arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to James D. Wells.
The lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) is stable in an R-parity conserving theory. In this article the steps needed to calculate the present day mass density of such a particle are detailed. It is shown that there can be a cosmologically significant amount of LSP dark matter in the universe. Furthermore, relic abundance considerations put an upper bound on how large supersymmetry breaking masses can be without resorting to finetuning arguments.
In R parity conserving supersymmetric theories the lightest superpartner (LSP) is stable. The LSPs may comprise a large fraction of the energy density of the current universe, which would lead to dramatic astrophysical consequences. In this talk, I discuss some of the main lessons we have learned about supersymmetric models from relic abundance considerations of the LSP.
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) may emit highly collimated and intense jets of relativistic electrons which upscatter ambient photons. These electrons can also scatter off the cold dark matter halo of the galaxy to produce high energy photons which have a more isotropic signature than the upscattered photons from QED processes. We propose to look for these high energy photons coming from AGN as a method to detect dark matter. As a primary example we work out the expected signal from electrons scattering off the lightest supersymmetric partner into a photon plus selectron. Using the optimistic side of astrophysical uncertainties, we still find the signal from M87 or Centaurus A, two close-by AGN, smaller than the sensitivities expected of the currently proposed photon detectors. However, long running photon detectors and future detectors of higher sensitivity might be able to distinguish a signal from AGN sources. In order to have confidence that new physics sources are discernible, we also emphasize the importance of multi-wavelength studies of AGN with varying jet axis orientation to the earth.
The phenomenology associated with gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking is presented. A renormalization group analysis of the minimal model is performed in which the constraints of radiative electroweak symmetry breaking are imposed. The resulting superpartner and Higgs boson spectra are highly correlated and depend on only a few parameters. Superpartner mass ratios and sum rules are identified which can be tested at future colliders. Some of these relations are logarithmically sensitive to the messenger scale, while others allow gauge-mediation to be distinguished from other schemes for tansmitting supersymmetry breaking. Deviations from the minimal model, such as larger messenger representations and additional contributions to Higgs sector masses, can in some circumstances dramatically modify the low energy spectrum. These modifications include a slepton or Higgsino as the lightest standard model superpartner, or exotic mass relations among the scalars and gauginos. The contribution to $b \to s γ$ and resulting bound on superpartner masses are also presented for the minimal model. Finally, the unique collider signatures of heavy charged particle production, or decay to the Goldstino within a detector are discussed.
The top quark may get its mass not from a fundamental scalar but a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio mechanism involving a strongly coupled gauge sector that triggers top-quark condensation. Forbidding a large hierarchy in the gap equation implies that top-quark condensation is a spectator to electroweak symmetry breaking, which must be accomplished mainly by another sector. The properties of the electroweak symmetry breaking scalars are identified. Production mechanisms and decay modes are studied. Unlike the standard model, the scalar degree of freedom most relevant to electroweak symmetry breaking can only be produced by its gauge interactions. An e-e-μ+ + μ-μ-e+ signal is proposed to help unambiguously detect the presence of such a gauge-coupled Higgs if it is light. Other useful modes of detection are also presented, and a summary is made of the search capabilities at LEPII, Tevatron, and LHC.
We quantify the ability of B-Factories to observe supersymmetric contributions to the rare decays B -> X_s γand B -> X_s l+ l-. A global fit to the Wilson coefficients which contribute to these decays is performed from Monte Carlo generated data on B(B -> X_s γ) and the kinematic distributions associated with the final state lepton pair in B -> X_s l+ l-. This fit is then compared to supersymmetric predictions. Evaluation of the Wilson coefficients is carried out with several different patterns of the superpartner spectrum. We find that the B-Factories will be able to probe regions of the SUSY parameter space not accessible to LEPII, the Tevatron, and perhaps the LHC. We also employ the recent NLO calculation of the matrix elements for B -> X_s γand find the bound mH+ > 300 GeV in two-Higgs-doublet models using present data.
By using relations derived from renormalization group equations (RGEs), we find that strong indirect constraints can be placed on the top squark mixing phase in At from the electric dipole moment of the neutron (dn). Since mtop is large, any GUT-scale phase in At feeds into other weak scale phases through RGEs, which in turn contribute to dn. Thus CP-violating effects due to a weak-scale At are strongly constrained. We find that |Im At(mz)| must be smaller than or of order |Im B(mz)|, making the electric dipole moment of the top quark unobservably small in most models. Quantitative estimates of the contributions to dn from Au, Ad and B show that substantial fine-tuning is still required to satisfy the experimental bound on dn. While the low energy phases of the A's are not as strongly constrained as the phase of B(mz), we note that the phase of a universal A(GUT) induces large contributions in the phase of B(mz) through RGEs, and is thus still strongly constrained in most models with squark masses below a TeV.
The experimental signatures for low energy supersymmetry breaking are presented. The lightest standard model superpartner is unstable and decays to its partner plus a Goldstino, $G$. For a supersymmetry breaking scale below a few 1000 TeV this decay can take place within a detector, leading to very distinctive signatures. If a neutralino is the lightest standard model superpartner it decays by $χ_1^0 \to γ+ G$, and if kinematically accessible by $χ_1^0 \to (Z^0, h^0, H^0, A^0) + G$. These decays can give rise to displaced vertices. Alternately, if a slepton is the lightest standard model superpartner it decays by $\tilde{l} \to l + G$. This can be seen as a greater than minimum ionizing charged particle track, possibly with a kink to a minimum ionizing track.
The signatures for low energy supersymmetry breaking at the Tevatron are investigated. It is natural that the lightest standard model superpartner is an electroweak neutralino, which decays to an essentially massless Goldstino and photon, possibly within the detector. In the simplest models of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking, the production of right-handed sleptons, neutralinos, and charginos leads to a pair of hard photons accompanied by leptons and/or jets with missing transverse energy. The relatively hard leptons and softer photons of the single $e^+e^- γγ+ \EmissT$ event observed by CDF implies this event is best interpreted as arising from left-handed slepton pair production. In this case the rates for $l^{\pm} γγ+ \EmissT$ and $ γγ+ \EmissT$ are comparable to that for $l^+l^- γγ+ \EmissT$.
Motivated by the supersymmetric interpretation of the CDF eeγγplus missing energy event and the reported Z->bb excess at LEP, we analyze the Higgsino as a cold dark matter candidate. We examine the constraints as implied by the collider experiments, and then calculate its relic density. We find that this Higgsino-like lightest supersymmetric particle is a viable cold dark matter candidate (0.05 < Omega h^2 < 1), and we discuss its favorable prospects for laboratory detection.
At present, two outstanding discrepancies between experiment and the standard model are the measurements of the hadronic branching fractions $R_b$ and $R_c$. We note that an independent measurement of these branching fractions may be obtained from the width of hadronic $Z$ decays with a prompt photon, $Γ_{qqγ}$, along with the total hadronic decay rate, $Γ_{had}$, and an additional theoretical assumption. Such an analysis requires no flavor tagging. We consider several plausible theoretical assumptions and find that the current value of $Γ_{qqγ}$ favors larger $R_b$ and smaller $R_c$ relative to standard model predictions, in accord with the direct measurements. If $Γ_{qqγ}$ and $Γ_{had}$ are combined with the direct measurements, generation-blind corrections to all up-type and all down-type quark widths are most favored. An updated measurement of $Γ_{qqγ}$ with the currently available LEP data is likely to provide an even stronger constraint on both the branching fraction discrepancies and their possible non-standard model sources.
We discuss the production and two-photon decay of the lightest Higgs boson (h) of the minimal supersymmetric standard model at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Since the observability of the signal is quite model dependent, we conduct a thorough scan of the parameter space of minimal supersymmetry, including experimental and theoretical constraints. If kinematically allowed, supersymmetric decay modes of h may be important, and can even dominate all others. The coupling of h to $b\overline b$ can be different from that of a standard model Higgs boson; this can diminish (or enhance, but only if tan$β$ is very large) the h -> $γγ$ signal. We emphasize the importance of a full treatment of radiative corrections in the Higgs sector for obtaining the h $b\overline b$ coupling. If supersymmetric particles are not too heavy, their contributions in loops can either enhance or suppress both the production cross-section and the h -> $γγ$ branching fraction. We discuss the relative importance of these factors in the context of various scenarios for the discovery of supersymmetry. Even if h is not detected at the LHC, h may still exist in its expected mass region.
We study the most promising signals of Constrained Minimal Supersymmetry detectable at a luminosity upgraded 2 TeV Fermilab Tevatron collider. Using a full event-level Monte Carlo based on Pythia/Jetset, we simulate the trilepton signal examining in detail the effect of constraints on the parameter space. We also simulate the monolepton and dilepton signals, the missing E_T + jets signal, and the signals of stop production in supersymmetry all with full Standard Model backgrounds with realistic detector cuts. We find that large fractions of parameter space can be probed (or eliminated if no signal is found), but mass limits on charginos and neutralinos are not possible based solely on the trilepton signal. Detection efficiencies depend strongly on supersymmetry parameters beyond simply the neutralino and chargino masses; analyses (experimental or theoretical) that do not include this will draw misleading conclusions. Finally, we comment on how searches at LEP II will complement searches at Fermilab.
We find that re-analyzing the LEP/SLC data with light superpartners and low $α_s(\mz^2)\simeq 0.112$ yields a better fit to the data than the Standard Model, giving a satisfactory description of the $R_b$ measurement, and a better fit to $A_{LR}$. A large body of low energy ($q^2 \ll \mz^2$) data and analyses provide compelling evidence for $α_s(\mz^2)\simeq 0.112$. Global fits to LEP/SLC data in the Standard Model, however, converge on a value of $α_s(\mz^2)\simeq 0.126$. Recently it has become increasingly clear that these should be viewed as incompatible rather than values that can be averaged. We investigate the possibility that new physics is causing the LEP high value. To this end we have conducted a global analysis of LEP/SLC data in the Standard Model and also in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Several predictions could confirm (or rule out) the results of this paper: light chargino and stop, top decays into stop and neutralino, large $R_b$, large $A_{LR}$, and a higher $M_W$. We briefly discuss the implications of low $α_s$ for more fundamental high-scale supersymmetric theories.
Assuming that the actual values of the top quark mass at FNAL and of the ratio of partial widths Z->bb/Z->hadrons at LEP are within their current one-sigma reported ranges, we present a No-Lose Theorem for superpartner searches at LEP II and an upgraded Tevatron. We impose only two theoretical assumptions: the Lagrangian is that of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with arbitrary soft-breaking terms, and all couplings remain perturbative up to scales of order 10^16 GeV; there are no assumptions about the soft SUSY breaking parameters, proton decay, cosmology, etc. In particular, if the LEP and FNAL values hold up and supersymmetry is responsible for the discrepancy with the SM prediction of the partial width of Z->bb, then we must have charginos and/or top squarks observable at the upgraded machines. Furthermore, little deviation from the SM is predicted within "super-unified" SUSY. Finally, it appears to be extremely difficult to find any unified MSSM model, regardless of the form of soft SUSY breaking, that can explain the partial width for large tan(beta); in particular, no model with top-bottom-tau Yukawa coupling unification appears to be consistent with the experiments.
In constrained minimal supersymmetry the lightest neutralino of bino-type is the only neutral candidate for dark matter. As a result, one is typically able to restrict all the supersymmetric mass spectra below roughly 1-2\tev\ {\em without} imposing an ill-defined fine-tuning constraint.
In the constrained MSSM one is typically able to restrict the supersymmetric mass spectra below roughly 1-2\tev\ {\em without} resorting to the ambiguous fine-tuning constraint.
We examine the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (CMSSM) with an additional requirement of strict b - tau unification in the region of small tan(beta). We find that the parameter space becomes completely limited below about 1 TeV by physical constraints alone, without a fine-tuning constraint. We study the resulting phenomenological consequences, and point out several ways of falsifying the adopted b - tau unification assumption. We also comment on the effect of a constraint from the non-observation of proton decay.