arXiv subjects

Fabio Maltoni

Publications and source records attributed to Fabio Maltoni.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

Precision phenomenology at multi-TeV muon colliders

Future lepton colliders, such as those based on linear $e^+e^-$ or circular $μ^+μ^-$ accelerators, are expected to attain centre-of-mass energies in the multi-TeV range. In this regime the impact of QED and of weak radiation, in both the initial and the final state, can become a leading effect. By employing a general framework presented in a companion paper - suitable for any flavour of colliding leptons - we improve next-to-leading order electroweak predictions by including higher-order contributions, which encompass, but are not limited to, vector-boson-fusion processes. We apply this approach to the study of $t\bar{t}$ and $W^+W^-$ production at a muon collider operating at centre-of-mass energies up to 10 TeV. We show that such an approach, where both QED and weak contributions are included at fixed order, in addition to the all-order resummation of initial-state QED effects, can provide predictions for arbitrary observables in all of the phase space which are precise at the percent level.

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arXiv2025

Double neutral-current corrections to NLO electroweak leptonic cross sections

We present a method for improving next-to-leading order electroweak (EW) predictions for lepton-scattering processes by consistently including double neutral-current corrections arising from vector-boson-fusion topologies, which are formally of higher order. By combining, in a process-independent manner, exact fixed-order results, collinear resummation of QED radiation, and a subtraction procedure, we obtain results which are gauge invariant and valid in the entire phase space, retain any dependence on the masses of electroweak bosons, and can be systematically improved, while avoiding the need for complete next-to-next-to-leading order calculations. This paper is devoted to the development and validation of the formalism; phenomenological applications are presented in a companion study, where we also discuss and motivate why our approach is superior to the one based on EW parton distribution functions for targeting percent-level precision at multi-TeV lepton colliders.

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arXiv2024

Higgs-muon interactions at a multi-TeV muon collider

We establish a simple yet general parameterization of Higgs-muon interactions within the effective field theory frameworks, including both the Higgs Effective Field Theory (HEFT) and the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). We investigate the potential of a muon collider, operating at center-of-mass energies of 3 and 10 TeV, to probe Higgs-muon interactions. All possible processes involving the direct production of multiple electroweak bosons ($W$, $Z$, and $H$) with up to five final-state particles are considered. Our findings indicate that a muon collider can achieve greater sensitivity than the high-luminosity LHC, especially considering the independence of the Higgs decay branching fraction to muons. Notably, a 10 TeV muon collider offers exceptional sensitivity to muon-Higgs interactions, surpassing the 3 TeV option. In particular, searches based on multi-Higgs production prove highly effective for probing these couplings.

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arXiv2024

Top-quark pair production as a probe of light top-philic scalars and anomalous Higgs interactions

We compute the effects due to the virtual exchange (or the soft emission) of a scalar particle with generic couplings to the top quark in $t\bar t$ pair production at the LHC. We apply the results to two cases of interest, extending and completing previous studies. First, we consider the indirect search for light ($m_S<2 m_t$) top-philic scalars with CP-even and/or CP-odd interactions. Second, we investigate how to set constraints on anomalous Yukawa couplings of the Higgs boson to the top quark. Our results show that the current precision of experimental data together with the accuracy of the SM predictions make such indirect determinations a powerful probe for new physics.

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arXiv2024

Probing Higgs-muon interactions at a multi-TeV muon collider

We study the capabilities of a muon collider, at 3 and 10 TeV center-of-mass energy, of probing the interactions of the Higgs boson with the muon. We consider all the possible processes involving the direct production of EW bosons ($W,Z$ and $H$) with up to five particles in the final state. We study these processes both in the HEFT and SMEFT frameworks, assuming that the dominant BSM effects originate from the muon Yukawa sector. Our study shows that a Muon Collider has sensitivity beyond the LHC, as it not only relies on the Higgs-decay branching fraction to muons. A 10 TeV muon collider provides a unique sensitivity on muon and (multi-) Higgs interactions, significantly better than the 3 TeV option. We find searches based purely on multi-Higgs production to be particularly effective in probing these couplings.

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arXiv2024

Quantum tops at circular lepton colliders

We study the quantum properties of top quark pairs in lepton colliders with unpolarised beams, including spin correlations, entanglement, and violation of Bell inequalities. We present analytical results in the SM and in the SMEFT and discuss several practical aspects, like the choice of quantization axes and $t \bar t$ threshold effects. We also note a correspondence between parity symmetry and entanglement. We find that quantum observables exhibit a rich phenomenology in the SM, and can also provide additional leverage in detecting new physics residing at higher scales.

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arXiv2024

Top-philic ALP phenomenology at the LHC: the elusive mass-window

We study the LHC phenomenology of an Axion Like Particle (ALP) that couples only derivatively with the top quark at tree level. We inspect the radiatively induced couplings with the SM fermions and (gauge) bosons and the associated production and decay mechanisms of the ALP. We focus on the most challenging mass window that remains open for a top-philic ALP, i.e., the range between tens and hundreds of GeV. Not only ALP production processes but also virtual ALP contributions to final states with top quarks are considered in detail. We show how searches through resonant production, such as ALP production in association with a $t\bar t$ pair, are complementary to precision measurements of $t \bar t$ and $t\bar t t \bar t$ final states, the latter being competitive or even more powerful for a top-philic ALP in this mass window. Finally, we explore the scenario where the top-philic ALP acts as a mediator to a dark-matter sector, resulting in missing energy signatures at the LHC. We find that the LHC constraints from $t \bar t$, $t\bar t t \bar t$ and ALP + jet production, together with those from $t \bar t$ + ALP production, can already exclude a large fraction of the parameter space leading to the correct relic abundance.

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arXiv2024

Impact of SMEFT renormalisation group running on Higgs production at the LHC

We study the effects of the one-loop renormalisation group running/mixing of the Wilson coefficients in the standard model effective field theory on the predictions for $Hj$, $t\bar tH$ and $HH$ production at the LHC. We focus on a subset of operators closed under QCD corrections and explore the differences between employing a fixed or dynamical scale on the SMEFT predictions for key observables such as the Higgs transverse momentum and the Higgs pair invariant mass. We then study the impact of consistently taking into account renormalisation group effects on the constraints that can be obtained on the Wilson coefficients through current and future measurements at the LHC.

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arXiv2024

The MadNIS Reloaded

In pursuit of precise and fast theory predictions for the LHC, we present an implementation of the MadNIS method in the MadGraph event generator. A series of improvements in MadNIS further enhance its efficiency and speed. We validate this implementation for realistic partonic processes and find significant gains from using modern machine learning in event generators.

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arXiv2024

Quantum detection of new physics in top-quark pair production at the LHC

The recent observation of entanglement between top and anti-top quarks at the LHC opens the way to interpreting collider data with quantum information tools. In this work we investigate the relevance of quantum observables in searches of new physics. To this aim, we study spin correlations of top/anti-top pairs originating from various intermediate resonances, and compare the discovery reach of quantum observables compared to classical ones. We find that they provide complementary information and, in several notable cases, also the additional leverage necessary to detect new effects.

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arXiv2024

Focus topics for the ECFA study on Higgs / Top / EW factories

In order to stimulate new engagement and trigger some concrete studies in areas where further work would be beneficial towards fully understanding the physics potential of an $e^+e^-$ Higgs / Top / Electroweak factory, we propose to define a set of focus topics. The general reasoning and the proposed topics are described in this document.

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arXiv2023

Phenomenology of superheavy decaying dark matter from string theory

We study the phenomenology of superheavy decaying dark matter with mass around $10^{10}$ GeV which can arise in the low-energy limit of string compactifications. Generic features of string theory setups (such as high scale supersymmetry breaking and epochs of early matter domination driven by string moduli) can accommodate superheavy dark matter with the correct relic abundance. In addition, stringy instantons induce tiny $R$-parity violating couplings which make dark matter unstable with a lifetime well above the age of the Universe. Adopting a model-independent approach, we compute the flux and spectrum of high-energy gamma rays and neutrinos from three-body decays of superheavy dark matter and constrain its mass-lifetime plane with current observations and future experiments. We show that these bounds have only a mild dependence on the exact nature of neutralino dark matter and its decay channels. Applying these constraints to an explicit string model sets an upper bound of ${\cal O}(0.1)$ on the string coupling, ensuring that the effective field theory is in the perturbative regime.

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arXiv2023

MadNIS -- Neural Multi-Channel Importance Sampling

Theory predictions for the LHC require precise numerical phase-space integration and generation of unweighted events. We combine machine-learned multi-channel weights with a normalizing flow for importance sampling, to improve classical methods for numerical integration. We develop an efficient bi-directional setup based on an invertible network, combining online and buffered training for potentially expensive integrands. We illustrate our method for the Drell-Yan process with an additional narrow resonance.

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arXiv2023

Probing new physics through entanglement in diboson production

Pair production of heavy vector bosons is a key process at colliders: it allows to test our understanding of the Standard Model and to explore the existence of new physics through precision measurements of production rates and differential distributions. New physics effects can be subtle and often require observables specifically designed for their detection. In this study, we focus on quantum information observables that characterise the spin states of the final diboson system. We analyse concurrence bounds, purity, and Bell inequalities for a bipartite qutrit system representing two massive gauge bosons. Our findings show that quantum spin observables can serve as complementary probes for heavy new physics as parametrised by higher dimensional operators in the Standard Model effective field theory. In particular, we find that these observables offer increased sensitivity to operators whose contributions do not interfere with the Standard Model amplitudes at the level of differential cross sections.

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arXiv2023

Quantum information and CP measurement in $H \to τ^+ τ^-$ at future lepton colliders

We introduce a methodology and investigate the feasibility of measuring quantum properties of tau lepton pairs in the $H \to τ^+ τ^-$ decay at future lepton colliders. In particular, observation of entanglement, steerability and violation of Bell inequalities are examined for the ILC and FCC-ee. We find that detecting quantum correlation crucially relies on precise reconstruction of the tau lepton rest frame and a simple kinematics reconstruction does not suffice due to the finite energy resolution of the colliding beams and detectors. To correct for energy mismeasurements, a log-likelihood method is developed that incorporates the information of impact parameters of tau lepton decays. We demonstrate that an accurate measurement of quantum properties is possible with this method. As a by-product, we show that a novel model-independent test of CP violation can be performed and the CP-phase of $H ττ$ interaction can be constrained with an accuracy comparable to dedicated analyses, i.e., up to $7.9^{\circ}$ and $5.4^{\circ}$ at ILC and FCC-ee, respectively.

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arXiv2023

Indirect dark-matter detection with MadDM v3.2 -- Lines and Loops

Automated tools for the computation of particle physics' processes have become the backbone of phenomenological studies beyond the standard model. Here, we present MadDM v3.2. This release enables the fully automated computation of loop-induced dark-matter annihilation processes, relevant for indirect detection observables. Special emphasis lies on the annihilation into $γX$, where $X=γ, Z, h$ or any new particle even under the dark symmetry. These processes lead to the sharp spectral feature of monochromatic gamma lines -- a smoking-gun signature of dark matter in our Galaxy. MadDM provides the predictions for the respective fluxes near-Earth and derives constraints from the gamma-ray line searches by Fermi-LAT and HESS. As an application, we discuss the implications for the viable parameter space of a top-philic $t$-channel mediator model and the inert doublet model.

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arXiv2023

Renormalisation group effects on SMEFT interpretations of LHC data

We explore the impact of Renormalisation Group (RG) effects in the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) interpretations of LHC measurements. We implement the RG running and mixing for the Wilson coefficients as obtained from the one-loop anomalous dimension matrix in the SMEFT into a Monte Carlo generator. This allows to consistently predict and combine in global fits collider observables characterised by different scales. As a showcase, we examine the impact of RG running in the strong coupling on the SMEFT predictions for $t \bar t$ production cross sections and differential distributions as well as on the bounds on the Wilson coefficients that can be obtained from current LHC data.

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arXiv2022

Machine Learning and LHC Event Generation

First-principle simulations are at the heart of the high-energy physics research program. They link the vast data output of multi-purpose detectors with fundamental theory predictions and interpretation. This review illustrates a wide range of applications of modern machine learning to event generation and simulation-based inference, including conceptional developments driven by the specific requirements of particle physics. New ideas and tools developed at the interface of particle physics and machine learning will improve the speed and precision of forward simulations, handle the complexity of collision data, and enhance inference as an inverse simulation problem.

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