arXiv subjects

Kuver Sinha

Publications and source records attributed to Kuver Sinha.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

New Limits on the Dark Matter Lifetime from Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies using Fermi-LAT

Dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) are promising targets for the indirect detection of dark matter through gamma-ray emission due to their proximity, lack of astrophysical backgrounds and high dark matter density. They are often used to place restrictive bounds on the dark matter annihilation cross section. In this paper, we analyze six years of {\it Fermi}-LAT gamma-ray data from 19 dSphs that are satellites of the Milky Way, and derive from a stacked analysis of 15 dSphs, robust 95\% confidence level lower limits on the dark matter lifetime for several decay channels and dark matter masses between $\sim 1$GeV and $10$TeV. Our findings are based on a bin-by-bin maximum likelihood analysis treating the J-factor as a nuisance parameter using PASS 8 event-class. Our constraints from this ensemble are among the most stringent and solid in the literature, and competitive with existing ones coming from the extragalactic gamma-ray background, galaxy clusters, AMS-02 cosmic ray data, Super-K and ICECUBE neutrino data, while rather insensitive to systematic uncertainties. In particular, among gamma-ray searches, we improve existing limits for dark matter decaying into $\bar{b}b$, ($μ^+μ^-$) for DM masses below $\sim 30\, (200)$~GeV, demonstrating that dSphs are compelling targets for constraining dark matter decay lifetimes.

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arXiv2016

The 750 GeV $S$-cion: Where else should we look for it?

The resonance $S$ at $\sim 750$ GeV in the diphoton channel observed by ATLAS and CMS, if it holds up, is almost certainly the ($S$)cion of a larger dynasty in a UV completion that may very well be connected to the hierarchy problem. At this stage, however, an effective field theory framework provides a useful way to parametrize searches for this resonance in other channels. Assuming that the excess is due to a new scalar or pseudoscalar boson, we study associated production of $S$ ("$S$-strahlung") at the LHC and propose searches in several clean channels like $γγ\ell\ell$, $γγ\ell\eslash$ and $\ell\ell\ellγ\eslash$ to probe dimension-5 operators coupling $S$ to Standard Model gauge bosons. We consider a range of widths for $S$, from 5 GeV to 45 GeV, and find that the three channels probe complementary regions of parameter space and the suppression scale $Λ$. The finding of most immediate relevance is that with 3 fb$^{-1}$, the LHC might already reveal new excesses in the $γγ\ell\ell$ channel and a 5(3) $σ$ discovery may already be possible after collecting 65(25) fb$^{-1}$ of data with $\ell\ell\ellγ\eslash$ events if the scale of the new physics is within $\sim $ 9 TeV for couplings respecting 8 TeV LHC bounds and compatible with the observed excess in diphotons for a wide resonance as suggested by the ATLAS Collaboration. Beyond the EFT parametrization, we found realizations of models with heavy vector-like quarks and leptons which can simultaneously fit the diphoton excess and be discovered in the channels proposed here.

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arXiv2015

G221 Interpretations of the Diboson and Wh Excesses

Based on an $SU(2) \times SU(2) \times U(1)$ effective theory framework (aka $G221$ models), we investigate a leptophobic $SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R \times U(1)_{B-L}$ model, in which the right-handed $W^\prime$ boson has the mass of around 2 TeV, and predominantly couples to the standard model quarks and the gauge-Higgs sector. This model could explain the resonant excesses near 2 TeV reported by the ATLAS collaboration in the $WZ$ production decaying into hadronic final states, and by the CMS collaboration in the $Wh$ channel decaying into $b\bar{b}\ellν$ and dijet final state. After imposing the constraints from the electroweak precision and current LHC data, we find that to explain the three excesses in $WZ$, $Wh$ and dijet channels, the $SU(2)_R$ coupling strength $g_R$ favors the range of $0.47 \sim 0.68$. In this model, given a benchmark 2 TeV $W'$ mass, the $Z'$ mass is predicted to be around $2.9$ TeV if the doublet Higgs (LPD) is used to break the G221 symmetry, consistent with the 2.9 TeV $e^+e^-$ event recently observed at CMS. A $3 \sim 5$ TeV mass is typically predicted for the triplet Higgs (LPT) symmetry breaking scenario, can also be consistent with a 2.9 TeV dilepton signal. These signatures can be further explored by the LHC Run-2 data.

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arXiv2015

Natural Supersymmetry, Muon $g-2$, and the Last Crevices for the Top Squark

We study the interplay of natural supersymmetry and a supersymmetric solution to the discrepancy observed in measurements of the muon magnetic moment. The strongest constraints on the parameter space currently come from chargino searches in the trilepton channel and slepton searches in the dilepton channel at the LHC, and vast regions are currently allowed, especially at large $\tanβ$. With light top squarks in the spectrum, as required from naturalness arguments, the situation changes dramatically; stop-assisted chargino and neutralino production via $\tilde{t} \rightarrow b \tildeχ_{1}^{\pm}$ and $\tilde{t} \rightarrow t \tildeχ_{1}^0$ are already probing the entire parameter space compatible with the muon magnetic moment at $\tanβ \sim \mathcal{O}(10)$, while upcoming stop searches will probe most of the parameter space at larger $\tanβ \sim 40$. Direct Higgsino searches as well as compressed slepton and stop searches are crucial to close out corners of parameter space. We consider one such example: in the presence of light sleptons and charginos as required to obtain appreciable contributions to the muon magnetic moment, compressed stops can dominantly undergo the following decay $\tilde{t} \, \rightarrow \, b \tilde{\ell} ν(\tildeν \ell) \, \rightarrow \, b \ell ν\tildeχ_{1}^0$, facilitated by off-shell charginos. We find that the enhanced branching to leptons leads to a $5 σ$ mass reach (with $3000$ fb$^{-1}$ of data at LHC14) of $m_{\tilde{t}} \, \sim \, 350$ GeV, with the mass difference between stops and the lightest neutralino being $\sim 80$ GeV. This will further close out a significant part of the parameter space compatible with naturalness and the muon magnetic moment.

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arXiv2015

Bringing Isolated Dark Matter Out of Isolation: Late-time Reheating and Indirect Detection

In standard cosmology, the growth of structure becomes significant following matter-radiation equality. In non-thermal histories, where an effectively matter-dominated phase occurs due to scalar oscillations prior to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, a new scale at smaller wavelengths appears in the matter power spectrum. Density perturbations that enter the horizon during the matter-dominated phase grow linearly with the scale factor prior to the onset of radiation domination, which leads to enhanced inhomogeneity on small scales if dark matter thermally and kinetically decouples during the matter-dominated phase. The microhalos that form from these enhanced perturbations significantly boost the self-annihilation rate for dark matter. This has important implications for indirect detection experiments: the larger annihilation rate will result in observable signals from dark matter candidates that are usually deemed untestable. As a proof of principle, we consider Binos in heavy supersymmetry with an intermediate extended Higgs sector and all other superpartners decoupled. We find that these isolated Binos, which lie under the neutrino floor, can account for the dark matter relic density while also leading to observable predictions for Fermi-LAT. Current limits on the annihilation cross section from Fermi-LAT's observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies may already constrain Bino dark matter up to masses $\mathcal{O}(300)$ GeV, depending on the internal structure of the microhalos. More extensive constraints are possible with improved gamma-ray bounds and boost calculations from $N$-body simulations.

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arXiv2015

Early Universe Cosmology, Effective Supergravity, and Invariants of Algebraic Forms

The presence of light scalars can have profound effects on early universe cosmology, influencing its thermal history as well as paradigms like inflation and baryogenesis. Effective supergravity provides a framework to make quantifiable, model-independent studies of these effects. The Riemanian curvature of the Kahler manifold spanned by scalars belonging to chiral superfields, evaluated along supersymmetry breaking directions, provides an order parameter (in the sense that it must necessarily take certain values) for phenomena as diverse as slow roll modular inflation, non-thermal cosmological histories, and the viability of Affleck-Dine baryogenesis. Within certain classes of UV completions, the order parameter for theories with $n$ scalar moduli is conjectured to be related to invariants of $n$-ary cubic forms (for example, for models with three moduli, the order parameter is given by the ring of invariants spanned by the Aronhold invariants). Within these completions, and under the caveats spelled out, this may provide an avenue to obtain necessary conditions for the above phenomena that are in principle calculable given nothing but the intersection numbers of a Calabi-Yau compactification geometry. As an additional result, abstract relations between holomorphic sectional and bisectional curvatures are utilized to constrain Affleck-Dine baryogenesis on a wide class of Kahler geometries.

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arXiv2015

Interpreting the CMS $\ell^+\ell^- jj E\!\!\!\!/_{\rm T}$ Excess with a Leptoquark Model

Motivated by excesses in $ee jj$ and $eνjj$ channels observed by the CMS collaboration, in 8 TeV LHC data, a model of lepto-quarks with mass around 500 GeV was proposed in the literature. In order to reproduce the claimed event rate, lepto-quarks were assumed to have a significant partial branching ratio into an extra sector, taken to be Dark Matter, other than the canonical $ej$. We here show that the decay channel of lepto-quark into Dark Matter can fit another excess claimed by CMS, in $\ell^+\ell^- jj E\!\!\!\!/_{\rm T}$: the event rate, the distribution in di-lepton invariant mass and the rapidity range are compatible with the data. We provide predictions for the forthcoming Run II of the 14 TeV LHC and discuss aspects of dark matter detection.

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arXiv2015

Probing Compressed Bottom Squarks with Boosted Jets and Shape Analysis

A feasibility study is presented for the search of the lightest bottom squark (sbottom) in a compressed scenario, where its mass difference from the lightest neutralino is 5 GeV. Two separate studies are performed: $(1)$ final state containing two VBF-like tagging jets, missing transverse energy, and zero or one $b$-tagged jet; and $(2)$ final state consisting of initial state radiation (ISR) jet, missing transverse energy, and at least one $b$-tagged jet. An analysis of the shape of the missing transverse energy distribution for signal and background is performed in each case, leading to significant improvement over a cut and count analysis, especially after incorporating the consideration of systematics and pileup. The shape analysis in the VBF-like tagging jet study leads to a $3σ$ exclusion potential of sbottoms with mass up to $530 \, (462)$ GeV for an integrated luminosity of $300$ fb$^{-1}$ at 14 TeV, with $5\%$ systematics and PU $= 0 \, (50)$.

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arXiv2015

Searches for Dark Matter at the LHC: A Multivariate Analysis in the Mono-$Z$ Channel

We study dark matter (DM) production in the mono-Z channel at the 13 TeV LHC both in an effective field theory framework as well as in simplified models with vector mediators, using a multivariate analysis. For DM-quark effective operators with scalar, vector, and tensor couplings and DM mass of 100 GeV, the 5$σ$ reach in the DM interaction scale $Λ$ is around 2, 1, and 3 TeV, respectively, for 3 ab$^{-1}$ and assuming a 5\% systematic uncertainty on the total background normalization. For simplified models with leptophobic vector mediators, the 5$σ$ reach for the mass of the mediator is 1.7 TeV also assuming a 5\% systematics and 3 ab$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity. The reach for the dark matter interaction scale obtained with the multivariate analysis using a likelihood function discriminant is at least twice as high as that obtained from a simple cut and count analysis, once systematics on the background normalization larger than a few percent are taken into account. Moreover, the reach is much more stable against degradation due these systematic uncertainties.

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arXiv2015

A Model Independent Approach to (p)Reheating

In this note we propose a model independent framework for inflationary (p)reheating. Our approach is analogous to the Effective Field Theory of Inflation, however here the inflaton oscillations provide an additional source of (discrete) symmetry breaking. Using the Goldstone field that non-linearly realizes time diffeormorphism invariance we construct a model independent action for both the inflaton and reheating sectors. Utilizing the hierarchy of scales present during the reheating process we are able to recover known results in the literature in a simpler fashion, including the presence of oscillations in the primordial power spectrum. We also construct a class of models where the shift symmetry of the inflaton is preserved during reheating, which helps alleviate past criticisms of (p)reheating in models of Natural Inflation. Extensions of our framework suggest the possibility of analytically investigating non-linear effects (such as rescattering and back-reaction) during thermalization without resorting to lattice methods. By construction, the EFT relates the strength of many of these interactions to other operators in the theory, including those responsible for the efficiency of (p)reheating. We conclude with a discussion of the limitations and challenges for our approach.

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arXiv2015

Probing Compressed Sleptons at the LHC using Vector Boson Fusion Processes

The vector boson fusion (VBF) topology at the Large Hadron Collider at 14 TeV provides an opportunity to search for new physics. A feasibility study for the search of sleptons in a compressed mass spectra scenario is presented in the final state of two jets, one or two low $p_{T}$ non-resonant leptons, and missing energy. The presence of the VBF tagged jets and missing energy are effective in reducing Standard Model backgrounds. Using smuon production with a mass difference between $\tilde{l}_{L}$ and $\tildeχ_{1}^0$ of 5-15 GeV, the significance of observing the signal events is found to be $\sim$ 3-6$σ$ for $m_{\tilde{l}}$=115-135 GeV, considering an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb$^{-1}$.

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arXiv2015

Cosmological Moduli and the Post-Inflationary Universe: A Critical Review

We critically review the role of cosmological moduli in determining the post-inflationary history of the universe. Moduli are ubiquitous in string and M-theory constructions of beyond the Standard Model physics, where they parametrize the geometry of the compactification manifold. For those with masses determined by supersymmetry breaking this leads to their eventual decay slightly before Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (without spoiling its predictions). This results in a matter dominated phase shortly after inflation ends, which can influence baryon and dark matter genesis, as well as observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background and the growth of large-scale structure. Given progress within fundamental theory, and guidance from dark matter and collider experiments, non-thermal histories have emerged as a robust and theoretically well-motivated alternative to a strictly thermal one. We review this approach to the early universe and discuss both the theoretical challenges and the observational implications.

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arXiv2014

Third Generation in Cascade Decays

In supersymmetric models with gluinos around 1000-2000 GeV, new physics searches based on cascade decay products of the gluino are viable at the next run of the LHC. We investigate a scenario where the light stop is lighter than the gluino and both are lighter than all other squarks, and show that its signal can be established using multi b-jet, multi W and/or multi lepton final state topologies. We then utilize both boosted and conventional jet topologies in the final state in conjunction with di-tau production as a probe of the stau-neutralino co-annihilation region responsible for the model's dark matter content. This study is performed in the specific context of one such phenomenologically viable model named No-Scale F-SU(5).

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arXiv2014

Non-thermal Dark Matter: A Selective Apercu

I provide a review of some recent work on non-thermal dark matter.

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arXiv2014

A Rich Tapestry: Supersymmetric Axions, Dark Radiation, and Inflationary Reheating

We exploit the complementarity among supersymmetry, inflation, axions, Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB) to constrain supersymmetric axion models in the light of the recent Planck and BICEP results. In particular, we derive BBN bounds coming from altering the light element abundances by taking into account hadronic and electromagnetic energy injection, and CMB constraints from black-body spectrum distortion. Lastly, we outline the viable versus excluded region of these supersymetric models that might account for the mild dark radiation observed.

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arXiv2014

How Well Can We Really Determine the Scale of Inflation?

A detection of primordial B-modes has been heralded not only as a smoking gun for the existence of inflation, but also as a way to establish the scale at which inflation took place. In this paper we critically reinvestigate the connection between a detection of primordial gravity waves and the scale of inflation. We consider whether the presence of additional fields and non-adiabaticity during inflation may have provided an additional source of primordial B-modes competitive with those of the quasi-de Sitter vacuum. In particular, we examine whether the additional sources could provide the dominant signal, which could lead to a misinterpretation of the scale of inflation. In light of constraints on the level of non-Gaussianity coming from Planck we find that only hidden sectors with strictly gravitationally strength couplings provide a feasible mechanism. The required model building is somewhat elaborate, and so we discuss possible UV completions in the context of Type IIB orientifold compactifications with RR axions. We find that an embedding is possible and that dangerous sinusoidal corrections can be suppressed through the compactification geometry. Our main result is that even when additional sources of primordial gravity waves are competitive with the inflaton, a positive B-mode detection would still be a relatively good indicator of the scale of inflation. This conclusion will be strengthened by future constraints on both non-Gaussianity and CMB polarization.

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arXiv2014

Leptoquarks, Dark Matter, and Anomalous LHC Events

Leptoquarks with mass in the region of $550-650$ GeV are a possible candidate for the recent excess seen by CMS in the $eejj$ and $e νjj$ channels. We discuss models where leptoquarks decay primarily to dark matter and jets, thereby giving a branching to charged lepton and jet final states that can match data. The confluence of proton decay constraints, dark matter indirect and direct detection data, and Higgs invisible decay bounds results in a handful of predictive models that will be conclusively verified or excluded in upcoming direct detection experiments. Along the way, we present robust limits on such leptoquark models stemming from the muon magnetic moment using current and projected experiment sensitivities, as well as from $K$ and $B$ meson mixing, and leptonic and semi-leptonic meson decays.

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arXiv2014

Probing Compressed Top Squarks at the LHC at 14 TeV

A feasibility study is presented for the search of the lightest top squark in a compressed scenario, where its mass is approximately equal to the sum of the masses of the top quark and the lightest neutralino. The study is performed in the final state of two b-jets, one lepton, large missing energy, and two high-$E_{\rm T}$ jets with large separation in pseudo-rapidity, in opposite hemispheres, and with large dijet mass. The LHC could discover compressed top squarks with mass up to approximately 340 GeV (390 GeV) with an integrated luminosity of 1000 ifb (3000 ifb).

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