arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G. Bélanger.
We briefly review scenarios with feebly interacting particles (FIMPs) as dark matter candidates. The discussion covers issues with dark matter production in the early universe as well as signatures of FIMPs at the high energy and high intensity frontier as well as in astroparticle and cosmology.
Seventeen years of hard X-ray observations with the instruments of the INTEGRAL observatory, with a focus on the Milky Way and in particular on the Galactic Centre region, have provided a unique database for exploration of the Galactic population of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). Our understanding of the diverse energetic phenomena associated with accretion of matter onto neutron stars and black holes has greatly improved. We review the large variety of INTEGRAL based results related to LMXBs. In particular, we discuss the spatial distribution of LMXBs over the Galaxy and their X-ray luminosity function as well as various physical phenomena associated with Atoll and Z sources, bursters, symbiotic X-ray binaries, ultracompact X-ray binaries and persistent black hole LMXBs. We also present an up-to-date catalogue of confirmed LMXBs detected by INTEGRAL, which comprises 166 objects. Last but not least, the long-term monitoring of the Galactic Centre with INTEGRAL has shed light on the activity of Sgr A* in the recent past, confirming previous indications that our supermassive black hole experienced a major accretion episode just ~100 years ago. This exciting topic is covered in this review too.
This report presents the activities of the `New Physics' working group for the `Physics at TeV Colliders' workshop (Les Houches, France, 10--28 June, 2019). These activities include studies of direct searches for new physics, approaches to exploit published data to constrain new physics, as well as the development of tools to further facilitate these investigations. Benefits of machine learning for both the search for new physics and the interpretation of these searches are also presented.
We present a class of dark matter models, in which the dark matter particle is a feebly interacting massive particle (FIMP) produced via the decay of an electrically charged and/or colored parent particle. Given the feeble interaction, dark matter is produced via the freeze-in mechanism and the parent particle is long-lived. The latter leads to interesting collider signatures. We study current LHC constrains on our models arising from searches for heavy charged particles, disappearing tracks, displaced leptons and displaced vertices. We demonstrate not only that collider searches can be a powerful probe of the freeze-in dark matter models under consideration, but that an observation can lead as well to interesting insights on the reheating temperature and thus on the validity of certain baryogenesis models.
We propose simple freeze-in models where the observed dark matter abundance is explained via the decay of an electrically charged and/or coloured parent particle into Feebly Interacting Massive Particles (FIMP). The parent particle is long-lived and yields a wide variety of LHC signatures depending on its lifetime and quantum numbers. We assess the current constraints and future high luminosity reach of these scenarios at the LHC from searches for heavy stable charged particles, disappearing tracks, displaced vertices and displaced leptons. We show that the LHC constitutes a powerful probe of freeze-in dark matter and can further provide interesting insights on the validity of vanilla baryogenesis and leptogenesis scenarios.
We present the activities of the `New Physics' working group for the `Physics at TeV Colliders' workshop (Les Houches, France, 5--23 June, 2017). Our report includes new physics studies connected with the Higgs boson and its properties, direct search strategies, reinterpretation of the LHC results in the building of viable models and new computational tool developments.
This Report summarizes the results of the activities of the LHC Higgs Cross Section Working Group in the period 2014-2016. The main goal of the working group was to present the state-of-the-art of Higgs physics at the LHC, integrating all new results that have appeared in the last few years. The first part compiles the most up-to-date predictions of Higgs boson production cross sections and decay branching ratios, parton distribution functions, and off-shell Higgs boson production and interference effects. The second part discusses the recent progress in Higgs effective field theory predictions, followed by the third part on pseudo-observables, simplified template cross section and fiducial cross section measurements, which give the baseline framework for Higgs boson property measurements. The fourth part deals with the beyond the Standard Model predictions of various benchmark scenarios of Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, extended scalar sector, Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and exotic Higgs boson decays. This report follows three previous working-group reports: Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 1. Inclusive Observables (CERN-2011-002), Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 2. Differential Distributions (CERN-2012-002), and Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 3. Higgs properties (CERN-2013-004). The current report serves as the baseline reference for Higgs physics in LHC Run 2 and beyond.
We present a full one-loop renormalisation of the Higgs sector of the Next-to-Minimal- Supersymmetric-Standard-Model (NMSSM) and its implementation within SloopS, a code for the automated computations of one-loop processes in theories beyond the Stan- dard Model. The present work is the sequel to the study we performed on the renor- malisation of the sectors of the NMSSM comprising neutralinos, charginos and sfermions thereby completing the full one-loop renormalisation of the NMSSM. We have investi- gated several renormalisation schemes based on alternative choices (on-shell or DR) of the physical parameters. Special attention is paid to the issue of the mixing between physical fields. To weigh the impact of the different renormalisation schemes, the partial widths for the decays of the Higgs bosons into supersymmetric particles are computed at one-loop. In many decays large differences between the schemes are found. We discuss the origin of these differences. In particular we study two contrasting scenarios. The first model is MSSM-like with a small value for the mixing between the doublet and sin- glet Higgs superfields while the second model has a moderate value for this mixing. We critically discuss the issue of the reconstruction of the underlying parameters and their counterterms in the case of a theory with a large number of parameters, such as the NMSSM, from a set of physical parameters. In the present study this set corresponds to the minimum set of masses for the implementation of the on-shell schemes.
The comparison of the results of direct detection of Dark Matter, obtained with various target nuclei, requires model-dependent, or even arbitrary, assumptions. Indeed, to draw conclusions either the spin-dependent (SD) or the spin-independent (SI) interaction has to be neglected. In the light of the null results from supersymmetry searches at the LHC, the squark sector is pushed to high masses. We show that for a squark sector at the TeV scale, the framework used to extract contraints from direct detection searches can be redefined as the number of free parameters is reduced. Moreover, the correlation observed between SI and SD proton cross sections constitutes a key issue for the development of the next generation of Dark Matter detectors.
The new minimal supersymmetric standard model (nMSSM), a variant of the general next to minimal supersymmetric standard model (NMSSM) without $Z_3$ symmetry, features a naturally light singlino with a mass below 75 GeV. In light of the new constraints from LHC Run-1 on the Higgs couplings, sparticles searches and flavour observables, we define the parameter space of the model which is compatible with both collider and dark matter (DM) properties. Among the regions compatible with these constraints, implemented through NMSSMTools, SModelS and MadAnalysis 5, only one with a singlino lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) with a mass around 5 GeV can explain all the DM abundance of the universe, while heavier mixed singlinos can only form one of the DM components. Typical collider signatures for each region of the parameter space are investigated. In particular, the decay of the 125 GeV Higgs into light scalars and/or pseudoscalars and the decay of the heavy Higgs into charginos and neutralinos, provide distinctive signatures of the model. Moreover, the sfermion decays usually proceed through heavier neutralinos rather than directly into the LSP, as the couplings to the singlino are suppressed. We also show that direct detection searches are complementary to collider ones, and that a future ton-scale detector could completely probe the region of parameter space with a LSP mass around 65 GeV.
We present the activities of the "New Physics" working group for the "Physics at TeV Colliders" workshop (Les Houches, France, 3--21 June, 2013). Our report includes new computational tool developments, studies of the implications of the Higgs boson discovery on new physics, important signatures for searches for natural new physics at the LHC, new studies of flavour aspects of new physics, and assessments of the interplay between direct dark matter searches and the LHC.
We present the activities of the "New Physics" working group for the "Physics at TeV Colliders" workshop (Les Houches, France, 30 May-17 June, 2011). Our report includes new agreements on formats for interfaces between computational tools, new tool developments, important signatures for searches at the LHC, recommendations for presentation of LHC search results, as well as additional phenomenological studies.
We study the impact of semi-annihilations x_i x_j <-> x_k X, where x_i is any dark matter and X is any standard model particle, on dark matter phenomenology. We formulate minimal scalar dark matter models with an extra doublet and a complex singlet that predict non-trivial dark matter phenomenology with semi-annihilation processes for different discrete Abelian symmetries Z_N, N>2. We implement two such example models with Z_3 and Z_4 symmetry in micrOMEGAs and work out their phenomenology. We show that both semi-annihilations and annihilations involving only particles from two different dark matter sectors significantly modify the dark matter relic abundance in this type of models. We also study the possibility of dark matter direct detection in XENON100 in those models.
We investigate the capability of directional detectors to probe neutralino dark matter in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with parameters defined at the weak scale. We show that directional detectors such as the future MIMAC detector will probe spin dependent dark matter scattering on nucleons that are beyond the reach of current spin independent detectors. The complementarity between indirect searches, in particular using gamma rays from dwarf spheroidal galaxies, spin dependent and spin independent direct search techniques is emphasized. We comment on the impact of the negative results on squark searches at the LHC. Finally, we investigate how the fundamental parameters of the models can be constrained in the event of a dark matter signal.
The minimal model of Universal Extra Dimensions (MUED) is briefly reviewed. We explain how the cross-sections for Higgs production via gluon fusion and decay into two photons are modified, relative the the Standard Model (SM) values, by KK particles running in loops, leading to an enhancement of the gg to h to two photons and gg to h to W+W- cross-sections. ATLAS and CMS searches for the SM Higgs in these channels are reinterpreted in the context of MUED and used to place new limits on the MUED parameter space. Only a small region of between 1 and 3 GeV around mh = 125 GeV for 500 GeV < 1/R < 1600 GeV remains open at the 95 % confidence level.
An accord specifying a unique set of conventions for supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model together with generic file structures for 1) supersymmetric model specifications and input parameters, 2) electroweak scale supersymmetric mass and coupling spectra, and 3) decay tables is defined, to provide a universal interface between spectrum calculation programs, decay packages, and high energy physics event generators.
Cosmological and astrophysical measurements indicate that the universe contains a large amount of dark matter. A number of weak scale dark matter candidates have been proposed in extensions of the standard model. The potential to discover the dark matter particle and determine its properties at the upcoming LHC is summarized.
We investigate how well the relic density of dark matter can be predicted in mSUGRA. We determine the parameters to which the relic density is most sensitive and quantify the collider accuracy needed to match the accuracy of WMAP and PLANCK.