arXiv subjects

Enrico Bertuzzo

Publications and source records attributed to Enrico Bertuzzo.

52 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Limits on Neutrinophilic Two-Higgs-Doublet Models from Flavor Physics

We derive stringent limits on neutrinophilic two-Higgs-doublet models from low-energy observables after the discovery of the Higgs boson and of the mixing angle $θ_{13}$. These decays can constrain the plane spanned by $m_{H^\pm}$, the mass of the new charged Higgs, and $v_2$, the vacuum expectation value of the new neutrinophilic scalar doublet. Lepton flavor conserving decays are not able to set meaningful bounds, since they depend strongly on the unknown neutrino absolute mass scale. On the other hand, loop induced lepton flavor violating decays, such as $μ\to e γ$, $μ\to 3 e $ or $μ\to e$ in nuclei are currently responsable for the best limits today. If $v_2 \lesssim 1 \, (0.1)$ eV we get $m_{H^\pm} \gtrsim 250 \, (2500)$ GeV at 90% CL. In the foreseen future these limits can improve by at least a factor of 100.

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arXiv2015

Flavour, Electroweak Symmetry Breaking and Dark Matter: state of the art and future prospects

With the discovery of the Higgs boson the Standard Model has become a complete and comprehensive theory, which has been verified with unparalleled precision and in principle might be valid at all scales. However, several reasons remain why we firmly believe that there should be physics beyond the Standard Model. Experiments such as the LHC, new $B$ factories, and earth- and space-based astro-particle experiments provide us with unique opportunities to discover a coherent framework for many of the long-standing puzzles of our field. Here we explore several significant interconnections between the physics of the Higgs boson, the physics of flavour, and the experimental clues we have about dark matter.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2014

Dirac gauginos, R symmetry and the 125 GeV Higgs

We study a supersymmetric scenario with a quasi exact R-symmetry in light of the discovery of a Higgs resonance with a mass of 125 GeV. In such a framework, the additional adjoint superfields, needed to give Dirac masses to the gauginos, contribute both to the Higgs mass and to electroweak precision observables. We analyze the interplay between the two aspects, finding regions in parameter space in which the contributions to the precision observables are under control and a 125 GeV Higgs boson can be accommodated. We estimate the fine-tuning of the model finding regions of the parameter space still unexplored by the LHC with a fine-tuning considerably improved with respect to the minimal supersymmetric scenario. In particular, sizable non-holomorphic (non-supersoft) adjoints masses are required to reduce the fine-tuning.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

SUSY after LHC8: a brief overview

With the 8 TeV LHC run now concluded, the first consequences of the experimental results on the supersymmetric parameter space can be drawn. On one hand, the negative direct searches place more and more stringent bounds on the mass of supersymmetric particles; on the other hand, the discovery of a 125 GeV Higgs boson points toward a quite heavy spectrum for the squarks of the third generation, at least in the minimal supersymmetric model. In this note I will briefly recap how this constitutes a problem for the naturalness of supersymmetric models, as well as the current experimental situation. Moreover, I will point out possible non minimal models in which the naturalness issue can be at least soften.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

On Composite Two Higgs Doublet Models

We investigate composite two Higgs doublet models realized as pseudo Goldstone modes, generated through the spontaneous breaking of a global symmetry due to strong dynamic at the TeV scale. A detailed comparative survey of two possible symmetry breaking patterns, SU(5) -> SU(4) x U(1) and SU(5) x SU(4), is made. We point out choices for the Standard Model fermion representations that can alleviate some phenomenological constraints, with emphasis towards a simultaneous solution of anomalous Zb\bar{b} coupling and Higgs mediated Flavor Changing Neutral Currents. We also write down the kinetic lagrangian for several models leading to Two Higgs Doublets and identify the anomalous contributions to the T parameter. Moreover, we describe a model based on the breaking $SO(9)/SO(8)$ in which there is no tree-level breaking of custodial symmetry, discussing also the possible embeddings for the fermion fields.

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arXiv2012

Can New Colored Particles Illuminate the Higgs?

We analyze the behavior of Higgs to diphoton rate and Higgs gluon-gluon production cross section in minimal extensions of the Standard Model comprising new colored vector-like fermions that do not mix with the ordinary ones. We compare these information with constraints coming from electroweak precision measurements. We compute pair production cross sections for the lightest fermion and discuss the LHC bounds. Finally, we study the phenomenology of possible quarkonium states composed by these new colored fermions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Does $H \to γγ$ Taste like vanilla New Physics?

We analyse the interplay between the Higgs to diphoton rate and electroweak precision measurements contraints in extensions of the Standard Model with new uncolored charged fermions that do not mix with the ordinary ones. We also compute the pair production cross sections for the lightest fermion and compare them with current bounds.

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arXiv2012

Fitting Neutrino Physics with a U(1)_R Lepton Number

We study neutrino physics in the context of a supersymmetric model where a continuous R-symmetry is identified with the total Lepton Number and one sneutrino can thus play the role of the down type Higgs. We show that R-breaking effects communicated to the visible sector by Anomaly Mediation can reproduce neutrino masses and mixing solely via radiative contributions, without requiring any additional degree of freedom. In particular, a relatively large reactor angle (as recently observed by the Daya Bay collaboration) can be accommodated in ample regions of the parameter space. On the contrary, if the R-breaking is communicated to the visible sector by gravitational effects at the Planck scale, additional particles are necessary to accommodate neutrino data.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Detecting the Higgs boson(s) in LambdaSUSY

We reconsider the Higgs bosons discovery potential in the LambdaSUSY framework, in which the masses of the scalar particles are increased already at tree level via a largish supersymmetric coupling between the usual Higgs doublets and a Singlet. We analyze in particular the interplay between the discovery potential of the lightest and of the next-to-lightest scalar, finding that the decay modes of the latter should be more easily detected at the LHC.

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arXiv2011

Spatial effects on species persistence and implications for biodiversity

Natural ecosystems are characterized by striking diversity of form and functions and yet exhibit deep symmetries emerging across scales of space, time and organizational complexity. Species-area relationships and species-abundance distributions are examples of emerging patterns irrespective of the details of the underlying ecosystem functions. Here we present empirical and theoretical evidence for a new macroecological pattern related to the distributions of local species persistence times, defined as the timespans between local colonizations and extinctions in a given geographic region. Empirical distributions pertaining to two different taxa, breeding birds and herbaceous plants, analyzed in a new framework that accounts for the finiteness of the observational period, exhibit power-law scaling limited by a cut-off determined by the rate of emergence of new species. In spite of the differences between taxa and spatial scales of analysis, the scaling exponents are statistically indistinguishable from each other and significantly different from those predicted by existing models. We theoretically investigate how the scaling features depend on the structure of the spatial interaction network and show that the empirical scaling exponents are reproduced once a two-dimensional isotropic texture is used, regardless of the details of the ecological interactions. The framework developed here also allows to link the cut-off timescale with the spatial scale of analysis, and the persistence-time distribution to the species-area relationship. We conclude that the inherent coherence obtained between spatial and temporal macroecological patterns points at a seemingly general feature of the dynamical evolution of ecosystems.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2011

On the MSSM with hierarchical squark masses and a heavier Higgs boson

In the contest of supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model, we consider a spectrum in which the lightest Higgs boson has mass between 200 and 300 GeV and the first two generations of squarks have masses above 20 TeV, considering the Higgs boson mass and the Supersymmetric Flavour Problem as related naturalness problems. After the analysis of some models in which the previous spectrum can be naturally realised, we consider the phenomenological consequences for the LHC and for Dark Matter.

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arXiv2011

Higgs boson signals in lambda-SUSY with a Scale Invariant Superpotential

We reconsider the lambda-SUSY model, in which the mass of the Higgs boson is raised already at tree level up to about 200 GeV via an additional interaction in the superpotential between the Higgs bosons and a Singlet, focusing on a scale invariant superpotential. After a detailed analysis of the allowed region in parameter space, which includes constraints coming from the absence of spontaneous CP violation and of unrealistic minima, we study the scalar mass spectrum, the production rate and the decay modes of the lightest scalar, finding that in general both the production rate and the Branching Ratio into gauge bosons can be reduced with respect of those of the standard Higgs, causing it to be hardly detected in the first run of the LHC.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

The problem of the initial conditions in flavoured leptogenesis and the tauon N_2-dominated scenario

We discuss the conditions to realize a scenario of strong thermal leptogenesis, where the final asymmetry is fully independent of the initial conditions, when both heavy and light flavor effects are taken into account. In particular the contribution to the final asymmetry from a residual initial pre-existing asymmetry has to be negligible. We show that in the case of a hierarchical right-handed (RH) neutrino mass spectrum, the only possible way is a N_2-dominated leptogenesis scenario with a lightest RH neutrino mass M_1 << 10^9 GeV and with a next-to-lightest RH neutrino mass 10^12 GeV >> M_2 >> 10^9 GeV. This scenario necessarily requires the presence of a heaviest third RH neutrino specie. Moreover, we show that the final asymmetry has to be dominantly produced in the tauon flavour while the electron and the muon asymmetries have to be efficiently washed out by the lightest RH neutrino inverse processes. Intriguingly, such seemingly special conditions for successful strong thermal leptogenesis are naturally fulfilled within SO(10)-inspired models. Besides the tauon N_2-dominated scenario, successful strong thermal leptogenesis is also achieved in scenarios with quasi-degenerate RH neutrino masses. We also comment on the supersymmetric case. We also derive an expression for the final asymmetry produced from leptogenesis taking fully into account heavy neutrino flavour effects in the specific case $M_1\gg 10^{12}\,{\rm GeV}$ (heavy flavoured scenario), a result that can be extended to any other mass pattern.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

On the QCD corrections to Delta F=2 FCNC in the Supersymmetric SM with hierarchical squark masses

In the context of the Supersymmetric Standard Model with hierarchical sfermion masses, we re-analyze the QCD corrections to Delta F=2 effective Hamiltonian properly including effects which have been neglected so far. The point is that some Delta F=2 diagrams, involving both the heavy and the light sparticles, exhibit a logarithmic dependence on the ratio between the two masses, signalling a sensitivity to all the momenta between the two scales. In order to properly deal with these terms one has to take into account the mixing between Delta F=1 and Delta F=2 operators. In typical situations this treatment can affect the result at the level of 30% or even more.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Minimal Flavour Violation with hierarchical squark masses

In a supersymmetric model with hierarchical squark masses we analyze a pattern of flavour symmetry breaking centered on the special role of the top Yukawa coupling and, by extension, of the full Yukawa couplings for the up-type quarks. For sufficiently heavy squarks of the first and second generation this leads to effective Minimal Flavour Violation of the Flavour Changing Neutral Current amplitudes. For this to happen we determine the bounds on the masses of the heavy squarks with QCD corrections taken into account, properly including previously neglected effects. We believe that the view presented in this paper altogether strengthens the case for hierarchical sfermions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2010

A Non Standard Supersymmetric Spectrum

Taking a bottom-up point of view and focussing on the lack of signals so far in the Higgs and in the flavour sectors, we argue in favour of giving consideration to supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model where the lightest Higgs boson has a mass between 200 and 300 GeV and the first two generations of s-fermions are above 20 TeV. After examining the simplest extensions of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model that allow this in a natural way, we summarize the main consequences of this pattern of masses at the LHC and we analyze the consequences of a heavier than normal Higgs boson for Dark Matter.

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