arXiv subjects

F. Staub

Publications and source records attributed to F. Staub.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

Higgs-mass predictions in the MSSM and beyond

Predictions for the Higgs masses are a distinctive feature of supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model, where they play a crucial role in constraining the parameter space. The discovery of a Higgs boson and the remarkably precise measurement of its mass at the LHC have spurred new efforts aimed at improving the accuracy of the theoretical predictions for the Higgs masses in supersymmetric models. The "Precision SUSY Higgs Mass Calculation Initiative" (KUTS) was launched in 2014 to provide a forum for discussions between the different groups involved in these efforts. This report aims to present a comprehensive overview of the current status of Higgs-mass calculations in supersymmetric models, to document the many advances that were achieved in recent years and were discussed during the KUTS meetings, and to outline the prospects for future improvements in these calculations.

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arXiv2015

Two-loop Higgs mass calculation from a diagrammatic approach

We calculate the corrections to the Higgs mass in general theories restricted to the case of massless gauge bosons (the gaugeless limit). We present analytic expressions for the two-loop tadpole diagrams, and corresponding expressions for the zero-momentum limit of the Higgs self energies, equivalent to the second derivative of the two-loop effective potential. We describe the implementation in SARAH, which allows an efficient, accurate and rapid evaluation for generic theories. In the appendix, we provide the expressions for tadpole diagrams in the case of massive gauge bosons.

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arXiv2014

Lepton flavor violation in low-scale seesaw models: SUSY and non-SUSY contributions

Taking the supersymmetric inverse seesaw mechanism as the explanation for neutrino oscillation data, we investigate charged lepton flavor violation in radiative and 3-body lepton decays as well as in neutrinoless $μ-e$ conversion in muonic atoms. In contrast to former studies, we take into account all possible contributions: supersymmetric as well as non-supersymmetric. We take CMSSM-like boundary conditions for the soft supersymmetry breaking parameters. We find several regions where cancellations between various contributions exist, reducing the lepton flavor violating rates by an order of magnitude compared to the case where only the dominant contribution is taken into account. This is in particular important for the correct interpretation of existing data as well as for estimating the reach of near future experiments where the sensitivity will be improved by one to two orders of magnitude. Moreover, we demonstrate that ratios like BR($τ\to 3 μ$)/BR($τ\to μe^+ e^-$) can be used to determine whether the supersymmetric contributions dominate over the $W^\pm$ and $H^\pm$ contributions or vice versa.

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arXiv2014

Resurrecting light stops after the 125 GeV Higgs in the baryon number violating CMSSM

In order to accommodate the observed Higgs boson mass in the CMSSM, the stops must either be very heavy or the mixing in the stop sector must be very large. Lower stop masses, possibly more accessible at the LHC, still give the correct Higgs mass only if the trilinear stop mixing parameter $|A_t|$ is in the multi-TeV range. Recently it has been shown that such large stop mixing leads to an unstable electroweak vacuum which spontaneously breaks charge or colour. In this work we therefore go beyond the CMSSM and investigate the effects of including baryon number violating operators $λ'' \bar{\bf U} \bar{\bf D}\bar{\bf D}$ on the stop and Higgs sectors. We find that for $λ'' \simeq {\mathcal{O}}(0.3)$ light stop masses as low as 220 GeV are consistent with the observed Higgs mass as well as flavour constraints while allowing for a stable vacuum. The light stop in this scenario is often the lightest supersymmetric particle. We furthermore discuss the importance of the one-loop corrections involving R-parity violating couplings for a valid prediction of the light stop masses.

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arXiv2014

Constraining the Natural MSSM through tunneling to color-breaking vacua at zero and non-zero temperature

We re-evaluate the constraints on the parameter space of the minimal supersymmetric standard model from tunneling to charge- and/or color-breaking minima, taking into account thermal corrections. We pay particular attention to the region known as the Natural MSSM, where the masses of the scalar partners of the top quarks are within an order of magnitude or so of the electroweak scale. These constraints arise from the interaction between these scalar tops and the Higgs fields, which allows the possibility of parameter points having deep charge- and color-breaking true vacua. In addition to requiring that our electro-weak-symmetry-breaking, yet QCD- and electromagnetism-preserving vacuum has a sufficiently long lifetime at zero temperature, also demanding stability against thermal tunneling further restricts the allowed parameter space.

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arXiv2014

The Constrained Minimal Dirac Gaugino Supersymmetric Standard Model

We examine the possibilities for constructing models with Dirac gaugino masses and unification of gauge couplings. We identify one promising model, and discuss to what extent it can have a "natural SUSY" spectrum. We then determine the low-energy constraints upon it, and propose a constrained set of boundary conditions at the unification scale. We describe the implementation of these boundary conditions in the spectrum-generator generator \SARAH and we perform a first exploration of the parameter space, specifically searching for points where the spectrum is relatively light. It is shown that the pattern of the masses of SUSY states is very different compared to any expectations from the constrained MSSM.

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arXiv2013

Stability of the CMSSM against sfermion VEVs

The recent discovery of a Higgs boson by the LHC experiments has profound implications for supersymmetric models. In particular, in the context of restricted models, such as the supergravity-inspired constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model, one finds that preferred regions in parameter space have large soft supersymmetry-breaking trilinear couplings. This potentially gives rise to charge- and/or color-breaking minima besides those with the correct breaking of $SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y$. We investigate the stability of parameter points in this model against tunneling to possible deeper color- and/or charge-breaking minima of the one-loop effective potential. We find that allowed regions of the parameter space with light staus or with light stops are seriously constrained by the requirement that the tunneling time out of the normal electroweak-symmetry-breaking vacuum is more than a fifth of the age of the known Universe. We also find that "thumb rule" conditions on Lagrangian parameters based on specific directions in the tree-level potential are of limited use.

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arXiv2013

On the vacuum stability of SUSY models

The existence of multiple non-equivalent minima of the scalar potential in SUSY models both raises technical challenges and introduces interesting physics. The technical challenges are now that one has to find several minima and evaluate which is the deepest, as well as calculate the tunneling time from a false vacuum to the true vacuum. We present here studies on the vacuum stability and color/charge breaking minima in the CMSSM and R parity violating minima in a B-L extended MSSM.

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arXiv2013

Vevacious: A Tool For Finding The Global Minima Of One-Loop Effective Potentials With Many Scalars

Several extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics contain additional scalars implying a more complex scalar potential compared to that of the Standard Model. In general these potentials allow for charge and/or color breaking minima besides the desired one with correctly broken SU(2)_L times U(1)_Y . Even if one assumes that a metastable local minimum is realized, one has to ensure that its lifetime exceeds that of our universe. We introduce a new program called Vevacious which takes a generic expression for a one-loop effective potential energy function and finds all the tree-level extrema, which are then used as the starting points for gradient-based minimization of the one-loop effective potential. The tunneling time from a given input vacuum to the deepest minimum, if different from the input vacuum, can be calculated. The parameter points are given as files in the SLHA format (though is not restricted to supersymmetric models), and new model files can be easily generated automatically by the Mathematica package SARAH. This code uses HOM4PS2 to find all the minima of the tree-level potential, PyMinuit to follow gradients to the minima of the one-loop potential, and CosmoTransitions to calculate tunneling times.

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arXiv2013

$B_{s,d}^0 \to μ\barμ$ and $B\to X_sγ$ in the R-parity violating MSSM

The recent measurements of $B_s^0 \to μ\barμ$ decay candidates at the LHC consistent with the standard model rate, and the improving upper limits for $B_d^0 \to μ\barμ$ can strongly constrain beyond the standard model physics. For example, in supersymmetric models with broken R-parity (RpV), they restrict the size of the new couplings. We use the combination of the public software packages SARAH and SPheno to derive new bounds on several combinations of R-parity violating couplings. We improve existing limits for the couplings which open tree-level decay channels and state new limits for combinations which induce loop contributions. This is the first study which performs a full one-loop analysis of these observables in the context of R-parity violation. It turns out that at one-loop despite the strong experimental limits only combinations of R-parity violating couplings are constrained which include third generation fermions. We compare our limits with those obtained via $B\to X_sγ$ and discuss the differences.

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arXiv2013

Stability of R parity in supersymmetric models extended by U(1)_{B-L}

We perform a study of the stability of R-parity-conserving vacua of a constrained version of the minimal supersymmetric model with a gauged U(1)_{B-L} which can conserve R-parity, using homotopy continuation to find all the extrema of the tree-level potential, for which we also calculated the one-loop corrections. While we find that a majority of the points in the parameter space preserve R-parity, we find that a significant portion of points which naively have phenomenologically acceptable vacua which conserve R-parity actually have deeper vacua which break R-parity through sneutrino VEVs. We investigate under what conditions the deeper R-parity-violating vacua appear. We find that while previous exploratory work was broadly correct in some of its qualitative conclusions, we disagree in detail.

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arXiv2013

Full 1-loop calculation of BR$(B_{s,d}^0\to \ell \bar \ell)$ in models beyond the MSSM with SARAH and SPheno

We present the possibility of calculating the quark flavor changing neutral current decays $B_{s}^0\to \ell \bar \ell$ and $B_{d}^0\to \ell \bar \ell$ for a large variety of supersymmetric models. For this purpose, the complete one-loop calculation has been implemented in a generic form in the Mathematica package SARAH. This information is used by SARAH to generate Fortran source code for SPheno for a numerical evaluation of these processes in a given model. We comment also on the possibility to use this setup for non-supersymmetric models.

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arXiv2012

General NMSSM signatures at the LHC

We study the possible LHC collider signatures in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM). The general NMSSM consists of 29 supersymmetric (SUSY) particles which can be mass ordered in $29! \simeq 9 \cdot 10^{30}$ ways. To reduce the number of hierarchies to a more manageable amount we assume a degeneracy of the sfermions of the first two generations with the same quantum numbers. Further assumptions about the neutralino and chargino masses leave 15 unrelated parameters. We check all $15! \approx 10^{12}$ relevant mass orderings for the dominant decay chains and the corresponding collider signatures at the LHC. As preferred signatures, we consider charged leptons, missing transverse momentum, jets, and W, Z or Higgs bosons. We present the results for three different choices of the singlet to Higgs coupling $λ$: (a) small: $O(λ)< O(Y_τ)$, (b) large: $O(λ)\simeq O(Y_{top},Y_b, Y_τ)$ and (c) dominant: $O(λ)>O(Y_{top})$. We compare these three scenarios with the MSSM expectations as well as among each other. We also mention a possible mass hierarchy leading to 7 jets plus 1 lepton signatures at the LHC and comment briefly on the consequence of possible R-parity violation.

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arXiv2012

Sarah

SARAH is a Mathematica package for building and analyzing supersymmetric models. SARAH just needs the gauge structure, particle content and superpotential to produce all information about the gauge eigenstates of a model. Breaking of gauge symmetries and mixings of particles can easily be in a second step and entire Lagrangian is derived automatically. Also the gauge fixing terms are derived by SARAH in R_Xi gauge, and the corresponding ghost interactions are calculated. Using this information, SARAH can calculate the all mass matrices, tadpole equations and vertices at tree-level for the given model. In addition, the expressions for the 1- and 2-loop renormalization group equations of all parameters can be calculated and an automatic calculation for the 1-loop corrections to self energies and the tadpoles are possible. SARAH can write all information about the model to LaTeX files, or create a model files for FeynArts/FormCalc, WHIZARD/OMEGA and CalcHep/CompHep, which can also be used for dark matter studies using MicrOmegas, and in the UFO format which is supported by MadGraph 5. Beginning with version 3, SARAH is also the first available spectrum-generator-generator: based on the derived, analytical expression it creates source code for SPheno to calculate the mass spectrum as well the SUSY decays with high precision. In that way, it is possible to implement new models in SPheno without the need to write any Fortran code by hand. Already many models beyond the MSSM are included in the public version of SARAH and the implementation of new models is easy and straightforward.

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arXiv2012

General MSSM signatures at the LHC with and without R-parity

We present the possible signatures appearing in general realizations of the MSSM based on 14 unrelated mass parameters at the SUSY scale. The parameters of the general MSSM are reduced by assuming a degeneracy of the sfermions of the first two generations with the same quantum numbers. We also assume no mass-splitting between neutral and charged Higgsinos. We do allow for separate soft breaking terms for the third generation sfermons. We consider all possible resulting $14! \approx 9 \cdot10^{10}$ relevant mass orderings and check for the dominant decay cascades and the corresponding collider signatures. In determining the dominant decay modes we assume that mixing between sparticles is sub-dominant. As preferred signatures, we consider charged leptons, missing transverse momentum, jets, and $W, Z$ or Higgs bosons. We include also the cases of bi- and trilinear R-parity violation and show that specific signatures can be used to distinguish the different scenarios.

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arXiv2012

Enhancing $l_i \to 3 l_j$ with the $Z^0$-penguin

Lepton flavor violation (LFV) has been observed in neutrino oscillations. For charged lepton FV decays only upper limits are known, but sizable branching ratios are expected in many neutrino mass models. High scale models, such as the classical supersymmetric seesaw, usually predict that decays $l_i \to 3 l_j$ are roughly a factor $α$ maller than the corresponding decays $l_i \to l_j γ$. Here we demonstrate that the $Z^0$-penguin diagram can give an enhancement for decays $l_i \to 3 l_j$ in many extensions of the MSSM. We first discuss why the $Z^0$-penguin is not dominant in the MSSM with seesaw and show that much larger contributions from the $Z^0$-penguin are expected in general. We then demonstrate the effect numerically in two example models, namely, the supersymmetric inverse seesaw and R-parity violating supersymmetry.

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arXiv2012

Proposal for generalised Supersymmetry Les Houches Accord for see-saw models and PDG numbering scheme

The SUSY Les Houches Accord (SLHA) 2 extended the first SLHA to include various generalisations of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) as well as its simplest next-to-minimal version. Here, we propose further extensions to it, to include the most general and well-established see-saw descriptions (types I/II/III, inverse, and linear) in both an effective and a simple gauged extension of the MSSM framework. In addition, we generalise the PDG numbering scheme to reflect the properties of the particles.

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arXiv2012

New bounds on trilinear R-parity violation from lepton flavor violating observables

Many extensions of the leptonic sector of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) are known, most of them leading to observable flavor violating effects. It has been recently shown that the 1-loop contributions to lepton flavor violating three-body decays $l_i \to 3 l_j$ involving the $Z^0$ boson may be dominant, that is, much more important than the usual photonic penguins. Other processes like $μ$-$e$ conversion in nuclei and flavor violating $τ$ decays into mesons are also enhanced by the same effect. This is for instance also the case in the MSSM with trilinear R-parity violation. The aim of this work is to derive new bounds on the relevant combinations of R-parity violating couplings and to compare them with previous results in the literature. For heavy supersymmetric spectra the limits are improved by several orders of magnitude. For completeness, also constraints coming from flavor violating $Z^0$-decays and tree-level decay channels $l \to l_i l_j l_k$ are presented for a set of benchmark points.

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