arXiv subjects

M. Quiros

Publications and source records attributed to M. Quiros.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2014

Indirect Effect of Supersymmetric Triplets in Stop Decays

We study an extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model with a zero hypercharge triplet, and the effect that such a particle has on stop decays. This model has the capability of predicting a 125.5 GeV Higgs even in the presence of light stops and it can modify the diphoton rate by means of the extra charged fermion triplet coupled to the Higgs. Working in the limit where the scalar triplet decouples, and with small values of mA, we find that the fermion triplet can greatly affect the branching ratios of the stops, even in the absence of a direct stop-triplet coupling. We compare the triplet extension with the MSSM and discuss how the additional fields affect the search for stop pair production.

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arXiv2012

Higgs Searches and Extra Dimensions

We present a short review of theories based on warped extra dimensions (motivated by the hierarchy problem of the Standard Model) which can accomodate a Higgs boson in the range suggested by the recent LHC results at 7 TeV. Using the AdS/CFT correspondence the Higgs is composite and can be described in the dual theory by a bound state of the 4D CFT. We have classified the theories in those with a scalar Higgs (5D SM) and those where the Higgs is the fifth component (gauge-Higgs unification) of a bulk gauge field.

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arXiv2009

Some Cosmological Implications of Hidden Sectors

We discuss some cosmological implications of extensions of the Standard Model with hidden sector scalars coupled to the Higgs boson. We put special emphasis on the conformal case, in which the electroweak symmetry is broken radiatively with a Higgs mass above the experimental limit. Our refined analysis of the electroweak phase transition in this kind of models strengthens the prediction of a strongly first-order phase transition as required by electroweak baryogenesis. We further study gravitational wave production and the possibility of low-scale inflation as well as a viable dark matter candidate.

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arXiv2008

Phantom Higgs from Unparticles

A renormalizable coupling between the Higgs and a scalar unparticle operator O_U of non-integer dimension d_U < 2 gives rise, after electroweak symmetry breaking, to a mass gap in the unparticle continuum and a shift in the original Higgs mass, which can end up above or below the mass gap. We show that, besides the displaced Higgs state, a new isolated state can generically appear in the spectrum near or below the mass gap. Such state (which we call phantom Higgs) is a mixture of Higgs and unparticles and therefore has universally reduced couplings to fermions and gauge bosons. This phenomenon could cause the mass of the lightest Higgs state accessible to colliders to be much smaller than the mass expected from the SM Lagrangian.

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arXiv2008

Dirac Vs. Majorana Neutrino Masses From a TeV Interval

We investigate the nature (Dirac vs. Majorana) and size of left-handed neutrino masses in a supersymmetric five-dimensional model compactified in the interval [0,πR], where quarks and leptons are localized on the boundaries while the gauge and Higgs sectors propagate in the bulk of the fifth dimension. Supersymmetry is broken by Scherk-Schwarz boundary conditions and electroweak breaking proceeds through radiative corrections. Right-handed neutrinos propagate in the bulk and have a general five-dimensional mass M, which localizes the zero modes towards one of the boundaries, and arbitrary boundary terms. We have found that for generic boundary terms left-handed neutrinos have Majorana masses. However for specific boundary configurations left-handed neutrinos are Dirac fermions as the theory possesses a conserved global U(1) symmetry which prevents violation of lepton number. The size of neutrino masses depends on the localization of the zero-modes of right-handed neutrinos and/or the size of the five-dimensional neutrino Yukawa couplings. Left-handed neutrinos in the sub-eV range require either MR~10 or Yukawa couplings ~10^{-3}R, which make the five-dimensional theory perturbative up to its natural cutoff.

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arXiv2008

The Higgs as a Portal to Plasmon-like Unparticle Excitations

A renormalizable coupling between the Higgs and a scalar unparticle operator O_U of non-integer dimension d_U<2 triggers, after electroweak symmetry breaking, an infrared divergent vacuum expectation value for O_U. Such IR divergence should be tamed before any phenomenological implications of the Higgs-unparticle interplay can be drawn. In this paper we present a novel mechanism to cure that IR divergence through (scale-invariant) unparticle self-interactions, which has properties qualitatively different from the mechanism considered previously. Besides finding a mass gap in the unparticle continuum we also find an unparticle pole reminiscent of a plasmon resonance. Such unparticle features could be explored experimentally through their mixing with the Higgs boson.

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arXiv2007

A New Gauge Mediation Theory

We propose a class of models with gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking, inspired by simple brane constructions, where R-symmetry is very weakly broken. The gauge sector has an extended N=2 supersymmetry and the two electroweak Higgses form an N=2 hypermultiplet, while quarks and leptons remain in N=1 chiral multiplets. Supersymmetry is broken via the D-term expectation value of a secluded U(1) and it is transmitted to the Standard Model via gauge interactions of messengers in N=2 hypermultiplets: gauginos thus receive Dirac masses. The model has several distinct experimental signatures with respect to ordinary models of gauge or gravity mediation realizations of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). First, it predicts extra states as a third chargino that can be observed at collider experiments. Second, the absence of a D-flat direction in the Higgs sector implies a lightest Higgs behaving exactly as the Standard Model one and thus a reduction of the `little' fine-tuning in the low tan(beta) region. This breaking of supersymmetry can be easily implemented in string theory models

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arXiv2006

Dark Matter in split extended supersymmetry

We consider the split extended (N=2) supersymmetry scenario recently proposed by Antoniadis et al. [hep-ph/0507192] as a realistic low energy framework arising from intersecting brane models. While all scalar superpartners and charged gauginos are naturally at a heavy scale, the model low energy spectrum contains a Higgsino-like chargino and a neutralino sector made out of two Higgsino and two Bino states. We show that the lightest neutralino is a viable dark matter candidate, finding regions in the parameter space where its thermal relic abundance matches the latest determination of the density of matter in the Universe by WMAP. We also discuss dark matter detection strategies within this model: we point out that current data on cosmic-ray antimatter already place significant constraints on the model, while direct detection is the most promising technique for the future. Analogies and differences with respect to the standard split SUSY scenario based on the MSSM are illustrated.

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arXiv2006

Introduction to extra dimensions

The aim of this talk is to provide non-experts with a brief and elementary introduction on the field of extra dimensions. The main motivation for extra dimensions relies on the more fundamental string theories that predict ten (or eleven) space-time dimensions. Extra dimensions must be compactified and there appear branes where gauge and/or gravity propagates. Compactification relates string constants (string scale and string coupling) with four-dimensional constants (Planck scale and gauge coupling). Only gravity can propagate in dimensions transverse to the brane. They can be detected either by gravitational (table-top) or by collider experiments where Kaluza-Klein graviton production appears as missing energy. Transverse dimensions can be as large as the sub-millimeter. Ordinary matter can also propagate in dimensions parallel to the brane. It can give rise to bumps in the dilepton invariant mass in hadron colliders or contribute by indirect effects to the electroweak observables. Longitudinal dimensions can be probed at LHC up to a scale of 6.7 TeV (9 TeV) for one (two) extra dimension(s). Extra dimensions also give rise to new theoretical ideas related to supersymmetry and electroweak breaking. Some of these ideas are reviewed.

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arXiv2006

The MSSM from Scherk-Schwarz Supersymmetry Breaking

We present a five-dimensional model compactified on an interval where supersymmetry is broken by the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism. The gauge sector propagates in the bulk, two Higgs hypermultiplets are quasilocalized, and quark and lepton multiplets localized, in one of the boundaries. The effective four-dimensional theory is the MSSM with very heavy gauginos, heavy squarks and light sleptons and Higgsinos. The soft tree-level squared masses of the Higgs sector can be negative and they can (partially) cancel the positive one-loop contributions from the gauge sector. Electroweak symmetry breaking can then comfortably be triggered by two-loop radiative corrections from the top-stop sector. The fine tuning required to obtain the electroweak scale is found to be much smaller than in the MSSM, with essentially no fine-tuning for few TeV gaugino masses. All bounds from direct Higgs searches at LEP and from electroweak precision observables can be satisfied. The lightest supersymmetric particle is a (Higgsino-like) neutralino that can accomodate the abundance of Dark Matter consistently with recent WMAP observations.

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arXiv2005

Electroweak Baryogenesis, Large Yukawas and Dark Matter

It has been recently shown that the electroweak baryogenesis mechanism is feasible in Standard Model extensions containing extra fermions with large Yukawa couplings. We show here that the lightest of these fermionic fields can naturally be a good candidate for cold dark matter. We find regions in the parameter space where the thermal relic abundance of this particle is compatible with the dark matter density of the Universe as determined by the WMAP experiment. We study direct and indirect dark matter detection for this model and compare with current experimental limits and prospects for upcoming experiments. We find, contrary to the standard lore, that indirect detection searches are more promising than direct detection ones, and they already exclude a portion of the parameter space.

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arXiv2004

Supersymmetry from Boundary Conditions

We study breaking and restoration of supersymmetry in five-dimensional theories by determining the mass spectrum of fermions from their equations of motion. Boundary conditions can be obtained from either the action principle by extremizing an appropriate boundary action (interval approach) or by assigning parities to the fields (orbifold approach). In the former, fields extend continuously from the bulk to the boundaries, while in the latter the presence of brane mass-terms cause fields to jump when one moves across the branes. We compare the two approaches and in particular we carefully compute the non-trivial jump profiles of the wavefunctions in the orbifold picture for very general brane mass terms. We also include the effect of the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism in either approach and point out that for a suitable tuning of the boundary actions supersymmetry is present for arbitrary values of the Scherk-Schwarz parameter. As an application of the interval formalism we construct bulk and boundary actions for super Yang-Mills theory. Finally we extend our results to the warped Randall-Sundrum background.

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arXiv2004

Fermions and Supersymmetry Breaking in the Interval

We study fermions, such as gravitinos and gauginos in supersymmetric theories, propagating in a five-dimensional bulk where the fifth dimensional component is assumed to be an interval. We show that the most general boundary condition at each endpoint of the interval is encoded in a single complex parameter representing a point in the Riemann sphere. Upon introducing a boundary mass term, the variational principle uniquely determines the boundary conditions and the bulk equations of motion. We show the mass spectrum becomes independent from the Scherk-Schwarz parameter for a suitable choice of one of the two boundary conditions. Furthermore, for any value of the Scherk-Schwarz parameter, a zero-mode is present in the mass spectrum and supersymmetry is recovered if the two complex parameters are tuned.

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arXiv2004

Tadpoles and Symmetries in Higgs-Gauge Unification Theories

In theories with extra dimensions the Standard Model Higgs fields can be identified with internal components of bulk gauge fields (Higgs-gauge unification). The bulk gauge symmetry protects the Higgs mass from quadratic divergences, but at the fixed points localized tadpoles can be radiatively generated if U(1) subgroups are conserved, making the Higgs mass UV sensitive. We show that a global symmetry, remnant of the internal rotation group after orbifold projection, can prevent the generation of such tadpoles. In particular we consider the classes of orbifold compactifications T^d/Z_N (d even, N>2) and T^d/Z_2 (arbitrary d) and show that in the first case tadpoles are always allowed, while in the second they can appear only for d=2 (six dimensions).

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arXiv2004

Higgs-gauge unification without tadpoles

In orbifold gauge theories localized tadpoles can be radiatively generated at the fixed points where U(1) subgroups are conserved. If the Standard Model Higgs fields are identified with internal components of the bulk gauge fields (Higgs-gauge unification) in the presence of these tadpoles the Higgs mass becomes sensitive to the UV cutoff and electroweak symmetry breaking is spoiled. We find the general conditions, based on symmetry arguments, for the absence/presence of localized tadpoles in models with an arbitrary number of dimensions D. We show that in the class of orbifold compactifications based on T^{D-4}/Z_N (D even, N>2) tadpoles are always allowed, while on T^{D-4}/\mathbb Z_2 (arbitrary D) with fermions in arbitrary representations of the bulk gauge group tadpoles can only appear in D=6 dimensions. We explicitly check this with one- and two-loops calculations

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arXiv2004

Spontaneous Scherk-Schwarz supersymmetry breaking and radion stabilization

In this talk I review the issues of supersymmetry breaking and radion stabilization in a five dimensional theory compactified on the Z_2 orbifold. Supersymmetry breaking by Scherk-Schwarz boundary conditions is interpreted as spontaneous breaking of local supersymmetry by the Hosotani mechanism. The auxiliary field responsible for spontaneous supersymmetry breaking is inside the five-dimensional off-shell minimal supergravity multiplet. Different ways of fixing the supersymmetry breaking order parameter are analyzed. In the presence of supersymmetry breaking the one-loop effective potential for the radion has a minimum that fixes its vacuum expectation value. The radion is stabilized in a metastable Minkowski_4 minimum (versus the AdS_4 vacuum) with a mass in the meV range making it interesting for future deviations from the gravitational inverse-square law.

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arXiv2003

Scherk-Schwarz Supersymmetry Breaking with Radion Stabilization

We study the issue of radion stabilization within five-dimensional supersymmetric theories compactified on the orbifold S^1/Z_2. We break supersymmetry by the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism and explain its implementation in the off-shell formulation of five dimensional supergravity in terms of the tensor and linear compensator multiplets. We show that radion stabilization may be achieved by radiative corrections in the presence of five-dimensional fields which are quasi-localized on the boundaries through the presence of Z_2 odd mass terms. For the mechanism to work the number of quasi-localized fields should be greater than 2+N_V-N_h where N_V and N_h are the number of massless gauge- and hypermultiplets in the bulk. The radion is stabilized in a metastable Minkowski vacuum with a lifetime much larger than cosmological time-scales. The radion mass is in the meV range making it interesting for present and future measurements of deviations from the gravitational inverse-square law in the submillimeter range.

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arXiv2003

New Ideas in Symmetry Breaking

Some old and new ideas on symmetry breaking, based on the presence of extra dimensions that have been the subject of a very fast development and intensive studies during the last years, will be presented in these lectures. Special attention will be devoted to the various compactification mechanisms, including toroidal and orbifold compactifications, and to non-trivial boundary conditions or Scherk-Schwarz compactification. Also symmetry breaking by Wilson lines, or Hosotani breaking characteristic of non-simply connected compact manifolds will be analyzed in some detail. The different mechanisms will be applied to the breaking of the most relevant symmetries in particle physics: supersymmetry and gauge symmetry. The required background for these lectures is Quantum Field Theory, Supersymmetry and some rudiments of Kaluza-Klein theory. The different sections will be illustrated with examples.

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