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Lian-Tao Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Lian-Tao Wang.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

The Muon Smasher's Guide

We lay out a comprehensive physics case for a future high-energy muon collider, exploring a range of collision energies (from 1 to 100 TeV) and luminosities. We highlight the advantages of such a collider over proposed alternatives. We show how one can leverage both the point-like nature of the muons themselves as well as the cloud of electroweak radiation that surrounds the beam to blur the dichotomy between energy and precision in the search for new physics. The physics case is buttressed by a range of studies with applications to electroweak symmetry breaking, dark matter, and the naturalness of the weak scale. Furthermore, we make sharp connections with complementary experiments that are probing new physics effects using electric dipole moments, flavor violation, and gravitational waves. An extensive appendix provides cross section predictions as a function of the center-of-mass energy for many canonical simplified models.

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Re-examining the Solar Axion Explanation for the XENON1T Excess

The XENON1T collaboration has observed an excess in electronic recoil events below $5~\mathrm{keV}$ over the known background, which could originate from beyond-the-Standard-Model physics. The solar axion is a well-motivated model that has been proposed to explain the excess, though it has tension with astrophysical observations. The axions traveled from the Sun can be absorbed by the electrons in the xenon atoms via the axion-electron coupling. Meanwhile, they can also scatter with the atoms through the inverse Primakoff process via the axion-photon coupling, which emits a photon and mimics the electronic recoil signals. We found that the latter process cannot be neglected. After including the $\rm{keV}$ photon produced via inverse Primakoff in the detection, the tension with the astrophysical constraints can be significantly reduced. We also explore scenarios involving additional new physics to further alleviate the tension with the astrophysical bounds.

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Enhancing Sensitivities to Long-lived Particles with High Granularity Calorimeters at the LHC

The search for long-lived particles (LLP) is an exciting physics opportunity in the upcoming runs of the Large Hadron Collider. In this paper, we focus on a new search strategy of using the High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL), part of the upgrade of the CMS detector, in such searches. In particular, we demonstrate that the high granularity of the calorimeter with this upgrade, which allows us to see "shower tracks" in the calorimeter, can play a crucial role in identifying the signal and suppressing the background. We study the potential reach of the HGCAL using a signal model in which the Standard Model Higgs boson decays into a pair of LLPs, $h \to XX$. After carefully estimating the Standard Model QCD and the misreconstructed fake-track backgrounds, we give the projected reach for both a more conservative vector boson fusion trigger and a novel displaced-track-based trigger. Our results show that the best reach for the Higgs decay branching ratio, BR$(h \to XX)$, in the vector boson fusion channel is about $\mathcal{O}(10^{-4})$ with lifetime $cτ_X \sim 0.1$--$1$ meters, while for the gluon gluon fusion channel it is about $\mathcal{O}(10^{-5}\text{--}10^{-6})$ for similar lifetimes. Alternatively, for an LLP with $cτ_X \sim 10^3$ meters, the HGCAL based search should be able to probe BR$(h\to XX)$ down to a few $\times 10^{-4}$($10^{-2}$) in the gluon gluon fusion (vector boson fusion) channels, respectively. In comparison with these previous searches, our new search shows enhanced sensitivity in complementary regions of the LLP parameter space.

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BSM Benchmarks for Effective Field Theories in Higgs and Electroweak Physics

Effective Field Theories (EFTs) capture effects from heavy dynamics at low energy and represent an essential ingredient in the context of Standard Model (SM) precision tests. This document gathers a number of relevant scenarios for heavy physics beyond the SM and presents explicit expressions for the Wilson coefficients in their low-energy EFT. It includes i) weakly coupled scenarios in which one or a few particles of different spins and quantum numbers interact linearly with the SM and generate EFT effects at tree-level, ii) scenarios where heavy particles interact quadratically whereupon the resulting EFT arises only at loop-level and iii) strongly coupled scenarios where the size of Wilson coefficients is controlled by symmetry arguments. This review aims at motivating experimental EFT studies in which only a subset of all possible EFT interactions is used, as well as facilitating the theoretical interpretation of EFT fits.

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Broad composite resonances and their signals at the LHC

We explore the possibility that the left-handed third generation quark doublet $q_L$ is fully composite in composite Higgs models. The signature of the model is the presence of broad spin-1 resonances strongly interacting with the third generation quark doublet $q_L$. In this case, The $t\bar{t}$ resonance search channel is comparable in sensitivity to the di-lepton channel. In addition, the same-sign di-lepton channel in the $t\bar{t}ρ$ associate production can probe the large $g_ρ$ parameter space and complementary to the Drell-Yan production channels.

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Self-interacting neutrinos: solution to Hubble tension versus experimental constraints

Exotic self-interactions among the Standard-Model neutrinos have been proposed as a potential reason behind the tension in the expansion rate, H0, of the universe inferred from different observations. We constrain this proposal using electroweak precision observables, rare meson decays, and neutrinoless double-\{beta} decay. In contrast to previous works, we emphasize the importance of carrying out this study in a framework with full Standard-Model gauge invariance. We implement this first by working with a relevant set of Standard- Model-Effective-Field-Theory operators and subsequently by considering a UV completion in the inverse See-Saw model. We find that the scenario in which all flavors of neutrinos self-interact universally is strongly constrained, disfavoring a potential solution to the H0 problem in this case. The scenario with self-interactions only among tau neutrinos is the least constrained and can potentially be consistent with a solution to the H0 problem.

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Gauge Boson Signals at the Cosmological Collider

We study the production of massive gauge bosons during inflation from the axion-type coupling to the inflaton and the corresponding oscillatory features in the primordial non-Gaussianity. In a window in which both the gauge boson mass and the chemical potential are large, the signal is potentially reachable by near-future large scale structure probes. This scenario covers a new region in oscillation frequency which is not populated by previously known cosmological collider models. We also demonstrate how to properly include the exponential factor and discuss the subtleties in obtaining power dependence of the gauge boson mass in the signal estimate.

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Probing Flavor Non-Universal Theories Through Higgs Physics at the LHC and Future Colliders

We explored the possibility that Higgs coupling to new physics violates flavor universality. In particular, we parameterize such models with dimension-six effective operators which modify the coupling between the first generation quarks, Higgs boson, and $Z$ boson. Through the use of boosted Higgsstrahlung events at both the HL-LHC and potential future hadron colliders, as well as existing ATLAS data for background estimates, we projected constraints on the scale of new physics as a function of the Wilson coefficient. The high energy $Zh$ process will provide unique information about these class of operators, and the sensitivity is competitive with the LEP electroweak precision measurements. We include different scenarios of the overall systematic uncertainties and the PDF uncertainties when presenting the projected sensitivities. We also discuss the constraints from FCNCs to these flavor-violating models and the complementarity of the exotic Higgs decay to the $Zh$ process.

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Search for dark matter at colliders

Multiple astrophysical and cosmological observations show that the majority of the matter in the universe is non-luminous. It is not made of known particles, and it is called dark matter. This is one of the few pieces of concrete experimental evidence of new physics beyond the Standard Model. Despite decades of effort, we still know very little about the identity of dark matter; it remains one of the biggest outstanding mysteries facing particle physics. Among the numerous proposals to explain its nature, the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) scenario stands out. The WIMP scenario is based on a simple assumption that dark matter is in thermal equilibrium in the early hot universe, and that the dark matter particles have mass and interactions not too different from the massive particles in the Standard Model. Testing the WIMP hypothesis is a focus for many experimental searches. A variety of techniques are employed including the observation of WIMP annihilation, the measurement of WIMP-nucleon scattering in terrestrial detectors, and the inference of WIMP production at high energy colliders. In this article, we will focus on the last approach, and in particular on WIMP dark matter searches at the Large Hadron Collider. Authors note: this paper (and references therein) correspond to the version that was submitted to the joint issue of Nature Physics and Nature Astronomy in January 2017.

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In Search of Large Signals at the Cosmological Collider

We look for oscillating signals in the primordial bispectrum from new physics heavy particles which are visibly large for next generation large scale structures (LSS) survey. We show that in ordinary inflation scenarios where a slow-rolling inflaton generates density fluctuations and with no breaking of scale invariance or spacetime symmetry, there exist no naturally large signals unless the rolling inflaton generates a parity-odd chemical potential for the heavy particles. We estimate the accessibility of this signal through observations. While current CMB data are already sensitive in the most optimistic scenario, future probes, including LSS survey and 21 cm observation, can cover interesting regions of the model space.

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Seeking for sterile neutrinos with displaced leptons at the LHC

We study the signal of long-lived sterile neutrino at the LHC produced through the decay of the $W$ boson. It decays into charged lepton and jets. The characteristic signature is a hard prompt lepton and a lepton from the displaced decay of the sterile neutrino, which leads to a bundle of displaced tracks with large transverse impact parameter. Different from other studies, we neither reconstruct the displaced vertex nor place requirement on its invariant mass to maintain sensitivity for low sterile neutrino masses. Instead, we focus on the displaced track from the lepton. A difficulty for low mass sterile neutrino study is that the displaced lepton is usually \textit{non-isolated}. Therefore, leptons from heavy flavor quark is the major source of background. We closely follow a search for displaced electron plus muon search at CMS and study their control regions, which is related to our signal regions, in great detail to develop a robust estimation of the background for our signals. After further optimization on the signal limiting the number of jets, low $H_T$ and large lepton displacement $d_0$ to suppress SM background, we reach an exclusion sensitivity of about $10^{-8}$ ($10^{-5}$) for the mixing angle square at 10 (2) GeV sterile neutrino mass respectively. The strategy we propose can cover the light sterile masses complimentary to beam dump and forward detector experiments.

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Long-lived particles at the LHC: catching them in time

We explore the physics potential of using precision timing information at the LHC in searches for long-lived particles (LLPs). In comparison with the light Standard Model particles, the decay products of massive LLPs arrive at detectors with time delays around the nanosecond scale. We propose new strategies to take advantage of this time delay feature by using initial state radiation to timestamp the collision event and require at least one LLP to decay within the detector. This search strategy is effective for a broad range of models. In addition to outlining this general approach, we demonstrate its effectiveness with the projected reach for two benchmark scenarios: Higgs decaying into a pair of LLPs, and pair production of long-lived neutralinos in the gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking models. Our strategy increases the sensitivity to the lifetime of the LLP by two orders of magnitude or more and particularly exhibits a better behavior with a linear dependence on lifetime in the large lifetime region compared to traditional LLP searches. The timing information significantly reduces the Standard Model background and provides a powerful new dimension for LLP searches.

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Dark Photon Dark Matter from a Network of Cosmic Strings

We study the production of ultra-light dark photons from a network of near-global, Abelian-Higgs cosmic strings. We find that dark photons produced in this way are nonrelativistic today and can make up all of the dark matter for dark photon masses as small as $m_A \sim 10^{-22} \, \mathrm{eV}$.

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Precision Higgs Physics at CEPC

The discovery of the Higgs boson with its mass around 125 GeV by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations marked the beginning of a new era in high energy physics. The Higgs boson will be the subject of extensive studies of the ongoing LHC program. At the same time, lepton collider based Higgs factories have been proposed as a possible next step beyond the LHC, with its main goal to precisely measure the properties of the Higgs boson and probe potential new physics associated with the Higgs boson. The Circular Electron Positron Collider~(CEPC) is one of such proposed Higgs factories. The CEPC is an $e^+e^-$ circular collider proposed by and to be hosted in China. Located in a tunnel of approximately 100~km in circumference, it will operate at a center-of-mass energy of 240~GeV as the Higgs factory. In this paper, we present the first estimates on the precision of the Higgs boson property measurements achievable at the CEPC and discuss implications of these measurements.

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Prospects of searching for composite resonances at the LHC and beyond

Composite Higgs models predict the existence of resonances. We study in detail the collider phenomenology of both the vector and fermionic resonances, including the possibility of both of them being light and within the reach of the LHC. We present current constraints from di-boson, di-lepton resonance searches and top partner pair searches on a set of simplified benchmark models based on the minimal coset $SO(5)/SO(4)$, and make projections for the reach of the HL-LHC. We find that the cascade decay channels for the vector resonances into top partners, or vice versa, can play an important role in the phenomenology of the models. We present a conservative estimate for their reach by using the same-sign di-lepton final states. As a simple extrapolation of our work, we also present the projected reach at the 27 TeV HE-LHC and a 100 TeV $pp$ collider.

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Probing 6D Operators at Future $e^-e^+$ Colliders

We explore the sensitivities at future $e^-e^+$ colliders to probe a set of six-dimensional operators which can modify the SM predictions on Higgs physics and electroweak precision measurements. We consider the case in which the operators are turned on simultaneously. Such an analysis yields a "conservative" interpretation on the collider sensitivities, complementary to the "optimistic" scenario where the operators are individually probed. After a detail analysis at CEPC in both "conservative" and "optimistic" scenarios, we also considered the sensitivities for FCC-ee and ILC. As an illustration of the potential of constraining new physics models, we applied sensitivity analysis to two benchmarks: holographic composite Higgs model and littlest Higgs model.

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Exposing Dark Sector with Future Z-Factories

We investigate the prospects of searching dark sector models via exotic Z-boson decay at future $e^+ e^-$ colliders with Giga Z and Tera Z options. Four general categories of dark sector models: Higgs portal dark matter, vector portal dark matter, inelastic dark matter and axion-like particles, are considered. Focusing on channels motivated by the dark sector models, we carry out a model independent study of the sensitivities of Z-factories in probing exotic decays. The limits on branching ratios of the exotic Z decay are typically $\mathcal{O} (10^{-6} - 10^{-8.5}) $ for the Giga Z and $\mathcal{O} (10^{-7.5} - 10^{-11})$ for the Tera Z, and they are compared with the projection for the high luminosity LHC. We demonstrate that future Z-factories can provide its unique and leading sensitivity, and highlight the complementarity with other experiments, including the indirect and direct dark matter search limits, and the existing collider limits. Future Z factories will play a leading role to uncover the hidden sector of the universe in the future.

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Electroweak Sphaleron with Dimension-6 Operators

New physics at the TeV scale can affect the dynamics of the electroweak phase transition in many ways. In this note, we evaluate its impact on the rate of baryon-number violation via sphaleron transitions. We parameterize the effect of new physics with dimension-6 operators, and we use the Newton-Kantorovich method to numerically solve the resulting equations of motion. Depending on the sign of the coefficient of the dimension-6 operators, their presence can either increase or decrease the sphaleron energy at the level of a few percent, parametrically of order $m_W^2 / Λ^2$ where $Λ$ is the scale suppressing the dimension-6 operator. The baryon-number washout condition, typically written as $v_c / T_c > 1$, is directly proportional to the sphaleron energy, and we discuss how the presence of dimension-6 operators can affect electroweak baryogenesis.

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