arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Emiliano Molinaro.
HiRep allows flexible simulations of higher representations of Wilson Fermions with various actions and gauge groups and a range of inverters and integrators. This is particularly important for enabling evaluations of observables relevant to phenomenological inputs for Beyond-the-Standard-Model physics from lattice field theory. We present progress on the GPU porting of available features, especially in terms of scaling to large jobs on AMD GPUs.
We are improving one of the available lattice software packages HiRep by adding GPU acceleration supporting highly-optimized simulations on both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs. HiRep allows lattice simulations of theories with fermions in higher representations and a variable number of colors in the gauge group. The development is accompanied by an overall software quality improvement in the build system, testing, and documentation, adding features for both CPUs and GPUs. The software is available under https://github.com/claudiopica/HiRep
The strong direct detection limits could be pointing to dark matter -- nucleus scattering at loop level. We study in detail the prototype example of an electroweak singlet (Dirac or Majorana) dark matter fermion coupled to an extended dark sector, which is composed of a new fermion and a new scalar. Given the strong limits on colored particles from direct and indirect searches we assume that the fields of the new dark sector are color singlets. We outline the possible simplified models, including the well-motivated cases in which the extra scalar or fermion is a Standard Model particle, as well as the possible connection to neutrino masses. We compute the contributions to direct detection from the photon, the $Z$ and the Higgs penguins for arbitrary quantum numbers of the dark sector. Furthermore, we derive compact expressions in certain limits, i.e., when all new particles are heavier than the dark matter mass and when the fermion running in the loop is light, like a Standard Model lepton. We study in detail the predicted direct detection rate and how current and future direct detection limits constrain the model parameters. In case dark matter couples directly to Standard Model leptons we find an interesting interplay between lepton flavor violation, direct detection and the observed relic abundance.
We examine the theoretical motivations for long-lived particle (LLP) signals at the LHC in a comprehensive survey of Standard Model (SM) extensions. LLPs are a common prediction of a wide range of theories that address unsolved fundamental mysteries such as naturalness, dark matter, baryogenesis and neutrino masses, and represent a natural and generic possibility for physics beyond the SM (BSM). In most cases the LLP lifetime can be treated as a free parameter from the $μ$m scale up to the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis limit of $\sim 10^7$m. Neutral LLPs with lifetimes above $\sim$ 100m are particularly difficult to probe, as the sensitivity of the LHC main detectors is limited by challenging backgrounds, triggers, and small acceptances. MATHUSLA is a proposal for a minimally instrumented, large-volume surface detector near ATLAS or CMS. It would search for neutral LLPs produced in HL-LHC collisions by reconstructing displaced vertices (DVs) in a low-background environment, extending the sensitivity of the main detectors by orders of magnitude in the long-lifetime regime. In this white paper we study the LLP physics opportunities afforded by a MATHUSLA-like detector at the HL-LHC. We develop a model-independent approach to describe the sensitivity of MATHUSLA to BSM LLP signals, and compare it to DV and missing energy searches at ATLAS or CMS. We then explore the BSM motivations for LLPs in considerable detail, presenting a large number of new sensitivity studies. While our discussion is especially oriented towards the long-lifetime regime at MATHUSLA, this survey underlines the importance of a varied LLP search program at the LHC in general. By synthesizing these results into a general discussion of the top-down and bottom-up motivations for LLP searches, it is our aim to demonstrate the exceptional strength and breadth of the physics case for the construction of the MATHUSLA detector.
Several extensions of the Standard Model predict the existence of Long-Lived Neutral Particles (LLNPs) with masses in the multi-GeV range and decay lengths of O(100 m) or longer. These particles could be copiously produced at the LHC, but the decay products cannot be detected with the ATLAS or CMS detectors. MATHUSLA is a proposed large-volume surface detector installed near ATLAS or CMS aimed to probe scenarios with LLNPs which offers good prospects for disentangling the physics underlying two-body decays into visible particles. In this work we focus on LLNP decays into three particles with one of them being invisible, which are relevant for scenarios with low scale supersymmetry breaking, feebly interacting dark matter or sterile neutrinos, among others. We analyze the MATHUSLA prospects to discriminate between two- and three-body LLNP decays, as well as the prospects for reconstructing the underlying model parameters.
We study a simple extension of the Standard Model that accounts for neutrino masses and dark matter. The Standard Model is augmented by two Higgs doublets and one Dirac singlet fermion, all charged under a new dark global symmetry. It is a generalised version of the Scotogenic Model with Dirac fermion dark matter. Masses for two neutrinos are generated radiatively at one-loop level. We study the case where the singlet fermion constitutes the dark matter of the Universe. We study in depth the phenomenology of the model, in particular the complementarity between dark matter direct detection and charged lepton flavour violation observables. Due to the strong limits from the latter, dark matter annihilations are suppressed and the relic abundance is set by coannihilations with (and annihilations of) the new scalars if the latter and the Dirac fermion are sufficiently degenerate in mass. We discuss how different ratios of charged lepton flavour violating processes can be used to test the model. We also discuss the detection prospects of the charged scalars at colliders. In some cases these leave ionising tracks and in others have prompt decays, depending on the flavour in the final state and neutrino mass orderings.
We provide an asymptotically safe Pati-Salam embedding of the Standard Model. Safety is achieved by adding to the theory gauged vector-like fermions and by employing recently developed large number-of-flavor techniques and results. We show that the gauge, scalar quartic and Yukawa couplings achieve an interacting ultraviolet fixed point below the Planck scale. The minimal model is a relevant example of a Standard Model extension in which unification of all type of couplings occurs because of a dynamical principle, i.e. the presence of an ultraviolet fixed point. This extension differs from the usual Grand Unified Theories scenario in which only gauge couplings unify and become free with the remaining couplings left unsafe. We find renormalization group flow solutions that match the Standard Model couplings values at low energies allowing for realistic safe extensions of the Standard Model.
We study the effect of lepton number violation (LNV) on baryon asymmetry, generated in the early Universe, in the presence of a dark sector with a global symmetry $U(1)_X$, featuring asymmetric dark matter (ADM). We show that in general LNV, observable at the LHC or in neutrinoless double beta decay experiments, cannot wash out a baryon asymmetry generated at higher scales, unlike in scenarios without such dark sector. An observation of LNV at the TeV scale may thus support ADM scenarios. Considering several models with different types of dark matter (DM), we find that the DM mass is of the order of a few GeV or below in our scenario.
In models of composite Higgs dynamics new composite pseudoscalars can interact with the Higgs and electroweak gauge bosons via anomalous interactions, stemming from the topological sector of the underlying theory. We show that a future 100 TeV proton-proton collider (FCC-pp) will be able to test this important sector and thus shed light on the strong dynamics which generates the Higgs and other composite states. To elucidate our results we focus on the topological interactions of a minimal composite Higgs model with a fermionic ultraviolet completion, based on the coset $\text{SU}(4)/\text{Sp}(4)$. We suggest the strategy to test these interactions at the FCC-pp and analyse the expected reach.
In composite Higgs models, new composite pseudoscalars can interact with the Higgs and with electroweak gauge bosons via anomalous interactions, which stem from the topological structure of the underlying theory. A future 100 TeV pp collider (FCC-pp) will be able to test these anomalous interactions and thus shed light on the strong dynamics which generates the Higgs and other composite resonances. We will discuss the topological interactions of a minimal composite Higgs model with fermionic ultraviolet completion, based on the coset SU(4)/Sp(4). We will indicate the strategy to test these interactions at the FCC-pp and the expected reach.
We review the current status of searches for new physics beyond the Standard Model in the diphoton channel at the LHC and estimate the reach with future collected data. We perform a model independent analysis based on an effective field theory approach and different production mechanisms. As an illustrative example, we apply our results to a scenario of minimal composite dynamics.
We perform a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenology of leptonic low and high energy CP phases in a scenario with three heavy right-handed neutrinos in which a flavor and a CP symmetry are non-trivially broken. All CP phases as well as lepton mixing angles are determined by the properties of the flavor and CP symmetry and one free real parameter. We focus on the generation of the baryon asymmetry Y_B of the Universe via unflavored leptogenesis and the predictions of m_ee, the quantity measurable in neutrinoless double beta decay. We show that the sign of Y_B can be fixed and the allowed parameter range of m_ee can be strongly constrained. We argue on general grounds that the CP asymmetries epsilon_i are dominated by the contribution associated with one Majorana phase and that in cases in which only the Dirac phase is non-trivial the sign of Y_B depends on further parameters. In addition, we comment on the case of flavored leptogenesis where in general the knowledge of the CP phases and light neutrino mass spectrum is also not sufficient in order to fix the sign of the CP asymmetries. As examples we discuss the series of flavor groups Delta (3 n^2) and Delta (6 n^2), n >= 2 integer, and several classes of CP transformations.
We analyse the signatures at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the scotogenic model, when the lightest Z2-odd particle is a singlet fermion and a feebly interacting massive particle (FIMP). We further assume that the singlet fermion constitutes the dark matter and that it is produced in the early Universe via the freeze-in mechanism. The small couplings required to reproduce the observed dark matter abundance translate into decay-lengths for the next-to-lightest Z2-odd particle which can be macroscopic, potentially leading to spectacular signatures at the LHC. We characterize the possible signals of the model according to the spectrum of the Z2-odd particles and we derive, for each of the cases, bounds on the parameters of the model from current searches.
We introduce a new type of gamma-ray spectral feature, which we denominate gamma-ray triangle. This spectral feature arises in scenarios where dark matter self-annihilates via a chiral interaction into two Dirac fermions, which subsequently decay in flight into another fermion and a photon. The resulting photon spectrum resembles a sharp triangle and can be readily searched for in the gamma-ray sky. Using data from the Fermi-LAT and H.E.S.S. instruments, we find no evidence for such spectral feature and therefore set strong upper bounds on the corresponding annihilation cross section. A concrete realization of a scenario yielding gamma-ray triangles consists of an asymmetric dark matter model where the dark matter particle carries lepton number. We show explicitly that this class of models can lead to intense gamma-ray spectral features, potentially at the reach of upcoming gamma-ray telescopes, opening a new window to explore asymmetric dark matter through indirect searches.
We analyze the Large Hadron Collider sensitivity to new pseudoscalar resonances decaying into diphoton with masses up to scales of few TeVs. We focus on minimal scenarios where the production mechanisms involve either photon or top-mediated gluon fusion, partially motivated by the tantalizing excess around 750 GeV reported by ATLAS and CMS. The two scenarios lead respectively to a narrow and a wide resonance. We first provide a model-independent analysis via effective operators and then introduce minimal models of composite dynamics where the diphoton channel is characterized by their topological sector. The relevant state here is the pseudoscalar associated with the axial anomaly of the new composite dynamics. If the Standard Model top mass is generated via four-fermion operators the coupling of this state to the top remarkably explains the wide-width resonance reported by ATLAS. Beyond the excess, our analysis paves the way to test dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking via topological sectors.
ATLAS and CMS observe deviations from the expected background in the diphoton invariant mass searches of new resonances around 750 GeV. We show that a simple realization in terms of a new pseudoscalar state can accommodate the observations. The model leads to further footprints that can be soon observed. The new state can be interpreted both as an axion or as a {highly natural} composite state arising from minimal models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking. We further show how to disentangle the two scenarios. Beyond the possible explanation of the diphoton excess the results show that it is possible to directly test and constrain composite dynamics via processes stemming from its distinctive topological sector.
We show, via a careful analytical and numerical analysis, that a pseudo Goldstone nature of the Higgs is naturally embodied by an elementary realization that also serves as ultraviolet completion. Renormalizability married to perturbation theory allows to precisely determine the quantum corrections of the theory while permitting to explore the underlying parameter space. By characterising the available parameter space of the extended Higgs sector we discover that the preferred electroweak alignment angle is centred around $θ\simeq 0.02$, corresponding to the Higgs chiral symmetry breaking scale $ f \simeq 14~$TeV. The latter is almost 60 times higher than the Standard Model electroweak scale. However, due to the perturbative nature of the theory, the spectrum of the enlarged Higgs sector remains in the few TeV energy range. We also analyse precision constraints and the relevant phenomenological aspects of the theory.
The scotogenic model is one of the simplest scenarios for physics beyond the Standard Model that can account for neutrino masses and dark matter at the TeV scale. It contains another scalar doublet and three additional singlet fermions (N_i), all odd under a Z_2 symmetry. In this paper, we examine the possibility that the dark matter candidate, N_1, does not reach thermal equilibrium in the early Universe so that it behaves as a Feebly Interacting Massive Particle (FIMP). In that case, it is found that the freeze-in production of dark matter is entirely dominated by the decays of the odd scalars. We compute the resulting dark matter abundance and study its dependence with the parameters of the model. The freeze-in mechanism is shown to be able to account for the observed relic density over a wide range of dark matter masses, from the keV to the TeV scale. In addition to freeze-in, the N_1 relic density receives a further contribution from the late decay of the next-to-lightest odd particle, which we also analyze. Finally, we consider the possibility that the dark matter particle is a WIMP but receives an extra contribution to its relic density from the decay of the FIMP (N_1). In this case, important signals at direct and indirect detection experiments are generally expected.