arXiv subjects

Giacomo Cacciapaglia

Publications and source records attributed to Giacomo Cacciapaglia.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Vector and Axial-vector resonances in composite models of the Higgs boson

We provide a non-linear realisation of composite Higgs models in the context of the SU(4)/Sp(4) symmetry breaking pattern, where the effective Lagrangian of the spin-0 and spin-1 resonances is constructed via the CCWZ prescription using the Hidden Symmetry formalism. We investigate the EWPT constraints by accounting the effects from reduced Higgs couplings and integrating out heavy spin-1 resonances. This theory emerges from an underlying theory of gauge interactions with fermions, thus first principle lattice results predict the massive spectrum in composite Higgs models. This model can be used as a template for the phenomenology of composite Higgs models at the LHC and at future 100 TeV colliders, as well as for other application. In this work, we focus on the formalism for spin-1 resonances and their bounds from di-lepton and di-boson searches at the LHC.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Towards Kaluza-Klein Dark Matter on Nilmanifolds

We present a first study of the field spectrum on a class of negatively-curved compact spaces: nilmanifolds or twisted tori. This is a case where analytical results can be obtained, allowing to check numerical methods. We focus on the Kaluza-Klein expansion of a scalar field. The results are then applied to a toy model where a natural Dark Matter candidate arises as a stable massive state of the bulk scalar.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Light 't Hooft Top Partners

Vector-like quarks, usually dubbed top partners, are a common presence in composite Higgs models. Being composite objects, their mass is expected to be of the order of their inverse size, that is the condensation scale of the new strong interactions. Light top partners, while not being a generic prediction, are however often considered in phenomenological models. We suggest that their lightness may be due to the matching of global 't Hooft anomalies of the underlying theory. We check this mechanism in explicit models showing that, in one case, composite fermions with the quantum numbers of the top quark obtain a mass which is controlled by a soft breaking term and can be made parametrically small.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Singlets in Composite Higgs Models in light of the LHC di-photon searches

Models of compositeness can successfully address the origin of the Higgs boson, as a pseudo Nambu Goldstone boson (pNGB) of a spontaneously broken global symmetry, and flavour physics via the partial compositeness mechanism. If the dynamics is generated by a confining gauge group with fermionic matter content, there exists only a finite set of models that have the correct properties to account for the Higgs and top partners at the same time. In this letter we explore the theory space of this class of models: remarkably, all of them contain - beyond the pNGB Higgs - a pNGB singlet, $a$, which couples to Standard Model gauge bosons via Wess-Zumino-Witten interactions, thus providing naturally a resonance in di-boson at the LHC. With the assumption that the recently reported di-photon excess at 750 GeV at the LHC arises from the a-resonance, we propose a generic approach on how to delineate the best candidate for composite Higgs models with top-partners. We find that constraints from other di-boson searches severely reduce the theory space of the models under consideration. For the models which can explain the di-photon excess, we make precise and testable predictions for the width and other di-boson resonance searches.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

An Ultraviolet Chiral Theory of the Top for the Fundamental Composite (Goldstone) Higgs

We introduce a scalar-less anomaly free chiral gauge theory that serves as natural ultraviolet completion of models of fundamental composite (Goldstone) Higgs dynamics. The new theory is able to generate the top mass and furthermore features a built-in protection mechanism that naturally suppresses the bottom mass. At low energies the theory predicts new fractionally charged fermions, and a number of four-fermion operators that, besides being relevant for the generation of the top mass, also lead to an intriguing phenomenology for the new states predicted by the theory.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Dark matter and localised fermions from spherical orbifolds?

We study a class of six-dimensional models based on positive curvature surfaces (spherical 2-orbifolds) as extra-spaces. Using the Newman-Penrose formalism, we discuss the particle spectrum in this class of models. The fermion spectrum problem, which has been addressed with flux compactifications in the past, can be avoided using localised fermions. In this framework, we find that there are four types of geometry compatible with the existence of a stable dark matter candidate and we study the simplest case in detail. Using the complementarity between collider resonance searches and relic density constraints, we show that this class of models is under tension, unless the model lies in a funnel region characterised by a resonant Higgs s-channel in the dark matter annihilation.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Composite scalars at the LHC: the Higgs, the Sextet and the Octet

We present a phenomenological theory of scalar particles that transform as a sextet and an octet of QCD interactions. These particles may arise as light bound states of a fundamental dynamics giving rise to a composite Higgs boson and partial compositeness for the top. As a concrete example, we discuss an explicit UV completion based on the SU(4)/Sp(4) coset, where QCD colour is carried by additional fundamental fermions charged under the confining gauge group. Top partners, as well as potentially even lighter coloured scalars, arise as bound states of the coloured fermions. We study production and detection at LHC Run I and II of the octet and sextet, setting lower limits on masses and couplings to Standard Model particles using existing 8 TeV analyses. We finally explore prospects for the ongoing 13 TeV Run II: we focus on final states with two same sign leptons, that have the potential to discriminate the sextet.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

The Diboson Excess: Experimental Situation and Classification of Explanations; A Les Houches Pre-Proceeding

We examine the `diboson' excess at $\sim 2$ TeV seen by the LHC experiments in various channels. We provide a comparison of the excess significances as a function of the mass of the tentative resonance and give the signal cross sections needed to explain the excesses. We also present a survey of available theoretical explanations of the resonance, classified in three main approaches. Beyond that, we discuss methods to verify the anomaly, determining the major properties of the various surpluses and exploring how different models can be discriminated. Finally, we give a tabular summary of the numerous explanations, presenting their main phenomenological features.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

A scalar hint from the diboson excess?

In view of the recent diboson resonant excesses reported by both ATLAS and CMS Collaborations, we suggest that a new weak singlet pseudo-scalar particle, $η_W$, may decay into two weak bosons while being produced in gluon fusion at the LHC. The couplings to the gauge bosons can arise from a Wess-Zumino-Witten anomaly term and thus we study an effective model based on the anomaly term as a well motivated phenomenological model. In models where the pseudo-scalar arises as a composite state, the coefficients of the anomalous couplings can be related to the fermion components of the underlying dynamics. We provide an example to test the feasibility of the idea.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Fundamental Composite 2HDM: SU(N) with 4 flavours

We present a new model of composite Higgs based on a gauged SU(N) group with 4 Dirac fermions in the fundamental representation. At low energy, the model has a global symmetry SU(4)$\times$SU(4) broken to the diagonal SU(4), containing 2 Higgs doublets in the coset. We study in detail the generation of the top mass via 4-fermion interactions, and the issue of the vacuum alignment. In particular, we prove that, without loss of generality, the vacuum can always be aligned with one doublet. Under certain conditions on the top pre-Yukawas, the second doublet, together with the additional triplets, is stable and can thus play the role of Dark Matter. This model can therefore be an example of composite inert-2HDM model.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Dark Matter Benchmark Models for Early LHC Run-2 Searches: Report of the ATLAS/CMS Dark Matter Forum

This document is the final report of the ATLAS-CMS Dark Matter Forum, a forum organized by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations with the participation of experts on theories of Dark Matter, to select a minimal basis set of dark matter simplified models that should support the design of the early LHC Run-2 searches. A prioritized, compact set of benchmark models is proposed, accompanied by studies of the parameter space of these models and a repository of generator implementations. This report also addresses how to apply the Effective Field Theory formalism for collider searches and present the results of such interpretations.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2015

Unitarity implications of diboson resonance in the TeV region for Higgs physics

We investigate the implications of a putative new resonance in the TeV region coupled to the weak bosons. By studying perturbative unitarity in longitudinal WW scattering, we find that a weakly coupled spin-1 resonance, that explains the ATLAS diboson excesses, is allowed with a SM-like Higgs. On the other hand, larger values of the resonance couplings, preferred in models of strong dynamics, would imply either sizeable reduction of the Higgs couplings or new physics, beyond the diboson resonance, at a few TeV.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Anarchic Yukawas and top partial compositeness: the flavour of a successful marriage

The top quark can be naturally singled out from other fermions in the Standard Model due to its large mass, of the order of the electroweak scale. We follow this reasoning in models of pseudo Nambu Goldstone Boson composite Higgs, which may derive from an underlying confining dynamics. We consider a new class of flavour models, where the top quark obtains its mass via partial compositeness, while the lighter fermions acquire their masses by a deformation of the dynamics generated at a high flavour scale. One interesting feature of such scenario is that it can avoid all the flavour constraints without the need of flavour symmetries, since the flavour scale can be pushed high enough. We show that both flavour conserving and violating constraints can be satisfied with top partial compositeness without invoking any flavour symmetry for the up-type sector, in the case of the minimal SO(5)/SO(4) coset with top partners in the four-plet and singlet of SO(4). In the down-type sector, some degree of alignment is required if all down-type quarks are elementary. We show that taking the bottom quark partially composite provides a dynamical explanation for the hierarchy causing this alignment. We present explicit realisations of this mechanism which do not require to include additional bottom partner fields. Finally, these conclusions are generalised to scenarios with non-minimal cosets and top partners in larger representations.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Fundamental Composite Electroweak Dynamics: Status at the LHC

We determine the current status of the fundamental composite electroweak dynamics paradigm after the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider experiments. Our analysis serves as universal and minimal template for a wide class of models with the two limits in parameter space being composite Goldstone Higgs models and Technicolor. This is possible because of the existence of a unified description, both at the effective and fundamental Lagrangian levels, of models of composite Higgs dynamics where the Higgs boson itself can emerge, depending on the way the electroweak symmetry is embedded, either as a pseudo-Goldstone boson or as a massive excitation of the condensate. We constrain the available parameter space at the effective Lagrangian level. We show that a wide class of models of fundamental composite electroweak dynamics, including Technicolor, are compatible with experiments. The results are relevant for future searches of a fundamental composite nature of the Higgs mechanism at the Large Hadron Collider.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Interplay of vector-like top partner multiplets in a realistic mixing set-up

The ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the LHC have performed analyses on the existing data sets, studying the case of one vector-like fermion or multiplet coupling to the standard model Yukawa sector. In the near future, with more data available, these experimental collaborations will start to investigate more realistic cases. The presence of more than one extra vector-like multiplet is indeed a common situation in many extensions of the standard model. The interplay of these vector-like multiplet between precision electroweak bounds, flavour and collider phenomenology is a important question in view of establishing bounds or for the discovery of physics beyond the standard model. In this work we study the phenomenological consequences of the presence of two vector-like multiplets. We analyse the constraints on such scenarios from tree-level data and oblique corrections for the case of mixing to each of the SM generations. In the present work, we limit to scenarios with two top-like partners and no mixing in the down-sector.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2014

Revisiting monotop production at the LHC

Scenarios of new physics where a single top quark can be produced in association with large missing energy (monotop) have been recently studied both from the theoretical point of view and by experimental collaborations. We revisit the originally proposed monotop setup by embedding the effective couplings of the top quark in an SU(2)L invariant formalism. We show that minimality selects one model for each of the possible production mechanisms: a scalar field coupling to a right-handed top quark and an invisible fermion when the monotop system is resonantly produced, and a vector field mediating the interactions of a dark sector to right-handed quarks for the non-resonant production mode. We study in detail constraints on the second class of scenarios, originating from contributions to standard single top processes when the mediator is lighter than the top quark and from the dark matter relic abundance when the mediator is heavier than the top quark.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2014

Fully hadronic decays of a singly produced vector-like top partner at the LHC

Single production of vector-like top partners is becoming a major focus of new searches, as the increasing mass limits on vector-like quarks obtained by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations are such that single production is becoming competitive with respect to pair production. Typically searches focus on decays containing leptons in the final state in order to have less background from the Standard Model processes. However the current centre of mass energies available in the latest LHC runs limit the searches to low masses. Fully hadronic final states may be an alternative option for discovery, as they allow a larger number of signal events if backgrounds can be kept under control. We study the fully hadronic decay of a singly produced vector-like top partner and we show a strategy to extract the signal over the background, considering as a benchmark the 20 fb^-1 of data collected at 8 TeV with the latest run of the LHC.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2014

Higgs couplings: disentangling New Physics with off-shell measurements

After the discovery of a scalar resonance, resembling the Higgs boson, its couplings have been extensively studied via the measurement of various production and decay channels on the invariant mass peak. Recently, it has been suggested the possibility to use off-shell measurements: in particular, CMS has published results based on the high- invariant mass cross section of the process $gg \to ZZ$, which contains the contribution of the Higgs. While this measurement has been interpreted as a constraint on the Higgs width after very specific assumptions are taken on the Higgs couplings, in this letter we show that a much more model-independent interpretation is possible.

hep-ph↗