arXiv subjects

Ian Low

Publications and source records attributed to Ian Low.

106 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2005

Towards a High Energy Theory for the Higgs Phase of Gravity

Spontaneous Lorentz violation due to a time-dependent expectation value for a massless scalar has been suggested as a method for dynamically generating dark energy. A natural candidate for the scalar is a Goldstone boson arising from the spontaneous breaking of a U(1) symmetry. We investigate the low-energy effective action for such a Goldstone boson in a general class of models involving only scalars, proving that if the scalars have standard kinetic terms then at the {\em classical} level the effective action does not have the required features for spontaneous Lorentz violation to occur asymptotically $(t \to \infty)$ in an expanding FRW universe. Then we study the large $N$ limit of a renormalizable field theory with a complex scalar coupled to massive fermions. In this model an effective action for the Goldstone boson with the properties required for spontaneous Lorentz violation can be generated. Although the model has shortcomings, we feel it represents progress towards finding a high energy completion for the Higgs phase of gravity.

hep-th↗

arXiv2005

Grand Unification, Dark Matter, Baryon Asymmetry, and the Small Scale Structure of the Universe

We consider a minimal grand unified model where the dark matter arises from non-thermal decays of a messenger particle in the TeV range. The messenger particle compensates for the baryon asymmetry in the standard model and gives similar number densities to both the baryon and the dark matter. The non-thermal dark matter, if massive in the GeV range, could have a free-streaming scale in the order of 0.1 Mpc and potentially resolve the discrepancies between observations and the LCDM model on the small scale structure of the Universe. Moreover, a GeV scale dark matter naturally leads to the observed puzzling proximity of baryonic and dark matter densities. Unification of gauge couplings is achieved by choosing a "Higgsino" messenger.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2005

Dark Matter from Baryon Asymmetry

The measured densities of dark and baryonic matter are surprisingly close to each other, even though the baryon asymmetry and the dark matter are usually explained by unrelated mechanisms. We consider a scenario where the dark matter S is produced non-thermally from the decay of a messenger particle X, which carries the baryon number and compensates for the baryon asymmetry in the Universe, thereby establishing a connection between the baryonic and dark matter densities. We propose a simple model to realize this scenario, adding only a light singlet fermion S and a colored particle X which has a mass in the O(TeV) range and a lifetime to appear long-lived in collider detector. Therefore in hadron colliders the signal is similar to that of a stable or long-lived gluino in supersymmetric models.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2004

Little Hierarchy, Little Higgses, and a Little Symmetry

Little Higgs theories are an attempt to address the little hierarchy problem, i.e., the tension between the naturalness of the electroweak scale and the precision measurements showing no evidence for new physics up to 5-10 TeV. In little Higgs theories, the Higgs mass-squareds are protected to the one-loop order from the quadratic divergence. This allows the cutoff to be raised up to \~10 TeV, beyond the scales probed by the precision data. However, strong constraints can still arise from the contributions of the new TeV scale particles and hence re-introduces the fine-tuning problem. In this paper we show that a new symmetry, denoted as T-parity, under which all heavy gauge bosons and scalar triplets are odd, can remove all the tree-level contributions to the electroweak observables and therefore makes the little Higgs theories completely natural. The T-parity can be manifestly implemented in a majority of little Higgs models by following the most general construction of the low energy effective theory a la Callan, Coleman, Wess and Zumino. In particular, we discuss in detail how to implement the T-parity in the littlest Higgs model based on SU(5)/SO(5). The symmetry breaking scale f can be even lower than 500 GeV if the contributions from the unknown UV physics at the cutoff are somewhat small. The existence of $T$-parity has drastic impacts on the phenomenology of the little Higgs theories. The T-odd particles need to be pair-produced and will cascade down to the lightest T-odd particle (LTP) which is stable. A neutral LTP gives rise to missing energy signals at the colliders which can mimic supersymmetry. It can also serve as a good dark matter candidate.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2004

T Parity and the Littlest Higgs

We construct T-parity invariant extensions of the littlest Higgs model, in which only linear representations of the full symmetry group are employed, without recourse to the non-linear representations introduced by Coleman, Callan, Wess, and Zumino (CCWZ). These models are based on the symmetry breaking pattern SU(5)_l x H_r / SO(5), where H_r can be SO(5) or other larger symmetry groups. The structure of the models in the SU(5)_l sector is identical to the littlest Higgs model based on SU(5)/SO(5). Since the full symmetry group is realized linearly, these models can be thought of as possible UV extensions of the T-invariant model using non-linear representations via CCWZ, with whom they share similar low energy phenomenology. We also comment on how to avoid constraints from four-fermion operators on T-invariant models with or without CCWZ construction. The electroweak data therefore place a very weak bound on the symmetry breaking scale, f > 450 GeV.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2003

TeV Symmetry and the Little Hierarchy Problem

Constraints from precision electroweak measurements reveal no evidence for new physics up to 5 - 7 TeV, whereas naturalness requires new particles at around 1 TeV to address the stability of the electroweak scale. We show that this "little hierarchy problem" can be cured by introducing a symmetry for new particles at the TeV scale. As an example, we construct a little Higgs model with this new symmetry, dubbed T-parity, which naturally solves the little hierarchy problem and, at the same time, stabilize the electroweak scale up to 10 TeV. The model has many important phenomenological consequences, including consistency with the precision data without any fine-tuning, a stable weakly-interacting particle as the dark matter candidate, as well as collider signals completely different from existing little Higgs models, but rather similar to the supersymmetric theories with conserved R-parity.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2002

Little Higgses from an Antisymmetric Condensate

We construct an SU(6)/Sp(6) non-linear sigma model in which the Higgses arise as pseudo-Goldstone bosons. There are two Higgs doublets whose masses have no one-loop quadratic sensitivity to the cutoff of the effective theory, which can be at around 10 TeV. The Higgs potential is generated by gauge and Yukawa interactions, and is distinctly different from that of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. At the TeV scale, the new bosonic degrees of freedom are a single neutral complex scalar and a second copy of SU(2)xU(1) gauge bosons. Additional vector-like pairs of colored fermions are also present.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2002

Spontaneously Broken Spacetime Symmetries and Goldstone's Theorem

Goldstone's theorem states that there is a massless mode for each broken symmetry generator. It has been known for a long time that the naive generalization of this counting fails to give the correct number of massless modes for spontaneously broken spacetime symmetries. We explain how to get the right count of massless modes in the general case, and discuss examples involving spontaneously broken Poincare and conformal invariance.

hep-th↗

arXiv2001

Resumming the color-octet contribution to radiative Upsilon decay

At the upper endpoint of the photon energy spectrum in Upsilon -> X gamma, the standard NRQCD power counting breaks down and the OPE gives rise to color-octet structure functions. Furthermore, in this kinematic regime large Sudakov logarithms appear in the octet Wilson coefficients. The endpoint spectrum can be treated consistently within the framework of a recently developed effective field theory of collinear and soft particles. Here we show that within this approach the octet structure functions arise naturally and that Sudakov logarithms can be summed using the renormalization group equations. We derive an expression for the resummed energy spectrum and, using a model lightcone structure function, investigate the phenomenological importance of the resummation.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2001

A Comment on the Extractions of V_{ub} from Radiative Decays

We present a model independent closed form expression for |V_{ub}|^2/|V_{tb} V_{ts}^*|^2, which includes the resummation of large endpoint logarithms as well as the interference effects from the operators $O_2$ and $O_8$. We demonstrate that the method to extract |V_{ub}| presented by the authors in hep-ph/9909404, and modified in this letter to include interference effects, is not just a refinement of the method introduced in hep-ph/9312311. We also discuss the model dependence of the latter proposal. Furthermore, we show that the resummation is not negligible and that the Landau pole does not introduce any significant uncertainties.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2000

Model Independent Extractions of |V_{ub}| from Inclusive B Decays

We discuss the possibility of extracting |V_{ub}| from various spectra of inclusive B decays, without large systematic errors which usually arise from having to model the Fermi motion of the heavy quark. This strategy can be applied to the electron energy spectrum, as well as the hadronic mass spectrum. Modulo violation of local hadron-parton duality, the theoretical error in the extraction is estimated to be less than 10%.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2000

Self-tuning in an Outgoing Brane Wave Model

We introduce a new brane-world model in which the bulk solution consists of outgoing plane waves. This is an exact solution to string theory with no naked singularities. The recently discussed self-tuning mechanism to cancel the cosmological constant on a brane is naturally incorporated. We show that even if the vacuum energy on the brane changes, e.g. due to a phase transition, the brane geometry remains insensitive to the local vacuum energy. We also consider the static self-tuning branes introduced earlier, and find a solution in which the brane geometry starts to contract when the vacuum energy on the brane changes.

hep-th↗

arXiv2000

Extracting |V_{ub}| from the Hadronic Mass Spectrum of Inclusive B decays

Following a strategy introduced earlier by the authors, we show that it is possible to extract |V_{ub}| from the cut hadronic mass spectrum of B decays without large systematic errors which usually arise from having to model the Fermi motion of the heavy quark. We present a closed form expression for |V_{ub}|/|V_{ts}| which is accurate up to corrections of order α_s^2, α_s ρ, (Λ/m_b)^2/ρ, where ρis the experimental cut (s_c/m_b^2) on the hadronic mass used to veto charmed decays. Modulo duality violation errors, which are intrinsic to all inclusive predictions, we estimate the theoretical error in the extraction to be at the 5% level.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2000

On the Resummed Hadronic Spectra of Inclusive B Decays

In this paper we investigate the hadronic mass spectra of inclusive B decays. Specifically, we study how an upper cut on the invariant mass spectrum, which is necessary to extract V_{ub}, results in the breakdown of the standard perturbative expansion due to the existence of large infrared logs. We first show how the decay rate factorizes at the level of the double differential distribution. Then, we present closed form expressions for the resummed cut rate for the inclusive decays B -> X_s gamma and B -> X_u e nu at next-to-leading order in the infrared logs. Using these results, we determine the range of cuts for which resummation is necessary, as well as the range for which the resummed expansion itself breaks down. We also use our results to extract the leading and next to leading infrared log contribution to the two loop differential rate. We find that for the phenomenologically interesting cut values, there is only a small region where the calculation is under control. Furthermore, the size of this region is sensitive to the parameter \barΛ. We discuss the viability of extracting V_{ub} from the hadronic mass spectrum.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2000

Naked Singularity and Gauss-Bonnet Term in Brane World Scenarios

We add a Gauss-Bonnet term to the Einstein-Hilbert action and study the recent proposal to solve the cosmological constant problem. We also consider the possibility of adding a dilaton potential to the action. In the absence of supersymmetry, we obtain first order Bogomol'nyi equation as a solution-generating method in our scenario. When the coefficient of the Gauss-Bonnet term is positive, the dilaton potential is bounded below. Assuming a simple double-well potential, the dilaton field is found to be a kink in the fifth dimension.

hep-th↗

arXiv1999

Extracting V_{ub} Without Recourse to Structure Functions

We present a closed form expression for |V_{ub}|^2/ |V_{tb} V_{ts}^*|^2 in terms of the endpoint photon and lepton spectra from the inclusive decays B -> X_sγand B -> X_u\ellν, respectively, which includes the resummation of the endpoint logs at next to leading order and is completely independent of the B meson structure function. The use of this expression for extracting V_{ub} would eliminate the large systematic errors usually incurred due to the modeling of the heavy quarks' Fermi motion.

hep-ph↗