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Margherita Ghezzi

Publications and source records attributed to Margherita Ghezzi.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2021

Hadronic production of top-quark pairs in association with a pair of leptons in the POWHEG BOX framework

We present an implementation of $t\bar t \ell^+\ell^-$ ($\ell=e,μ$) hadronic production at next-to-leading order in QCD matched to parton-shower event generators in the POWHEG BOX framework. The program we developed includes all leading-order contributions of order $α_s^2α^2$ for the specified final state, as well as the corresponding first-order QCD corrections. Decays of the top quarks have been simulated retaining spin-correlations in all tree-level matrix elements. We consider the case of the Large Hadron Collider at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV and compare results for $t\bar t \ell^+\ell^-$ production in the fiducial volume where the invariant mass of the lepton pairs is centered around the $Z$-boson mass to corresponding predictions for $t\bar{t}Z$ on-shell production with $Z\rightarrow \ell^+\ell^-$. We find that off-shell effects in $t\bar t \ell^+\ell^-$ are in general small at the level of the total cross section, but can decrease the tail of the leptons' transverse momentum distributions by 10-20% and, in these regions, they are visible beyond the scale uncertainty due to renormalization and factorization scale variation. Moreover, we find that accounting for top-quark decays in the narrow-width approximation with tree-level spin correlations also gives origin to 10-20% effects in specific regions of the kinematic distributions of the $t\bar t \ell^+\ell^-$ decayed final state.

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arXiv2021

Vector-like quarks decaying into singly and doubly charged bosons at LHC

We investigate the production of vector-like quarks with charge $5/3$ at the LHC and their subsequent decays into new singly or doubly charged bosons plus a heavy quark (top or bottom). In particular, we explore final states with same-sign di-leptons (electron or muon pairs), with the leptons coming from the decay of the new bosons and, in the case of production of singly charged bosons, from top quarks as well. These processes are predicted by classes of models based on extensions of the gauge group of the Standard Model, such as the 331 Model, where the electroweak symmetry is described by $SU(3)_L\times U(1)_X$, $X$ being a new abelian charge. For this purpose, a CMS search for vector-like partners with charge 5/3 decaying into $Wt$ is recast to obtain model-independent bounds and projected reaches at future luminosity stages of the LHC. The results are then interpreted as mass bounds for the new particles predicted in the 331 Model and as a constrain on the scale of its spontaneous symmetry breaking. The complete set of model-independent results are provided as recast efficiencies, to allow for reinterpretation in different scenarios.

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arXiv2020

Theoretical constraints on the Higgs potential of the general $331$ model

This article reviews the theoretical constraints on the scalar potential of a general extension of the Standard Model that encompasses a $SU(3)_c\times SU(3)_L\times U(1)_X$ gauge symmetry. In this respect, the boundedness-from-below is analysed to identify the correct criteria for obtaining the physical minima of the Higgs parameter space. Furthermore, perturbativity and unitarity bounds are discussed in light of the exact diagonalisation of the scalar fields. This study represents a framework for fast numerical checks on specific $331$ Model benchmarks that are relevant for future collider searches.

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arXiv2020

Refinements of the Bottom and Strange MSSM Higgs Yukawa Couplings at NNLO

We extend the already existing two-loop calculation of the effective bottom-Yukawa coupling in the MSSM. In addition to the resummation of the dominant corrections for large values of tg$β$, we include the subleading terms related to the trilinear Higgs coupling $A_b$ and contributions induced by the electroweak gauge couplings. This calculation has been extended to the NNLO corrections to the MSSM strange-Yukawa coupling. Our analysis leads to residual theoretical uncertainties of the effective Yukawa couplings at the per-cent level.

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arXiv2020

Effective Field Theory with Two Higgs Doublets

In this article we extend the effective field theory framework describing new physics effects to the case where the underlying low-energy theory is a Two-Higgs-Doublet model. We derive a complete set of independent operators up to dimension six assuming a $Z_2$-invariant CP-conserving Higgs potential. The effects on Higgs and gauge boson masses, mixing angles in the Higgs sector as well as couplings to fermions and gauge bosons are computed. At variance with the case of a single Higgs doublet, we find that pair production of SM-like Higgses, arising through dimension-six operators, is not fixed by fermion-fermion-Higgs couplings and can therefore be sizable.

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arXiv2019

Low- and high-energy phenomenology of a doubly charged scalar

We explore the phenomenology of an $SU(2)$-singlet doubly charged scalar at the high and low energy frontier. Such a particle is predicted in different new physics models, like left-right symmetric models or the Zee-Babu model. Nonetheless, since its interactions with Standard Model (SM) leptons are gauge invariant, it can be consistently studied as a UV complete SM extension. Its signatures range from same-sign di-lepton pairs to flavour changing decays of charged leptons to muonium-antimuonium oscillations. In this article, we use a systematic effective-field-theory approach for studying the low-energy observables and comparing them consistently to collider bounds. For this purpose, experimental searches for doubly charged scalars at the Large Hadron Collider are reinterpreted, including large width effects, and projections for exclusion and discovery reaches in the high-luminosity phase are provided. The sensitivities of the future International Linear Collider and Compact Linear Collider for the doubly charged scalar are presented with focus on di-lepton final states and resonant production. Theoretically and phenomenologically motivated benchmark scenarios are considered showing the different impact of low- and high-energy observables. We find that future low- and high-energy experiments display strong complementarity in studying the parameter space of the model.

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arXiv2015

NLO Higgs Effective Field Theory and kappa-framework

A consistent framework for studying Standard Model deviations is developed. It assumes that New Physics becomes relevant at some scale beyond the present experimental reach and uses the Effective Field Theory approach by adding higher-dimensional operators to the Standard Model Lagrangian and by computing relevant processes at the next-to-leading order, extending the original kappa-framework.

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arXiv2014

Bounding the Higgs Width Using Effective Field Theory

An interesting question is how present and future experiments will be able to probe the couplings of the Higgs boson and its intrinsic width at a high level of precision. There is a wide variety of beyond the Standard Model (BSM) theories where the Higgs couplings differ from the Standard Model (SM) ones by less that 10%. We take the SM as the theory of "light" degrees of freedom, i.e. d=4 operators and simulate the unknown extension of the SM by the most general set of d=6 operators. In particular we provide an explicit example of momentum-dependent modification of Higgs couplings.

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arXiv2014

Effective Lagrangian for a light Higgs-like scalar

We reconsider the effective Lagrangian that describes a light Higgs-like boson and better clarify a few issues which were not exhaustively addressed in the previous literature. In particular we highlight the strategy to determine whether the dynamics responsible for the electroweak symmetry breaking is weakly or strongly interacting. We also discuss how the effective Lagrangian can be implemented into automatic tools for the calculation of Higgs decay rates and production cross sections.

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arXiv2013

Anomalous Couplings in Double Higgs Production

The process of gluon-initiated double Higgs production is sensitive to non-linear interactions of the Higgs boson. In the context of the Standard Model, studies of this process focused on the extraction of the Higgs trilinear coupling. In a general parametrization of New Physics effects, however, an even more interesting interaction that can be tested through this channel is the (ttbar hh) coupling. This interaction vanishes in the Standard Model and is a genuine signature of theories in which the Higgs boson emerges from a strongly-interacting sector. In this paper we perform a model-independent estimate of the LHC potential to detect anomalous Higgs couplings in gluon-fusion double Higgs production. We find that while the sensitivity to the trilinear is poor, the perspectives of measuring the new (ttbar hh) coupling are rather promising.

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arXiv2013

The scale of soft resummation in SCET vs perturbative QCD

We summarize and extend previous results on the comparison of threshold resummation, performed, using soft-collinear effective theory (SCET), in the Becher-Neubert approach, to the standard perturbative QCD formalism based on factorization and resummation of Mellin moments of partonic cross sections. We show that the logarithmic accuracy of this SCET result can be extended by half a logarithmic order, thereby bringing it in full agreement with the standard QCD result if a suitable choice is made for the soft scale mu_s which characterizes the SCET result. We provide a master formula relating the two approaches for other scale choices. We then show that with the Becher-Neubert scale choice the Landau pole, which in the perturbative QCD approach is usually removed through power- or exponentially suppressed terms, in the SCET approach is removed by logarithmically subleading terms which break factorization. Such terms may become leading for generic choices of parton distributions, and are always leading when resummation is used far enough from the hadronic threshold.

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arXiv2012

Threshold resummation in SCET vs. perturbative QCD: an analytic comparison

We compare threshold resummation in QCD, as performed using soft-collinear effective theory (SCET), to the standard perturbative QCD formalism based on factorization and resummation of Mellin moments of partonic cross-sections. We consider various forms of the SCET result, which correspond to different choices of the soft scale mu_s that characterizes this approach. We derive a master formula that relates the SCET resummation to the QCD result for any choice of mu_s. We then use it first, to show that if SCET resummation is performed in N-Mellin moment space by suitable choice of mu_s it is equivalent to the standard perturbative approach. Next, we show that if SCET resummation is performed by choosing for mu_s a partonic momentum variable, the perturbative result for partonic resummed cross-sections is again reproduced, but like its standard perturbative counterpart it is beset by divergent behaviour at the endpoint. Finally, using the master formula we show that when mu_s is chosen as a hadronic momentum variable the SCET and standard approach are related through a multiplicative (convolutive) factor, which contains the dependence on the Landau pole and associated divergence. This factor depends on the luminosity in a non-universal way; it lowers by one power of log the accuracy of the resummed result, but it is otherwise subleading if one assumes the luminosity not to contain logarithmically enhanced terms. Therefore, the SCET approach can be turned into a prescription to remove the Landau pole from the perturbative result, but the price to pay for this is the reduction by one logarithmic power of the accuracy at each order and the need to make assumptions on the parton luminosity.

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