arXiv subjects

Duarte Fontes

Publications and source records attributed to Duarte Fontes.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A perturbative framework to probe infrared sensitivity in non-Abelian gauge theories

Understanding the infrared sensitivity of perturbative predictions in QCD is important for assessing the magnitude of possible non-perturbative power corrections to processes with large momentum transfer. In renormalon models, this sensitivity can be related to computable dependences of perturbative quantities on a small gluon mass. However, this procedure cannot be applied to collider processes with gluons at the Born level. To address this problem, we promote the gluon mass to a parameter of a consistent non-Abelian quantum field theory where the gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken through the Higgs mechanism. Working in the limit in which the gluon mass $m_\mathrm{g}$ is the smallest dimensionful parameter, we compute through two loops the $\mathcal{O}(m_\mathrm{g})$ contributions to the relation between the pole and $\overline{\rm MS}$ masses of a heavy quark and to the relation between corresponding field counterterms. We expect that the proposed framework will provide a useful laboratory for probing linear infrared sensitivity of collider observables in QCD.

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arXiv2026

Reassessing CP Violation in the C2HDM with Machine Learning

We provide a study of the parameter space of the complex 2-Higgs Doublet Model (C2HDM), focusing on signs of large CP-violating couplings of the 125 GeV Higgs boson with the fermions. The study is performed utilizing Machine Learning (ML) techniques developed recently for parameter space exploration, including an Evolutionary Strategy Algorithm and Novelty Reward. We give particular attention to the electron electric dipole moment (eEDM). We confirm that the recently found kite diagrams are crucial for the outcome of the analysis. Moreover, their use also mitigates the dependence of the results on the scale and scheme choice of the masses in the loop diagrams. We furthermore point out that, already at the current level of experimental precision, the Barr-Zee diagrams with charm quark loops must be taken into account. The combined use of kite diagrams and ML techniques allows for the resurrection of large fermion CP-odd couplings for Type-II and Flipped C2HDM when the 125 GeV Higgs coincides with the second lightest neutral scalar. This arises due to cancellations, typically of the per-mil order, which, moreover, will still be possible for a foreseeable eEDM precision down to $10^{-33}$ e.cm. For these cases, the constraints on the CP-odd couplings arises from the precision LHC measurements.

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arXiv2025

QED corrections to bound-muon decays from an effective-field-theory framework

Bound-muon decays are a powerful probe of new physics, making precise theoretical predictions for their spectra essential. While QED corrections significantly affect the shape of the spectra, their calculation is extremely challenging below the nuclear scale. By exploring the universality of modern effective-field-theory techniques, we present a framework that systematically computes those corrections across a broad class of bound-muon decays. As a key application, we provide the most accurate predictions to date for the signal and background spectra in muon conversion. We show that radiative corrections modify the leading-order ratio of these spectra by $5\%$ with minimal energy dependence, a result relevant for enhancing the discovery reach of upcoming experiments. Our framework also represents a crucial step toward connecting high-energy physics to low-energy observables, complementing recent progress above the muon mass scale.

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arXiv2025

Do large QCD corrections to di-Higgs decay survive parton showering? A study of $HH\to b\bar{b}\gamma\gamma$

While significant effort has been devoted to precision calculations of the production of two Higgs bosons via gluon fusion, the treatment of their decays in this process has only recently begun to attract attention. It has been found that fixed-order QCD corrections to fiducial di-Higgs decay rates involving the $b\bar{b}$ decay channel can be substantial. Considering $HH\to b\bar{b}\gamma\gamma$, we show that such corrections arise predominantly from sensitivity to soft and collinear QCD radiation at fixed order, and that they are largely washed out once parton showers are included.

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arXiv2025

EFT approach to the endpoint of muon decay-in-orbit

As upcoming experiments aim to probe muon conversion with unprecedented precision, equally precise theoretical predictions are crucial to maximize discovery potential. This applies not only to the new physics signal, muon-electron conversion, but also to its only irreducible background, muon decay-in-orbit (DIO) near the endpoint. Accurate computation of higher-order corrections in bound states is a long-standing challenge due to the difficulty of systematically organizing contributions. In previous work, we developed an Effective Field Theory framework to address this issue and applied it to muon conversion. Here, we extend this approach to the DIO endpoint, a more complex problem due to the presence of a neutrino-antineutrino pair in the final state. We present the most precise prediction to date of the background spectrum relevant for future muon conversion searches, achieving next-to-leading logarithmic prime accuracy for QED corrections.

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arXiv2025

FeynMaster Manual

We present the manual for FeynMaster 2.1, a multitasking software for particle physics studies. This new version includes additional functions and is compatible with recent versions of related software. It can be downloaded in https://porthos.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/FeynMaster/.

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arXiv2024

An effective field theory for muon conversion and muon decay-in-orbit

Muon conversion is one of the best probes of charged lepton flavor violation. The experimental limit is soon expected to improve by four orders of magnitude, thus calling for precise predictions of the shape of the signal spectrum. Equally important are precise predictions for muon decay-in-orbit, the main background for muon conversion. While the calculation of electromagnetic corrections to the two processes above the nuclear scale does not involve significant challenges, it becomes substantially more complex below that scale due to multiple scales, bound-state effects and experimental setup. Here, we present a systematic framework that addresses these challenges by resorting to a series of effective field theories. Combining Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET), Non-Relativistic QED (NRQED), potential NRQED, Soft-Collinear Effective Theory I and II, and boosted HQET, we derive a factorization theorem and present the renormalization group equations. Our framework allows for the proper calculation of precise predictions for the rates of the two processes, with crucial implications for the upcoming muon conversion searches. We also provide the most accurate prediction of the signal shape for those searches.

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arXiv2024

EFT Workshop at Notre Dame

The LPC EFT workshop was held April 25-26, 2024 at the University of Notre Dame. The workshop was organized into five thematic sessions: "how far beyond linear" discusses issues of truncation and validity in interpretation of results with an eye towards practicality; "reconstruction-level results" visits the question of how best to design analyses directly targeting inference of EFT parameters; "logistics of combining likelihoods" addresses the challenges of bringing a diverse array of measurements into a cohesive whole; "unfolded results" tackles the question of designing fiducial measurements for later use in EFT interpretations, and the benefits and limitations of unfolding; and "building a sample library" addresses how best to generate simulation samples for use in data analysis. This document serves as a summary of presentations, subsequent discussions, and actionable items identified over the course of the workshop.

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arXiv2024

Impact of New Experimental Data on the C2HDM: the Strong Interdependence between LHC Higgs Data and the Electron EDM

The complex two-Higgs doublet model (C2HDM) is one of the simplest extensions of the Standard Model with a source of CP-violation in the scalar sector. It has a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry, softly broken by a complex coefficient. There are four ways to implement this symmetry in the fermion sector, leading to models known as Type-I, Type-II, Lepton-Specific and Flipped. In the latter three models, there is a priori the surprising possibility that the 125 GeV Higgs boson couples mostly as a scalar to top quarks, while it couples mostly as a pseudoscalar to bottom quarks. This ``maximal'' scenario was still possible with the data available in 2017. Since then, there have been more data on the 125 GeV Higgs boson, direct searches for CP-violation in angular correlations of $\tau$-leptons produced in Higgs boson decays, new results on the electron electric dipole moment, new constraints from LHC searches for additional Higgs bosons and new results on $b\to s \gamma$ transitions. Highlighting the crucial importance of the physics results of LHC's Run 2, we combine all these experiments and show that the ``maximal'' scenario is now excluded in all models. Still, one can have a pseudoscalar component in $h \tau\bar{\tau}$ couplings in the Lepton-Specific case as large as $87\%$ of the scalar component for all mass orderings of the neutral scalar bosons.

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arXiv2024

Relevance of one-loop SMEFT matching in the 2HDM

The Two-Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM) is a well understood alternative to the Standard Model of particle physics. If the new particles included in the 2HDM are at an energy scale much greater than the weak scale, the theory can be matched to the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). We compute for the first time the complete one-loop matching at dimension-6. We compare its numerical impact with that of tree-level matching at dimension-8 by performing a global fit to single Higgs and precision electroweak measurements, and we emphasize the importance of comparing one-loop SMEFT results with corresponding one-loop results in the full 2HDM model. In the SMEFT, we consider the relative importance of both one-loop matching and the inclusion of renormalization group evolution. Our results demonstrate the necessity of studying the impact of various expansions to quantify the uncertainties of the SMEFT matching.

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arXiv2023

Is the HEFT matching unique?

Physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) can be described in a consistent and general way through the Higgs Effective Field Theory (HEFT). Measurements of model-independent HEFT coefficients allow one to constrain the parameter space of BSM models via a matching procedure. In this work, we show that this procedure is not unique and depends on the scalings of the parameters of the Lagrangian. As examples, we consider three BSM models: the real singlet extension of the SM with a $Z_2$ symmetry, the complex singlet extension (CSE) of the SM and the 2 Higgs Doublet Model. We discuss several physical observables, and show that different scalings of the model parameters with the UV scale in the matching to the HEFT can yield quite different results. This complicates the interpretation of HEFT measurements in terms of parameters of BSM models. Additionally, as a by-product, we report the first matching of the CSE to the HEFT.

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arXiv2023

Matching the 2HDM to the HEFT and the SMEFT: Decoupling and Perturbativity

We consider the 2 Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM) and compare two effective field theory (EFT) approaches to it, according to whether the heavy degrees of freedom are integrated out before (SMEFT) or after (HEFT) spontaneous symmetry breaking. %We show that, in the HEFT, an inconsistent EFT is obtained if one considers an expansion simply in inverse powers of the heavy masses. %We consider a HEFT expansion consistent with perturbativity %We show that, if the HEFT approach is required to comply with perturbativity, it ends up obeying the same power counting as the SMEFT one. % By requiring decoupling and perturbativity in the 2HDM, we define a consistent EFT expansion in inverse powers of the heavy masses which is applied to both the SMEFT and the HEFT matchings to the 2HDM. We organize this expansion with a dimensionless parameter $\xi$, and investigate the tree-level scatterings $hh\rightarrow hh$ and $WW\rightarrow hh$ up to $\mathcal{O}(\xi^2)$. We find no differences between the HEFT and the SMEFT approaches at this order. We show scenarios where even including dimension-8 operators of the SMEFT is insufficient to obtain an accurate matching to the 2HDM.

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arXiv2022

The $Z b \bar b$ vertex in a left-right model

We consider the one-loop corrections to the $Z b \bar b$ vertex in a $CP$-conserving left--right model (LRM), $viz$. a model with gauge group $SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R \times U(1)$. We allow the gauge coupling constants of $SU(2)_L$ and $SU(2)_R$ to be different. The spontaneous symmetry breaking is accomplished only by doublets and/or singlets of $SU(2)_L$ and $SU(2)_R$. The lightest massive neutral gauge boson of our LRM is assumed to have the same Yukawa couplings to bottom-quark pairs as the $Z$ of the Standard Model (SM); this assumption has the advantage that, then, the infrared divergences automatically cancel down in the subtraction of the $Z b \bar b$ vertex in the SM from the same vertex in the LRM. We effect a proper renormalization of the $Z b \bar b$ vertex and check explicitly both its gauge invariance and the cancellation of all the ultraviolet divergences. We find out that a LRM with the above assumptions cannot achieve a better fit to the $Z b \bar b$ vertex than a multi-Higgs extension of the SM, $viz$. both models can only achieve a decent fit when one admits scalar particles with very low masses $\lesssim 50$ GeV. This is true even when we allow for markedly different gauge coupling constants of $SU(2)_L$ and $SU(2)_R$.

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arXiv2022

Double insertions of SMEFT operators in gluon fusion Higgs boson production

Deviations from the Standard Model (SM) can be parameterized in terms of the SM effective field theory (SMEFT), which is typically truncated at dimension-6. Including higher dimension operators -- as well as considering simultaneous insertions of multiple dimension-6 operators -- may be necessary in some processes, in order to correctly capture the properties of the underlying UV theory. As a step towards clarifying this in the Higgs boson production in gluon fusion process, we study double insertions of dimension-6 operators in the 1-loop virtual amplitude. We present needed Feynman rules up to $\mathcal{O}(1/\Lambda^4)$ and we numerically study the impact of various approximations to the $\mathcal{O}(1/\Lambda^4)$ expansion.

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arXiv2022

Role of dimension-eight operators in an EFT for the 2HDM

The Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT) is the tool of choice for studying deviations of Higgs couplings from the Standard Model predictions. The SMEFT is an expansion in an infinite tower of higher dimension operators, which is typically truncated at dimension-6. We consider the effective theory including dimension-8 operators and examine the matching to the 2 Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM) that is assumed to be valid at some high scale. Both the limits from the direct production of single Higgs bosons and the indirect limits on the Higgs tri-linear coupling are considered in the context of the SMEFT matched to the 2HDM, and the importance of the assumptions about the expansions in powers of the high scale are examined numerically.

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arXiv2022

The one-loop impact of a dependent mass: the role of $m_3$ in the C2HDM

In the complex 2-Higgs-Doublet Model (C2HDM), the mass $m_3$ of the heaviest neutral scalar $h_3$ is usually chosen as a derived parameter. We investigate one-loop corrections to $m_3$ and their impact on decays of $h_3$. Very fine-tuned regions of the parameter space can be found where such corrections are large, not due to subtraction schemes, but rather due to the particular dependence of $m_3$ on the independent parameters. We show that even moderate corrections can have a significant impact on decays of $h_3$, as they may be several times enhanced by leading-order factors.

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arXiv2021

Multi-Higgs Models: model building, phenomenology and renormalization

In this thesis, we investigate several aspects of models with a multiplicity of Higgs bosons. We start by focusing on models with two Higgs doublets. We claim that one of the most used models in the literature -- the so-called real 2-Higgs-Doublet Model (2HDM) -- is inconsistent. We give special emphasis to the model that corrects it in the most simple way, the complex 2HDM; we study its phenomenology in the lowest order of perturbation theory and describe its renormalization in the following order. Motivated by this renormalization, we analyze in detail tadpole schemes that allow the selection of the true vacuum expectation value in models with spontaneous symmetry breaking, and we propose a theorem regarding the finitude of Green's functions with corrections to the external legs. Given the complexity of the calculations involved, it is crucial to dispose of an appropriate software. We therefore present FeynMaster, which calculates, among other things, Feynman rules, radiative corrections and counterterms in a simultaneously automatic and flexible way. We use the potential of FeynMaster to investigate two new projects related to multiple scalar bosons: first, we consider the class of models with a generic number of scalar doublets and singlets, and investigate radiative corrections to the $Z \to b \bar{b}$ process in this context; then, we explore the phenomenology of a model based on the linear seesaw hypothesis, which, in addition to two scalar doublets, includes a complex singlet.

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arXiv2021

Renormalization of the C2HDM with FeynMaster 2

We present the one-loop electroweak renormalization of the CP-violating 2-Higgs-Doublet Model with softly broken $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry (C2HDM). The existence of CP violation in the scalar sector of the model leads to a quite unique process of renormalization, since it requires the introduction of several non-physical parameters. The C2HDM will thus have more independent counterterms than independent renormalized parameters. As a consequence, different combinations of counterterms can be taken as independent for the same set of independent renormalized parameters. We compare the behaviour of selected combinations in specific NLO processes, which are assured to be gauge independent via a simple prescription. FeynMaster 2 is used to derive the Feynman rules, counterterms and one-loop processes in a simultaneously automatic and flexible way. This illustrates its use as an ideal tool to renormalize models such as the C2HDM and investigate them at NLO.

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