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John F. Gunion

Publications and source records attributed to John F. Gunion.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2007

The NMSSM Solution to the Fine-Tuning Problem, Precision Electroweak Constraints and the Largest LEP Higgs Event Excess

We present an extended study of how the Next to Minimal Supersymmetric Model easily avoids fine-tuning in electroweak symmetry breaking for a SM-like light Higgs with mass in the vicinity of $100\gev$, as beautifully consistent with precision electroweak data, while escaping LEP constraints due to the dominance of $h\to aa$ decays with $m_a<2m_b$ so that $a\to \tauptaum$ or jets. The residual $\sim 10%$ branching ratio for $h\to b\anti b$ explains perfectly the well-known LEP excess at $\mh\sim 100\gev$. Details of model parameter correlations and requirements are discussed as a function $\tan(β)$. Comparisons of fine-tuning in the NMSSM to that in the MSSM are presented. We also discuss fine-tuning associated with scenarios in which the $a$ is essentially pure singlet, has mass $m_a>30\gev$, and decays primarily to $\gam\gam$ leading to an $h\to aa\to 4\gam$ Higgs signal.

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arXiv2007

A Comparison of Mixed-Higgs Scenarios In the NMSSM and the MSSM

We study scenarios in the minimal and next-to minimal supersymmetric models in which the lightest CP-even Higgs boson can have mass below the 114 GeV standard model LEP limit by virtue of reduced ZZ coupling due to substantial mixing among the Higgs bosons. We pay particular attention to the size of corrections from superpartners needed for these scenarios to be viable and point to boundary conditions at large scales which lead to these scenarios while at the same time keeping electroweak fine tuning modest in size. We find that naturalness of electroweak symmetry breaking in the mixed-Higgs scenarios of both models points to the same region of soft supersymmetry breaking terms, namely those leading to large mixing in the stop sector at the electroweak scale, especially if we also require that the lightest CP-even Higgs explains the Higgs-like LEP events at about 98 GeV.

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arXiv2007

KK Gravitons and Unitarity Violation in the Randall-Sundrum Model

We show that perturbative unitarity for $W_LW_L$ scattering places significant constraints on the Randall-Sundrum theory with two 3-branes, with matter confined to the TeV brane. The exchange of massive 4D Kaluza-Klein gravitons leads to amplitudes growing linearly with the CM energy squared. Summing over KK gravitons up to a scale $\lbar$ and testing unitarity at $\sqrt s=\lbar$, one finds that unitarity is violated for $\lbar$ below the 'naive dimensional analysis' scale, $Λ_{NDA}$. We evaluate $\lbar$ as a function of the curvature ratio $m_0/M_{Planck}$ for the pure gravity theory. We then demonstrate that unitarity need not be violated at $\lbar$ in the presence of a heavy Higgs boson. In fact, much larger Higgs masses are consistent with unitarity than if no KK gravitons are present. Observation of the mass and width (or cross section) of one or more KK gravitons at the LHC will directly determine $m_0/M_{Planck}$ and the scale $\hat Λ$ specifying the couplings of matter to the KK gravitons. With this information in hand and a measurement of the Higgs boson mass, one can determine the precise scale $\lbar$ below which unitarity will remain valid.

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arXiv2007

The NMSSM Close to the R-symmetry Limit and Naturalness in $h \to aa$ Decays for $m_a<2\mb$

Dominant decay of a SM-like Higgs boson into particles beyond those contained in the minimal supersymmetric standard model has been identified as a natural scenario to avoid fine tuning in electroweak symmetry breaking while satisfying all LEP limits. In the simplest such extension, the next-to-minimal supersymmetric model, the lightest CP-even Higgs boson can decay into two pseudoscalars. In the scenario with least fine tuning the lightest CP-even Higgs boson has mass of order 100 GeV. In order to escape LEP limits it must decay to a pair of the lightest CP-odd Higgs bosons with Br(h -> aa)>.7 and m_a<2m_b (so that a -> τ^+ τ^- or light quarks and gluons). The mass of the lightest CP-odd Higgs boson is controlled by the soft-trilinear couplings, A_λ(m_Z) and A_κ(m_Z). We identify the region of parameter space where this situation occurs and discuss how natural this scenario is. It turns out that in order to achieve m_a < 2 m_b with A_λ(m_Z), A_κ(m_Z) of order the typical radiative corrections, the required tuning of trilinear couplings need not be larger than 5-10 %. Further, the necessity for this tuning can be eliminated in specific SUSY breaking scenarios. Quite interestingly, Br(h -> aa) is typically above 70 % in this region of parameter space and thus an appropriately large value requires no additional tuning.

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arXiv2006

Probing NMSSM Scenarios with Minimal Fine-Tuning by Searching for Decays of the Upsilon to a Light CP-Odd Higgs Boson

Completely natural electroweak symmetry breaking is easily achieved in supersymmetric models if there is a SM-like Higgs boson, $h$, with $m_h\lsim 100\gev$. In the minimal supersymmetric model, such an $h$ decays mainly to $b\anti b$ and is ruled out by LEP constraints. However, if the MSSM Higgs sector is expanded so that $h$ decays mainly to still lighter Higgs bosons, e.g. $h\to aa$, with $BR(h\to aa)>0.7$, and if $m_a<2m_b$, then the LEP constraints are satisfied. In this letter, we show that in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric model the above $h$ and $a$ properties (for the lightest CP-even and CP-odd Higgs bosons, respectively) imply a lower bound on $BR(Υ\to \gam a)$ that dedicated runs at present (and future) $B$ factories can explore.

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arXiv2006

Naturalness of EWSB in NMSSM and Higgs at 100 GeV

Naturalness of electroweak symmetry breaking in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric model points to scenarios in which the lightest CP-even Higgs boson has SM-like ZZh coupling and mass m_h ~ 100 GeV and decays partly via h -> b \bar b but dominantly into two CP-odd Higgs bosons, h -> aa, where m_a < 2m_b so that a -> tau+ tau- (or light quarks and gluons) decays are dominant. These preferred scenarios correlate well with the observed excess of events at LEP for m_h ~ 100 GeV.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2005

Light Neutralino Dark Matter in the NMSSM

Neutralino dark matter is generally assumed to be relatively heavy, with a mass near the electroweak scale. This does not necessarily need to be the case, however. In the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) and other supersymmetric models with an extended Higgs sector, a very light CP-odd Higgs boson can naturally arise making it possible for a very light neutralino to annihilate efficiently enough to avoid being overproduced in the early Universe. In this article, we explore the characteristics of a supersymmetric model needed to include a very light neutralino, 100 MeV $< \mcnone <$ 20 GeV, using the NMSSM as a prototype. We discuss the most important constraints from Upsilon decays, $b \to s γ$, $B_s \to μ^+ μ^-$ and the magnetic moment of the muon, and find that a light bino or singlino neutralino is allowed, and can be generated with the appropriate relic density. It has previously been shown that the positive detection of dark matter claimed by the DAMA collaboration can be reconciled with other direct dark matter experiments such as CDMS II if the dark matter particle is rather light, between about 6 and 9 GeV. A singlino or bino-like neutralino could easily fall within this range of masses within the NMSSM. Additionally, models with sub-GeV neutralinos may be capable of generating the 511 keV gamma-ray emission observed from the galactic bulge by the INTEGRAL/SPI experiment. We also point out measurements which can be performed immediately at CLEO, BaBar and Belle using existing data to discover or significantly constrain this scenario.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2005

Consistency of LEP $Z+b$-jets excess with an {\boldmath $h\to aa$} Decay Scenario and Low-Fine-Tuning NMSSM Models

We examine the LEP limits for the $Zh\to Z+b$'s final state and find that the excess of observed events for $\mh\sim 100\gev$ correlates well with there being an $\mh\sim 100\gev$ Higgs boson with SM-like $ZZh$ coupling that decays partly via $h\to b\anti b+\tauptaum$ [with $\br(h\to b\anti b)\sim 0.08$] but dominantly via $h\to aa$ [with $\br(h\to aa)\sim 0.9$], where $\ma<2\mb$ so that $a\to \tauptaum$ (or light quarks and gluons) decays are dominant. Scenarios of precisely this type arise in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Model for parameter choices yielding the lowest possible fine-tuning.

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arXiv2005

Conditions for CP-Violation in the General Two-Higgs-Doublet Model

The most general Higgs potential of the two-Higgs-doublet model (2HDM) contains three squared-mass parameters and seven quartic self-coupling parameters. Among these, one squared-mass parameter and three quartic coupling parameters are potentially complex. The Higgs potential explicitly violates CP symmetry if and only if no choice of basis exists in the two-dimensional Higgs ``flavor'' space in which all the Higgs potential parameters are real. We exhibit four independent potentially complex invariant (basis-independent) combinations of mass and coupling parameters and show that the reality of all four invariants provides the necessary and sufficient conditions for an explicitly CP-conserving 2HDM scalar potential. Additional potentially complex invariants can be constructed that depend on the Higgs field vacuum expectation values (vevs). We demonstrate how these can be used together with the vev-independent invariants to distinguish between explicit and spontaneous CP-violation in the Higgs sector.

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arXiv2005

Difficult Scenarios for NMSSM Higgs Discovery at the LHC

We identify scenarios not ruled out by LEP data in which NMSSM Higgs detection at the LHC will be particularly challenging. We first review the `no-lose' theorem for Higgs discovery at the LHC that applies if Higgs bosons do not decay to other Higgs bosons - namely, with L=300 fb^-1, there is always one or more `standard' Higgs detection channel with at least a 5 sigma signal. However, we provide examples of no-Higgs-to-Higgs cases for which all the standard signals are no larger than 7 sigma implying that if the available L is smaller or the simulations performed by ATLAS and CMS turn out to be overly optimistic, all standard Higgs signals could fall below 5 sigma even in the no-Higgs-to-Higgs part of NMSSM parameter space. In the vast bulk of NMSSM parameter space, there will be Higgs-to-Higgs decays. We show that when such decays are present it is possible for all the standard detection channels to have very small significance. In most such cases, the only strongly produced Higgs boson is one with fairly SM-like couplings that decays to two lighter Higgs bosons (either a pair of the lightest CP-even Higgs bosons, or, in the largest part of parameter space, a pair of the lightest CP-odd Higgs bosons). A number of representative bench-mark scenarios of this type are delineated in detail and implications for Higgs discovery at various colliders are discussed.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2005

NMHDECAY: A Fortran Code for the Higgs Masses, Couplings and Decay Widths in the NMSSM

The Fortran code NMHDECAY computes the masses, couplings and decay widths of all Higgs bosons of the NMSSM in terms of its parameters at the electroweak (SUSY breaking) scale: the Yukawa couplings lambda and kappa, the soft trilinear terms A_lambda and A_kappa, and tan(beta) and mu_eff = lambda* . The computation of the spectrum includes leading two loop terms, electroweak corrections and propagator corrections. The computation of the decay widths is carried out as in HDECAY, but (for the moment) without three body decays. Each point in parameter space is checked against negative Higgs bosons searches at LEP, including unconventional channels relevant for the NMSSM. One version of the program uses generalized SLHA conventions for input and output.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2003

Towards a No-Lose Theorem for NMSSM Higgs Discovery at the LHC

We scan the parameter space of the NMSSM for the observability of a Higgs boson at the LHC with $300 {\rm fb}^{-1}$ integrated luminosity per detector, taking the present LEP constraints into account. We focus on the regions of parameter space for which none of the usually considered LHC detection modes are viable due to the fact that the only light non-singlet (and, therefore, potentially visible) Higgs boson, $h$, decays mainly to two CP-odd light Higgs bosons, $h\to a a$. We simulate the $WW\to h \to aa$ detection mode. We find that this signal may be detectable at the LHC as a signal/background $\sim 600/600$ bump in the tail of a rapidly falling mass distribution. If further study gives us confidence that the shape of the background tail is predictable, then we can conclude that NMSSM Higgs detection at the LHC will be possible throughout all of parameter space by combining this signal with the usual detection modes previously simulated by ATLAS and CMS. We also show that this $WW\to h\to aa$ signal will be highly visible at the LC due to its cleaner environment and high luminosity. We present a study of the production modes and decay channels of interest at the LC.

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arXiv2003

On the Complementarity of Higgs and Radion Searches at LHC

Models with 3-branes in extra dimensions typically imply the existence of a radion, phi that can mix with the Higgs, h, thereby modifying the Higgs properties and the prospects for its detectability at the LHC. The presence of the phi will extend the scope of the LHC searches. Detection of both the phi and the h might be possible. In this paper, we study the complementarity of the observation of gg -> h, with h -> gamma gamma or h -> ZZ -> 4 leptons, and gg -> phi -> ZZ -> 4 leptons at the LHC in the context of the Randall-Sundrum model. The potential for determining the nature of the detected scalar(s) at the LHC and at an e+e- linear collider is discussed, both separately and in combination.

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arXiv2003

Higgs Physics at the Linear Collider

We review the theory of Higgs bosons, with emphasis on the Higgs scalars of the Standard Model and its non-supersymmetric and supersymmetric extensions. After surveying the expected knowledge of Higgs boson physics after the Tevatron and LHC experimental programs, we examine in detail expectations for precision Higgs measurements at a future e+e- linear collider (LC). A comprehensive phenomenological profile can be assembled from LC Higgs studies (both in e+e- and gamma-gamma collisions). The Giga-Z option can provide important constraints and consistency checks for the theory of electroweak symmetry breaking.

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