arXiv subjects

Manuel Drees

Publications and source records attributed to Manuel Drees.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Impact of the Bounds on the Direct Search for Neutralino Dark Matter on Naturalness

In the Minimal Supersymmetric Extension of the Standard Model (MSSM) the higgsino mass parameter $μ$ appears both in the masses of the Higgs bosons and in the neutralino mass matrix. Electroweak finetuning therefore prefers small values of $|μ|$. On the other hand, bino--like neutralinos make a good dark matter candidate. We show that current direct search limits then impose a strong lower bound on $|μ|$, in particular for $μ> 0$ or if the masses of the heavy Higgs bosons of the MSSM are near their current limit from LHC searches. There is therefore some tension between finetuning and neutralino dark matter in the MSSM. We also provide simple analytical expressions which in most cases closely reproduce the numerical results.

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arXiv2021

Overshooting, Critical Higgs Inflation and Second Order Gravitational Wave Signatures

The self coupling $λ$ of the Higgs boson in the Standard Model may show critical behavior, i.e. the Higgs potential may have a point at an energy scale $\sim 10^{17-18}$ GeV where both the first and second derivatives (almost) vanish. In this case the Higgs boson can serve as inflaton even if its nonminimal coupling to the curvature scalar is only ${\cal O}(10)$, thereby alleviating concerns about the perturbative unitarity of the theory. We find that just before the Higgs as inflaton enters the flat region of the potential the usual slow--roll conditions are violated. This leads to "overshooting" behavior, which in turn strongly enhances scalar curvature perturbations because of the excitation of entropic (non--adiabatic) perturbations. For appropriate choice of the free parameters these large perturbations occur at length scales relevant for the formation of primordial black holes. Even if these perturbations are not quite large enough to trigger copious black hole formation, they source second order tensor perturbations, i.e. primordial gravitational waves; the corresponding energy density can be detected by the proposed space-based gravitational wave detectors DECIGO and BBO.

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arXiv2019

Neutron EDM constrains direct dark matter detection prospects

A non-relativistic effective field theory (NREFT) offers a bottom-up framework to classify Dark Matter (DM)-nucleon interactions relevant for scattering at direct detection experiments by organizing the interactions in powers of the momentum transfer $\vec{q}$ and DM velocity $\vec{v}$. This approach generates a number of operators including P-odd and T-odd operators; these can only be generated from a relativistic theory with CP violating interactions. We consider the leading order P-odd, T- odd operators viz. $\mathcal{O}_{10}$, $\mathcal{O}_{11}$ and $\mathcal{O}_{12}$ and compare the constraints on these operators from leading direct detection searches and from the bound on the neutron EDM (nEDM). We perform our analysis using simplified models with charged mediators and compute the loop diagrams contributing to the nEDM. We find that constraints on the DM scattering cross section from the bound on the nEDM are several orders of magnitude stronger than the limits from direct searches, and even well below the neutrino floor for such NREFT operators, for the entire sub-GeV to TeV DM mass range. This indicates that these operators need not be considered when analyzing data from present or future direct dark matter detection experiments.

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arXiv2019

Constraints on Mediator Coupled to Heavy Quarks from LHC Data

We apply LHC data to constrain a simplified extension of the Standard Model containing a new spin-1 mediator $R$, which does not couple to first generation quarks, and a spinor dark matter particle $χ$. We recast ATLAS and CMS searches for final states containing one or more jet(s) + missing $E_T$, with or without $b$ tags, as well as searches for di-jet resonances with $b$ or $t$ tagging. We find that LHC constraints on the axial vector couplings of the mediator are always stronger than the unitarity bound, which scales like $m_R/m_t$. If $R$ has a sizable invisible branching ratio, the strongest LHC bound on both vector couplings and axial vector coupling comes from a di-jet + missing $E_T$ search with or without double $b$ tag. These bounds are quite strong for $m_R < 1$ TeV, even though we have switched off all couplings to valence quarks. Searches for a di-jet resonance with double $b$ tag lead to comparable bounds with the previous results even if $R \rightarrow χ\bar χ$ decays are allowed; these are the only sensitive LHC searches if the invisible branching ratio of $R$ is very small or zero.

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arXiv2019

A Very Heavy Sneutrino as Viable Thermal Dark Matter Candidate in $U(1)'$ Extensions of the MSSM

We study the Standard Model singlet ("right-handed") sneutrino $\tilde ν_R$ dark matter in a class of $U(1)'$ extensions of the MSSM that originate from the breaking of the $E_6$ gauge group. These models, which are referred to as UMSSM, contain three right--handed neutrino superfields plus an extra gauge boson $Z'$ and an additional SM singlet Higgs with mass $\simeq M_{Z'}$, together with their superpartners. In the UMSSM the right sneutrino is charged under the extra $U(1)'$ gauge symmetry; it can therefore annihilate via gauge interactions. In particular, for $M_{\tilde ν_R} \simeq M_{Z'}/2$ the sneutrinos can annihilate by the exchange of (nearly) on--shell gauge or Higgs bosons. We focus on this region of parameter space. For some charge assignment we find viable thermal $\tilde ν_R$ dark matter for mass up to $\sim 43$ TeV. This is the highest mass of a good thermal dark matter candidate in standard cosmology that has so far been found in an explicit model. Our result can also be applied to other models of spin$-0$ dark matter candidates annihilating through the resonant exchange of a scalar particle. These models cannot be tested at the LHC, nor in present or near--future direct detection experiments, but could lead to visible indirect detection signals in future Cherenkov telescopes.

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arXiv2019

Constraints on $U(1)_{L_μ-L_τ}$ from LHC Data

In this study, we apply LHC data to constrain the extension of the Standard Model by an anomaly-free $U(1)_{L_μ-L_τ}$ gauge group; this model contains a new gauge boson ($Z^\prime$) and a scalar dark matter particle ($ϕ_{\rm DM}$). We recast a large number of LHC analyses from ATLAS and CMS of multi-lepton final states. We find that for $10$ GeV $< m_{Z^\prime} < 60$ GeV the strongest constraint comes from a dedicated $Z^\prime$ search in the $4μ$ final state by the CMS collaboration; for larger $Z^\prime$ masses, searches for final states with three leptons plus missing $E_T$ are more sensitive. Searches for final states with two leptons and missing $E_T$, which are sensitive to $Z^\prime$ decays into dark matter particles, can only probe regions of parameter space that are excluded by searches in the $3$ and $4$ lepton channels. The combination of LHC data excludes values of $Z^\prime$ mass and coupling constant that can explain the deficit in $g_μ-2$ for $4$ GeV $\leq m_{Z^\prime} \leq 500$ GeV. However, for much of this range the LHC bound is weaker than the bound that can be derived from searches for trident events in neutrino-nucleus scattering.

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arXiv2018

Neutralino Dark Matter in Scenarios with Early Matter Domination

We investigate the production of neutralino dark matter in a cosmological scenario featuring an early matter dominated era ending at a relatively low reheating temperature. In such scenarios different production mechanisms of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), besides the well--studied thermal production, can be important. This opens up new regions of parameter space where the lightest neutralino, as the best--known supersymmetric (SUSY) WIMP, obtains the required relic abundance. Many of these new sets of parameters are also compatible with current limits from colliders as well as direct and indirect WIMP searches. In particular, in standard cosmology bino--like neutralinos, which emerge naturally as lightest neutralino in many models, can have the desired relic density only in some finetuned regions of parameter space where the effective annihilation cross section is enhanced by co--annihilation or an $s-$channel pole. In contrast, if the energy density of the universe was dominated by long--lived PeV--scale particles (e.g. moduli or Polonyi fields), bino--like neutralinos can obtain the required relic density over wide regions of supersymmetric parameter space. We identify the interesting ranges of mass and decay properties of the heavy long--lived particles, carefully treating the evolution of the temperature of the thermal background.

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arXiv2018

Dark Matter Theory

I begin by briefly reviewing the evidence for the existence of Dark Matter (DM), emphasizing that {\em many} observations, at length scales between kpc (the size of the smallest galaxies) and Gpc (the Hubble radius) can be described by the same simple model, $Λ$CDM. I will then argue that primordial black holes, the only DM candidates that can be realized within the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics, are very unlikely to provide all of DM. After giving a (probably incomplete) list of possible DM candidates, I end by mentioning some recent developments in the theory of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs).

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arXiv2018

Constraints on a Light Leptophobic Mediator from LEP Data

We apply data taken at the $e^+e^-$ collider LEP in the 1990's at center-of-mass energy up to 209 GeV to constrain Dark Matter models with a light leptophobic spin-1 mediator $R$. We assume that the dark sector particle (DSP) is a spin-1/2 fermion $χ$. This scenario is well studied in the context of LHC searches for mediator mass from 100 GeV to several TeV. Emission of the mediator off a quark or antiquark at LEP gives rise to di-jet plus missing energy and 4-jet signatures, which we use to limit the relevant couplings. We focus on scenarios with $2 m_χ> m_R$, which are poorly constrained by LHC data. We recast published searches by the ALEPH collaboration. For $m_χ< 20$ GeV the best bounds result from an analysis at $\sqrt{s} \simeq M_Z$ of di-jet plus missing energy events. For heavier DSP but $m_R < 70$ GeV meaningful bounds can be derived from a four jet analysis at $\sqrt{s} = 183$ GeV. Unfortunately published searches using four jet final states at $\sqrt{s} \simeq M_Z$ use only a small fraction of the total data sample. Moreover, all published searches for di-jet plus missing energy final states at $\sqrt{s} \geq 130$ GeV have poor efficiency for our model; we therefore design new cuts that combine good background rejection with higher efficiency. Re-analyzing the higher energy data using our new cuts, and an analysis of the complete four jet data sample taken at $\sqrt{s}\simeq M_Z$, can explore new regions of parameter space.

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arXiv2018

Dark Matter Production in an Early Matter Dominated Era

We investigate dark matter (DM) production in an early matter dominated era where a heavy long-lived particle decays to radiation and DM. In addition to DM annihilation into and thermal DM production from radiation, we include direct DM production from the decay of the long-lived particle. In contrast to earlier treatments the temperature dependence of the number of degrees of freedom $g_*$ in the Standard Model (SM) plasma is treated carefully. Besides the well-known cases of thermal hot and cold DM, additional regions of parameter space with the approximately correct DM relic density appear. In some of these regions the temperature dependence of $g_*$ can change the final DM density by several hundred percent. Furthermore, we analyze the effect of allowing nonvanishing initial abundances for radiation and DM. We find an upper bound on the mass of the long-lived particle if the DM annihilation cross section is below that corresponding to thermal WIMP (Weakly Interactive Massive Particle) DM in standard cosmology.

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arXiv2017

Analysis of the Bounds on Dark Matter Models from Monojet Searches at the LHC

We analyse the constraints on models of WIMP Dark Matter that can be derived from upper bounds on the "monojet" cross section at the LHC. These constraints were originally interpreted in the context of an effective field theory (EFT) where the Standard Model is extended by a dimension--6 operator whose coefficient is $1/Λ^2$. We show that combining the 8 TeV data of the ATLAS and CMS collaborations improves the bounds only slightly. We then analyze this final state in the context of simplified models with $s-$channel mediator. We show that if the decay width of the mediator is small, these simplified models can be accurately modeled by the effective field theory only if the mediator mass is above 5 TeV. Finally, we point out that even if the EFT accurately describes the ${\cal O}(Λ^{-2})$ contributions to the matrix element, for values of $Λ$ near the current bound it receives significant contributions of order $Λ^{-4}$, in the context of simplified models, these correspond to diagrams where two mediators are exchanged. This observation challenges the internal consistency of the EFT description since dimension$-8$ operators, which would also contribute to ${\cal O}(Λ^{-4})$ to the matrix element, are not included.

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arXiv2015

The Effects of QCD Equation of State on the Relic Density of WIMP Dark Matter

Weakly Interactive Massive Particles (WIMPs) are the most widely studied candidate particles forming the cold dark matter (CDM) whose existence can be inferred from a wealth of astrophysical and cosmological observations. In the framework of the minimal cosmological model detailed measurements on the cosmic microwave background by the PLANCK collaboration fix the scaled CDM relic density to $Ω_{c}h^2=0.1193\pm0.0014$, with an error of less than 1.5%. In order to fully exploit this observational precision, theoretical calculations should have a comparable or smaller error. In this paper we use recent lattice QCD calculations to improve the description of the thermal plasma. This affects the predicted relic density of "thermal WIMPs", which once were in chemical equilibrium with Standard Model particles. For WIMP masses between 3 and 15 GeV, where QCD effects are most important, our predictions differ from earlier results by up to 9% (12%) for pure S-wave (P-wave) annihilation. We use these results to compute the thermally averaged WIMP annihilation cross section that reproduces the correct CDM relic density, for WIMP masses between 0.1 GeV and 10 TeV.

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arXiv2014

CheckMATE: Confronting your Favourite New Physics Model with LHC Data

In the first three years of running, the LHC has delivered a wealth of new data that is now being analysed. With over 20 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity, both ATLAS and CMS have performed many searches for new physics that theorists are eager to test their model against. However, tuning the detector simulations, understanding the particular analysis details and interpreting the results can be a tedious task. CheckMATE (Check Models At Terascale Energies) is a program package which accepts simulated event files in many formats for any model. The program then determines whether the model is excluded or not at 95% C.L. by comparing to many recent experimental analyses. Furthermore the program can calculate confidence limits and provide detailed information about signal regions of interest. It is simple to use and the program structure allows for easy extensions to upcoming LHC results in the future. CheckMATE can be found at: http://checkmate.hepforge.org

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arXiv2013

Determination of the CMSSM Parameters using Neural Networks

In most (weakly interacting) extensions of the Standard Model the relation mapping the parameter values onto experimentally measurable quantities can be computed (with some uncertainties), but the inverse relation is usually not known. In this paper we demonstrate the ability of artificial neural networks to find this unknown relation, by determining the unknown parameters of the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (CMSSM) from quantities that can be measured at the LHC. We expect that the method works also for many other new physics models. We compare its performance with the results of a straightforward χ^2 minimization. We simulate LHC signals at a center of mass energy of 14 TeV at the hadron level. In this proof-of-concept study we do not explicitly simulate Standard Model backgrounds, but apply cuts that have been shown to enhance the signal-to-background ratio. We analyze four different benchmark points that lie just beyond current lower limits on superparticle masses, each of which leads to around 1000 events after cuts for an integrated luminosity of 10 fb^{-1}. We use up to 84 observables, most of which are counting observables; we do not attempt to directly reconstruct (differences of) masses from kinematic edges or kinks of distributions. We nevertheless find that m_0 and m_{1/2} can be determined reliably, with errors as small as 1% in some cases. With 500 fb^{-1} of data tanβas well as A_0 can also be determined quite accurately. For comparable computational effort the χ^2 minimization yielded much worse results.

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arXiv2013

Enhanced One-Loop Corrections to WIMP Annihilation and their Thermal Relic Density in the Coannihilation Region

We consider quantum corrections to co-annihilation processes of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) due to the exchange of light bosons in the initial state ("Sommerfeld corrections"). We work at one-loop level, i.e. we assume that these corrections can be treated perturbatively. Co-annihilation is important if there is at least one additional new particle with mass close to the lightest WIMP, which is a Dark Matter candidate. In this case the exchange of a (relatively light) boson in the initial state can change the identity of the annihilating particles. The corrections we are interested in factorize, as in the case of WIMP self-annihilation treated previously, but they can mix different tree-level amplitudes. Moreover, even small mass splittings between the external particles and those in the loop can change the relevant loop functions significantly. We find exact analytical expressions for these functions, and illustrate the effects by considering the cases of wino- or higgsino-like neutralinos as examples.

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arXiv2012

A Supersymmetric Explanation of the Excess of Higgs--Like Events at the LHC and at LEP

The LHC collaborations have recently announced evidence for the production of a "Higgs--like" boson with mass near 125 GeV. The properties of the new particle are consistent (within still quite large uncertainties) with those of the Higgs boson predicted in the Standard Model (SM). This discovery comes nearly ten years after a combined analysis of the four LEP experiments showed a mild excess of Higgs--like events with a mass near 98 GeV. I show that both groups of events can be explained simultaneously in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the SM, in terms of the production and decay of the two neutral CP--even Higgs bosons predicted by this model, and explore the phenomenological consequences of this explanation.

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arXiv2012

Radiative Corrections to the Neutralino Dark Matter Relic Density - an Effective Coupling Approach

In the framework of the minimal cosmological standard model, the $Λ$CDM model, the Dark Matter density is now known with an error of a few percent; this error is expected to shrink even further once PLANCK data are analyzed. Matching this precision by theoretical calculations implies that at least leading radiative corrections to the annihilation cross section of the dark matter particles have to be included. Here we compute one kind of large corrections in the context of the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model: corrections associated with two-point function corrections on chargino and neutralino lines. These can be described by effective chargino/neutralino-fermion-sfermion and chargino/neutralino-chargino/neutralino-Higgs couplings. We also employ one-loop corrected chargino and neutralino masses, using a recently developed version of the on-shell renormalization scheme. The resulting correction to the predicted Dark Matter density depends strongly on parameter space, but can easily reach 3%.

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arXiv2012

Light Stop Searches at the LHC with Monojet Events

We consider light top squarks (stops) in the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model at the Large Hadron Collider. Here, we assume that the lightest neutralino is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) and the lighter stop is the next-to-LSP. Stop pair production is difficult to probe at the Large Hadron Collider for small stop-LSP mass splitting. It has been shown previously that even in this case stop detection is possible if one considers stop pair production in association with one hard jet. We reconsider this supersymmetric monojet signature and go beyond previous works by including the full Standard Model background and optimizing the cuts, working at the hadron level and including detector effects. As a result, a larger portion of the stop-LSP mass plane becomes accessible to monojet searches.

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