

Higgs Physics at the HL-LHC and HE-LHC

The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments, was a success achieved with only a percent of the entire dataset foreseen for the LHC. It opened a landscape of possibilities in the study of Higgs boson properties, Electroweak Symmetry breaking and the Standard Model in general, as well as new avenues in probing new physics beyond the Standard Model. Six years after the discovery, with a conspicuously larger dataset collected during LHC Run 2 at a 13 TeV centre-of-mass energy, the theory and experimental particle physics communities have started a meticulous exploration of the potential for precision measurements of its properties. This includes studies of Higgs boson production and decays processes, the search for rare decays and production modes, high energy observables, and searches for an extended electroweak symmetry breaking sector. This report summarises the potential reach and opportunities in Higgs physics during the High Luminosity phase of the LHC, with an expected dataset of pp collisions at 14 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 ab$^{-1}$. These studies are performed in light of the most recent analyses from LHC collaborations and the latest theoretical developments. The potential of an LHC upgrade, colliding protons at a centre-of-mass energy of 27 TeV and producing a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 15 ab$^{-1}$, is also discussed.

hep-ph

Vector-like quarks coupling discrimination at the LHC and future hadron colliders

The existence of new coloured states with spin one-half, i.e. extra-quarks, is a striking prediction of various classes of new physics models. Should one of these states be discovered during the 13 TeV runs of the LHC or at future high energy hadron colliders, understanding its properties will be crucial in order to shed light on the underlying model structure. Depending on the extra-quarks quantum number under SU(2)L, their coupling to Standard Model quarks and bosons have either a dominant left- or right-handed chiral component. By exploiting the polarisation properties of the top quarks arising from the decay of pair-produced extra quarks, we show how it is possible to discriminate among the two hypothesis in the whole discovery range currently accessible at the LHC, thus effectively narrowing down the possible interpretations of a discovered state in terms of new physics scenarios. Moreover, we estimate the discovery and discrimination power of future prototype hadron colliders with centre of mass energies of 33 and 100 TeV.

hep-ph

Neutral Hadrons Disappearing into the Darkness

We study the invisible decay of neutral hadrons in a representative model of the dark sector. The mesons $K_L$ and $B^0$ decay into the dark sector with branching rates that can be at the current experimental limits. The neutron decays with a rate that could either explain the neutron lifetime puzzle (although only for an extreme choice of the parameters and a fine tuned value of the masses) or be just above the current limit of its invisible decay ($τ_N^{\rm inv} \ge 10^{29}$ years) if kinematically allowed. These invisible decays of ordinary matter provide a novel and promising window into new physics that should be vigorously pursued.

hep-ph

Les Houches 2017: Physics at TeV Colliders New Physics Working Group Report

We present the activities of the `New Physics' working group for the `Physics at TeV Colliders' workshop (Les Houches, France, 5--23 June, 2017). Our report includes new physics studies connected with the Higgs boson and its properties, direct search strategies, reinterpretation of the LHC results in the building of viable models and new computational tool developments.

hep-ph

Characterising Dark Matter Interacting with Extra Charged Leptons

In the context of a simplified leptophilic Dark Matter (DM) scenario where the mediator is a new charged fermion carrying leptonic quantum number and the DM candidate is either scalar or vector, the complementarity of different bounds is analysed. In this framework, the extra lepton and DM are odd under a $\mathbb Z_2$ symmetry, hence the leptonic mediator can only interact with the DM state and Standard Model (SM) leptons of various flavours. We show that there is the possibility to characterise the DM spin (scalar or vector), as well as the nature of the mediator, through a combined analysis of cosmological, flavour and collider data. We present an explicit numerical analysis for a set of benchmarks points of the viable parameter space of our scenario.

hep-ph

Constraints on top quark non-standard interactions from Higgs and $t \bar t$ production cross sections

We identify the differential cross sections for $t\bar t$ production and the total cross section for Higgs production through gluon fusion as the processes in which the two effective operators describing the leading non-standard interactions of the top quark with the gluon can be disentangled and studied in an independent fashion. Current data on the Higgs production and the $ {\rm d}σ/{\rm d} {p^t_T}$ differential cross section provide limits comparable, but not more stringent, than those from the total $t\bar t$ cross sections measurements at the LHC and Tevatron, where however the two operators enter on the same footing and can only be constrained together. Given the present uncertainties, we find that the most stringent bounds are provided by a combination of data on the $t \bar t$ total cross sections together with those from the Higgs production. We conclude by stating the (modest) reduction in the uncertainties necessary to provide more stringent limits by means of the Higgs production and $t\bar t$ differential cross section observables at the LHC with the future luminosity of 300 and 3000 fb$^{-1}$.

hep-ph

Collider limits on new physics within micrOMEGAs4.3

Results from the LHC put severe constraints on models of new physics. This includes constraints on the Higgs sector from the precise measurement of the mass and couplings of the 125GeV Higgs boson, as well as limits from searches for other new particles. We present the procedure to use these constraints in micrOMEGAs by interfacing it to the external codes Lilith, HiggsSignals, HiggsBounds and SModelS. A few dedicated modules are also provided. With these new features, micrOMEGAs_4.3 provides a generic framework for evaluating dark matter observables together with collider and non-collider constraints.

hep-ph

Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 4. Deciphering the Nature of the Higgs Sector

This Report summarizes the results of the activities of the LHC Higgs Cross Section Working Group in the period 2014-2016. The main goal of the working group was to present the state-of-the-art of Higgs physics at the LHC, integrating all new results that have appeared in the last few years. The first part compiles the most up-to-date predictions of Higgs boson production cross sections and decay branching ratios, parton distribution functions, and off-shell Higgs boson production and interference effects. The second part discusses the recent progress in Higgs effective field theory predictions, followed by the third part on pseudo-observables, simplified template cross section and fiducial cross section measurements, which give the baseline framework for Higgs boson property measurements. The fourth part deals with the beyond the Standard Model predictions of various benchmark scenarios of Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, extended scalar sector, Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and exotic Higgs boson decays. This report follows three previous working-group reports: Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 1. Inclusive Observables (CERN-2011-002), Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 2. Differential Distributions (CERN-2012-002), and Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 3. Higgs properties (CERN-2013-004). The current report serves as the baseline reference for Higgs physics in LHC Run 2 and beyond.

hep-ph

Review of Higgs-to-light-Higgs searches at the LHC

We review the most relevant LHC searches at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV looking for low mass bosons arising from exotic decay of the Standard Model Higgs and highlighting their impact on both supersymmetric and not supersymmetric Beyond the Standard Model scenarios.

hep-ph

Les Houches 2015: Physics at TeV colliders - new physics working group report

We present the activities of the 'New Physics' working group for the 'Physics at TeV Colliders' workshop (Les Houches, France, 1-19 June, 2015). Our report includes new physics studies connected with the Higgs boson and its properties, direct search strategies, reinterpretation of the LHC results in the building of viable models and new computational tool developments. Important signatures for searches for natural new physics at the LHC and new assessments of the interplay between direct dark matter searches and the LHC are also considered.

hep-ph

Composite Higgs models and $t\bar t$ production at future $e^+e^-$ colliders

The study of the top quark properties will be an integral part of any particle physics activity at future leptonic colliders. In this proceeding we discuss the possibility of testing composite Higgs scenarios at $e^+e^-$ prototypes through deviations from the Standard Model predictions in $t\bar t$ production observables for various centre of mass energies, ranging from 370 GeV up to 1 TeV. This proceedings draws from Ref. arXiv:1504.05407

hep-ph