arXiv subjects

Jonathan L. Feng

Publications and source records attributed to Jonathan L. Feng.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Long-Lived Sleptons at the LHC and a 100 TeV Proton Collider

We study the prospects for long-lived charged particle (LLCP) searches at current and future LHC runs and at a 100 TeV pp collider, using Drell-Yan slepton pair production as an example. Because momentum measurements become more challenging for very energetic particles, we carefully treat the expected momentum resolution. At the same time, a novel feature of 100 TeV collisions is the significant energy loss of energetic muons in detectors. We use this to help discriminate between muons and LLCPs. We find that the 14 TeV LHC with an integrated luminosity of 3 ab$^{-1}$ can probe LLCP slepton masses up to 1.2 TeV, and a 100 TeV pp collider with 3 ab$^{-1}$ can probe LLCP slepton masses up to 4 TeV, using time-of-flight measurements. These searches will have striking implications for dark matter, with the LHC definitively testing the possibility of slepton-neutralino co-annihilating WIMP dark matter, and with the LHC and future hadron colliders having a strong potential for discovering LLCPs in models with superWIMP dark matter.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

MSSM4G: Reviving Bino Dark Matter with Vector-like 4th Generation Particles

We supplement the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) with vector-like copies of standard model particles. Such 4th generation particles can raise the Higgs boson mass to the observed value without requiring very heavy superpartners, improving naturalness and the prospects for discovering supersymmetry at the LHC. Here we show that these new particles are also motivated cosmologically: in the MSSM, pure Bino dark matter typically overcloses the Universe, but 4th generation particles open up new annihilation channels, allowing Binos to have the correct thermal relic density without resonances or co-annihilation. We show that this can be done in a sizable region of parameter space while preserving gauge coupling unification and satisfying constraints from collider, Higgs, precision electroweak, and flavor physics.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Self-Interacting Dark Matter from a Non-Abelian Hidden Sector

There is strong evidence in favor of the idea that dark matter is self interacting, with the cross section-to-mass ratio $σ/ m \sim 1\,\mathrm{cm^2/g} \sim 1\,\mathrm{barn/GeV}$. We show that viable models of dark matter with this large cross section are straightforwardly realized with non-Abelian hidden sectors. In the simplest of such models, the hidden sector is a pure gauge theory, and the dark matter is composed of hidden glueballs with a mass around $100\,\mathrm{MeV}$. Alternatively, the hidden sector may be a supersymmetric pure gauge theory with a $\sim 10\,\mathrm{TeV}$ gluino thermal relic. In this case, the dark matter is largely composed of glueballinos that strongly self interact through the exchange of light glueballs. We present a unified framework that realizes both of these possibilities in anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking, where, depending on a few model parameters, the dark matter may be composed of hidden glueballinos, hidden glueballs, or a mixture of the two. These models provide simple examples of multicomponent dark matter, have interesting implications for particle physics and cosmology, and include cases where a subdominant component of dark matter may be extremely strongly self interacting, with interesting astrophysical consequences.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

SIMPle Dark Matter: Self-Interactions and keV Lines

We consider a simple supersymmetric hidden sector: pure SU(N) gauge theory. Dark matter is made up of hidden glueballinos with mass $m_X$ and hidden glueballs with mass near the confinement scale $Λ$. For $m_X \sim 1\,\text{TeV}$ and $Λ\sim 100\,\text{MeV}$, the glueballinos freeze out with the correct relic density and self-interact through glueball exchange to resolve small-scale structure puzzles. An immediate consequence is that the glueballino spectrum has a hyperfine splitting of order $Λ^2 / m_X \sim 10\,\text{keV}$. We show that the radiative decays of the excited state can explain the observed 3.5 keV X-ray line signal from clusters of galaxies, Andromeda, and the Milky Way.

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arXiv2015

Dark Matter in the Coming Decade: Complementary Paths to Discovery and Beyond

In this report we summarize the many dark matter searches currently being pursued through four complementary approaches: direct detection, indirect detection, collider experiments, and astrophysical probes. The essential features of broad classes of experiments are described, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The complementarity of the different dark matter searches is discussed qualitatively and illustrated quantitatively in two simple theoretical frameworks. Our primary conclusion is that the diversity of possible dark matter candidates requires a balanced program drawing from all four approaches.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Dark Matter in the Coming Decade: Complementary Paths to Discovery and Beyond

In this Report we discuss the four complementary searches for the identity of dark matter: direct detection experiments that look for dark matter interacting in the lab, indirect detection experiments that connect lab signals to dark matter in our own and other galaxies, collider experiments that elucidate the particle properties of dark matter, and astrophysical probes sensitive to non-gravitational interactions of dark matter. The complementarity among the different dark matter searches is discussed qualitatively and illustrated quantitatively in several theoretical scenarios. Our primary conclusion is that the diversity of possible dark matter candidates requires a balanced program based on all four of those approaches.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Three-Loop Corrections to the Higgs Boson Mass and Implications for Supersymmetry at the LHC

In supersymmetric models with minimal particle content and without left-right squark mixing, the conventional wisdom is that the 125.6 GeV Higgs boson mass implies top squark masses of O(10) TeV, far beyond the reach of colliders. This conclusion is subject to significant theoretical uncertainties, however, and we provide evidence that it may be far too pessimistic. We evaluate the Higgs boson mass, including the dominant three-loop terms at O(α_t α_s^2), in currently viable models. For multi-TeV stops, the three-loop corrections can increase the Higgs boson mass by as much as 3 GeV and lower the required stop mass to 3 to 4 TeV, greatly improving prospects for supersymmetry discovery at the upcoming run of the LHC and its high-luminosity upgrade.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Isospin-Violating Dark Matter Benchmarks for Snowmass 2013

Isospin-violating dark matter (IVDM) generalizes the standard spin-independent scattering parameter space by introducing one additional parameter, the neutron-to-proton coupling ratio f_n/f_p. In IVDM the implications of direct detection experiments can be altered significantly. We review the motivations for considering IVDM and present benchmark models that illustrate some of the qualitatively different possibilities. IVDM strongly motivates the use of a variety of target nuclei in direct detection experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Xenophobic Dark Matter

We consider models of xenophobic dark matter, in which isospin-violating dark matter-nucleon interactions significantly degrade the response of xenon direct detection experiments. For models of near-maximal xenophobia, with neutron-to-proton coupling ratio $f_n / f_p \approx -0.64$, and dark matter mass near 8 GeV, the regions of interest for CoGeNT and CDMS-Si and the region of interest identified by Collar and Fields in CDMS-Ge data can be brought into agreement. This model may be tested in future direct, indirect, and collider searches. Interestingly, because the natural isotope abundance of xenon implies that xenophobia has its limits, we find that this xenophobic model may be probed in the near future by xenon experiments. Near-future data from the LHC and Fermi-LAT may also provide interesting alternative probes of xenophobic dark matter.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Naturalness and the Status of Supersymmetry

For decades, the unnaturalness of the weak scale has been the dominant problem motivating new particle physics, and weak-scale supersymmetry has been the dominant proposed solution. This paradigm is now being challenged by a wealth of experimental data. In this review, we begin by recalling the theoretical motivations for weak-scale supersymmetry, including the gauge hierarchy problem, grand unification, and WIMP dark matter, and their implications for superpartner masses. These are set against the leading constraints on supersymmetry from collider searches, the Higgs boson mass, and low-energy constraints on flavor and CP violation. We then critically examine attempts to quantify naturalness in supersymmetry, stressing the many subjective choices that impact the results both quantitatively and qualitatively. Finally, we survey various proposals for natural supersymmetric models, including effective supersymmetry, focus point supersymmetry, compressed supersymmetry, and R-parity-violating supersymmetry, and summarize their key features, current status, and implications for future experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Dark Matter and Indirect Detection in Cosmic Rays

In the early years, cosmic rays contributed essentially to particle physics through the discovery of new particles. Will history repeat itself? As with the discovery of the charged pion, the recent discovery of a Higgs-like boson may portend a rich new set of particles within reach of current and near future experiments. These may be discovered and studied by cosmic rays through the indirect detection of dark matter.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Focus Point Supersymmetry Redux

Recent results from Higgs boson and supersymmetry searches at the Large Hadron Collider provide strong new motivations for supersymmetric theories with heavy superpartners. We reconsider focus point supersymmetry (FP SUSY), in which all squarks and sleptons may have multi-TeV masses without introducing fine-tuning in the weak scale with respect to variations in the fundamental SUSY-breaking parameters. We examine both FP SUSY and its familiar special case, the FP region of mSUGRA/CMSSM, and show that they are beautifully consistent with all particle, astroparticle, and cosmological data, including Higgs boson mass limits, null results from SUSY searches, electric dipole moments, b -> s gamma, B_s -> mu^+ mu^-, the thermal relic density of neutralinos, and dark matter searches. The observed deviation of the muon's anomalous magnetic moment from its standard model value may also be explained in FP SUSY, although not in the FP region of mSUGRA/CMSSM. In light of recent data, we advocate refined searches for FP SUSY and related scenarios with heavy squarks and sleptons, and we present a simplified parameter space to aid such analyses.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Confluence of Constraints in Gauge Mediation: The 125 GeV Higgs Boson and Goldilocks Cosmology

Recent indications of a 125 GeV Higgs boson are challenging for gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking (GMSB), since radiative contributions to the Higgs boson mass are not enhanced by significant stop mixing. This challenge should not be considered in isolation, however, as GMSB also generically suffers from two other problems: unsuppressed electric dipole moments and the absence of an attractive dark matter candidate. We show that all of these problems may be simultaneously solved by considering heavy superpartners, without extra fields or modified cosmology. Multi-TeV sfermions suppress the EDMs and raise the Higgs mass, and the dark matter problem is solved by Goldilocks cosmology, in which TeV neutralinos decay to GeV gravitinos that are simultaneously light enough to solve the flavor problem and heavy enough to be all of dark matter. The implications for collider searches and direct and indirect dark matter detection are sobering, but EDMs are expected near their current bounds, and the resulting non-thermal gravitino dark matter is necessarily warm, with testable cosmological implications.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

A Natural 125 GeV Higgs Boson in the MSSM from Focus Point Supersymmetry with A-Terms

We show that a 125 GeV Higgs boson and percent-level fine-tuning are simultaneously attainable in the MSSM, with no additional fields and supersymmetry breaking generated at the GUT scale. The Higgs mass is raised by large radiative contributions from top squarks with significant left-right mixing, and naturalness is preserved by the focus point mechanism with large $A$-terms, which suppresses large log-enhanced sensitivities to variations in the fundamental parameters. The focus point mechanism is independent of almost all supersymmetry-breaking parameters, but is predictive in the top sector, requiring the GUT-scale relation $m_{H_u}^2 : m_{\bar{U}_3}^2 : m_{Q_3}^2 : A_t^2 = 1 : 1+x - 3y : 1-x : 9y$, where $x$ and $y$ are constants. We derive this condition analytically and then investigate three representative models through detailed numerical analysis. The models generically predict heavy superpartners, but dark matter searches in the case of non-unified gaugino masses are promising, as are searches for top squarks and gluinos with top and bottom-rich cascade decays at the LHC. This framework may be viewed as a simple update to mSUGRA/CMSSM to accommodate both naturalness and current Higgs boson constraints, and provides an ideal framework for presenting new results from LHC searches.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

WIMPless Dark Matter from an AMSB Hidden Sector with No New Mass Parameters

We present a model with dark matter in an anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking hidden sector with a U(1)xU(1) gauge symmetry. The symmetries of the model stabilize the dark matter and forbid the introduction of new mass parameters. As a result, the thermal relic density is completely determined by the gravitino mass and dimensionless couplings. Assuming non-hierarchical couplings, the thermal relic density is ~ 0.1, independent of the dark matter's mass and interaction strength, realizing the WIMPless miracle. The model has several striking features. For particle physics, stability of the dark matter is completely consistent with R-parity violation in the visible sector, with implications for superpartner collider signatures; also the thermal relic's mass may be ~ 10 GeV or lighter, which is of interest given recent direct detection results. Interesting astrophysical signatures are dark matter self-interactions through a long-range force, and massless hidden photons and fermions that contribute to the number of relativistic degrees of freedom at BBN and CMB. The latter are particularly interesting, given current indications for extra degrees of freedom and near future results from the Planck observatory.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Isospin-Violating Dark Matter

Searches for dark matter scattering off nuclei are typically compared assuming that the dark matter's spin-independent couplings are identical for protons and neutrons. This assumption is neither innocuous nor well motivated. We consider isospin-violating dark matter (IVDM) with one extra parameter, the ratio of neutron to proton couplings, and include the isotope distribution for each detector. For a single choice of the coupling ratio, the DAMA and CoGeNT signals are consistent with each other and with current XENON constraints, and they unambiguously predict near future signals at XENON and CRESST. We provide a quark-level realization of IVDM as WIMPless dark matter that is consistent with all collider and low-energy bounds.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

B's with Direct Decays: Tevatron and LHC Discovery Prospects in the b\bar{b}+MET Channel

We explore the discovery prospects for B'\bar{B}' pair production followed by direct decays B'->bX, where B' is a new quark and X is a long-lived neutral particle. We develop optimized cuts in the (m_B', m_X) plane and show that the 7 TeV LHC with an integrated luminosity of 1 (10) fb^-1 may exclude masses up to m_B' ~ 620 (800) GeV, completely covering the mass range allowed for new quarks that get mass from electroweak symmetry breaking. This analysis is applicable to other models with b\bar{b}+MET signals, including supersymmetric models with bottom squarks decaying directly to neutralinos, and models with exotic quarks decaying directly to GeV-scale dark matter. To accommodate these and other interpretations, we also present model-independent results for the b\bar{b}+MET cross section required for exclusion and discovery.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

WIMPless Dark Matter in Anomaly-Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking with Hidden QED

In anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking, superpartners in a hidden sector have masses that are proportional to couplings squared, and so naturally freeze out with the desired dark matter relic density for a large range of masses. We present an extremely simple realization of this possibility, with WIMPless dark matter arising from a hidden sector that is supersymmetric QED with N_F flavors. Dark matter is multi-component, composed of hidden leptons and sleptons with masses anywhere from 10 GeV to 10 TeV, and hidden photons provide the thermal bath. The dark matter self-interacts through hidden sector Coulomb scatterings that are potentially observable. In addition, the hidden photon contribution to the number of relativistic degrees of freedom is in the range ΔN_eff ~ 0 - 2, and, if the hidden and visible sectors were initially in thermal contact, the model predicts ΔN_eff ~ 0.2 - 0.4. Data already taken by Planck may provide evidence of such deviations.

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