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Martin Beneke

Publications and source records attributed to Martin Beneke.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
arXiv2016

NNNLO determination of the bottom-quark mass from non-relativistic sum rules

The mass of the bottom quark can be determined with high precision from moments of the pair-production cross section sigma(e+ e- -> b bbar) near threshold. We present the first complete NNNLO determination from non-relativistic sum rules, obtaining a bottom-quark mass of mb^PS(2 GeV) = (4.532 +0.013 -0.039) GeV in the potential-subtracted scheme. For the mass in the MSbar scheme we find mb^MS(mb^MS) = (4.203 +0.016 -0.034) GeV using the recently computed four-loop correction to the scheme conversion.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2015

Non-QCD contributions to top-pair production near threshold

The threshold scan of top pair production at a future lepton collider allows to determine several Standard Model parameters with very high precision. The recent completion of the third-order QCD corrections to the inclusive top-pair production cross section demonstrated that strong dynamics are under control. We investigate effects from P-wave production and Higgs contributions at third order and from QED and the nonresonant production of the physical $W^+W^-b\bar{b}$ final state at first order. We discuss the sensitivity of the cross section to the top mass, width and Yukawa coupling as well as to the strong coupling.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2015

Two-loop current-current operator contribution to the non-leptonic QCD penguin amplitude

The computation of direct CP asymmetries in charmless B decays at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD is of interest to ascertain the short-distance contribution. Here we compute the two-loop penguin contractions of the current-current operators Q_{1,2} and provide a first estimate of NNLO CP asymmetries in penguin-dominated b -> s transitions.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2015

Non-relativistic high-energy physics: top production and dark matter annihilation

Non-relativistic physics is often associated with atomic physics and low-energy phenomena of the strong interactions between nuclei and quarks. In this review we cover three topics in contemporary high-energy physics at or close to the TeV scale, where non-relativistic dynamics plays an important if not defining role. We first discuss in detail the third-order corrections to top-quark pair production in electron-positron collisions in the threshold region, which plays a major role at a future high-energy e+ e- collider. Threshold effects are also relevant in the production of heavy particles in hadronic collisions, where in addition to the Coulomb force soft gluon radiation contributes to enhanced quantum corrections. We review the joint resummation of non-relativistic and soft gluon effects for pair production of top quarks and supersymmetric particles to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. The third topic deals with pair annihilation of dark matter particles within the framework of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Here the electroweak Yukawa force generated by the exchange of gauge and Higgs bosons can cause large "Sommerfeld" enhancements of the annihilation cross section in some parameter regions.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2015

Higgs effects in top anti-top production near threshold in e+ e- annihilation

The completion of the third-order QCD corrections to the inclusive top-pair production cross section near threshold demonstrates that the strong dynamics is under control at the few percent level. In this paper we consider the effects of the Higgs boson on the cross section and, for the first time, combine the third-order QCD result with the third-order P-wave, the leading QED and the leading non-resonant contributions. We study the size of the different effects and investigate the sensitivity of the cross section to variations of the top-quark Yukawa coupling due to possible new physics effects.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2014

Signatures of anomalous Higgs couplings in angular asymmetries of H --> Zl+l- and e+e- --> HZ

Parametrizing beyond Standard Model physics by the SU(3) x SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y dimension-six effective Lagrangian, we study the impact of anomalous Higgs couplings in angular asymmetries of the crossing-symmetric processes H --> Zl+l- and e+e- --> HZ. In the light of present bounds on d=6 couplings, we show that some asymmetries can reveal BSM effects that would otherwise be hidden in other observables. The d=6 HZgamma couplings as well as (to a lesser extent) HZll contact interactions can generate asymmetries at the several percent level, albeit having less significant effects on the di-lepton invariant mass spectrum of the decay H --> Zl+l-. The higher di-lepton invariant mass probed in e+e- --> HZ can lead to complementary anomalous coupling searches at e+e- colliders.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2014

Anomalous Higgs couplings in angular asymmetries of H --> Zl+l- and e+e- --> HZ

We study in detail the impact of anomalous Higgs couplings in angular asymmetries of the crossing-symmetric processes H --> Zl+l- and e+e- --> HZ. Beyond Standard Model physics is parametrized in terms of the SU(3)xSU(2)_LxU(1)_Y dimension-six effective Lagrangian. In the light of present bounds on d = 6 interactions we study how angular asymmetries can reveal non-standard CP-even and CP-odd couplings. We provide approximate expressions to all observables of interest making transparent their dominant dependence on anomalous couplings. We show that some asymmetries may reveal BSM effects that are hidden in other observables. In particular, CP-even and CP-odd d = 6 HZgamma couplings as well as (to a lesser extent) HZll contact interactions can generate asymmetries at the several percent level, while having small or no effects on the di-lepton invariant mass spectrum of H --> Zl+l-. Finally, the higher di-lepton invariant mass probed in e+e- --> HZ leads to interesting differences in the asymmetries with respect to those of H --> Zl+l- that may lead to complementary anomalous coupling searches at the LHC and e+e- colliders.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2014

The intrinsic B-mode polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background

We estimate the B-polarisation induced in the Cosmic Microwave Background by the non-linear evolution of density perturbations. Using the second-order Boltzmann code SONG, our analysis incorporates, for the first time, all physical effects at recombination. We also include novel contributions from the redshift part of the Boltzmann equation and from the bolometric definition of the temperature in the presence of polarisation. The remaining line-of-sight terms (lensing and time-delay) have previously been studied and must be calculated non-perturbatively. The intrinsic B-mode polarisation is present independent of the initial conditions and might contaminate the signal from primordial gravitational waves. We find this contamination to be comparable to a primordial tensor-to-scalar ratio of $r\simeq10^{-7}$ at the angular scale $\ell\simeq100\,$, where the primordial signal peaks, and $r\simeq 5 \cdot 10^{-5}$ at $\ell\simeq700\,$, where the intrinsic signal peaks. Therefore, we conclude that the intrinsic B-polarisation from second-order effects is not likely to contaminate future searches of primordial gravitational waves.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2014

Leptonic decay of the Upsilon(1S) meson at third order in QCD

We present the complete next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order short-distance and bound-state QCD correction to the leptonic decay rate Gamma(Upsilon(1S)->l+l-) of the lowest-lying spin-1 bottomonium state. The perturbative QCD prediction is compared to the measurement Gamma(Upsilon(1S)->e+e-)=1.340(18) keV.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2012

Perturbative expansion of tau hadronic spectral function moments and alpha_s extractions

Various moments of the hadronic spectral functions have been employed in the determination of the strong coupling alpha_s from tau decays. In this work we study the behaviour of their perturbative series under different assumptions for the large-order behaviour of the Adler function, extending previous work on the tau hadronic width. We find that the moments can be divided into a small number of classes, whose characteristics depend only on generic features of the moment weight function and Adler function series. Some moments that are commonly employed in alpha_s analyses from tau decays should be avoided because of their perturbative instability. This conclusion is corroborated by a simplified alpha_s extraction from individual moments. Furthermore, under reasonable assumptions for the higher-order behaviour of the perturbative series, fixed-order perturbation theory (FOPT) provides the preferred framework for the renormalization group improvement of all moments that show good perturbative behaviour. Finally, we provide further evidence for the plausibility of the description of the Adler function in terms of a small number of leading renormalon singularities.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2012

Soft-collinear gravity

We study collinear and soft singularities in perturbative quantum gravity by constructing an effective field theory similar to soft-collinear effective theory for QCD (SCET). We find that the soft sector exhibits factorization properties similar to those of SCET. The collinear sector is, however, quite different. While the leading-power collinear effective Lagrangian is trivial, the presence of the metric field $h_{++}$ with negative scaling dimension allows for collinear divergences in loop diagrams with couplings to non-collinear sources. We provide a compact proof of the well-known fact that there are no collinear singularities in perturbative quantum gravity by demonstrating the decoupling of $h_{++}$ from the sources. We briefly discuss the connection of our approach to recent work by Akhoury et al. (Phys. Rev. D84 (2011) 104040) as well as to the Weinberg's original paper (Phys. Rev. 140 (1965) B516), where the cancellation of the collinear singularities was demonstrated for the first time in the eikonal approximation.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2010

Threshold resummation for pair production of coloured heavy (s)particles at hadron colliders

We derive a factorization formula for the production of pairs of heavy coloured particles in hadronic collisions near the production threshold that establishes factorization of soft and Coulomb effects. This forms the basis for a combined resummation of Coulomb and soft corrections, including the non-trivial interference of the two effects. We develop a resummation formalism valid at NNLL accuracy using the momentum-space approach to soft gluon resummation. We present numerical results for the NLL resummed squark-antisquark production cross section at the LHC and Tevatron, including also the contribution of squark-antisquark bound states below threshold. The total correction on top of the next-to-leading order approximation is found to be sizeable, and amounts to (4-20)% in the squark mass region 200 GeV-3 TeV at the 14 TeV LHC. The scale dependence of the total cross section is also reduced.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2010

Flavoured Leptogenesis in the CTP Formalism

Within the Closed Time Path (CTP) framework, we derive kinetic equations for particle distribution functions that describe leptogenesis in the presence of several lepton flavours. These flavours have different Standard-Model Yukawa couplings, which induce flavour-sensitive scattering processes and thermal dispersion relations. Kinetic equilibrium, which is rapidly established and maintained via gauge interactions, allows to simplify these equations to kinetic equations for the matrix of lepton charge densities. In performing this simplification, we notice that the rapid flavour-blind gauge interactions damp the flavour oscillations of the leptons. Leptogenesis turns out to be in the parametric regime where the flavour oscillations are overdamped and flavour decoherence is mainly induced by flavour sensitive scatterings. We solve the kinetic equations for the lepton number densities numerically and show that they interpolate between the unflavoured and the fully flavoured regimes within the intermediate parametric region, where neither of these limits is applicable.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2010

Finite Number Density Corrections to Leptogenesis

We derive and solve kinetic equations for leptogenesis within the Closed Time Path (CTP) formalism. It is particularly emphasised how the procedure of real intermediate state subtraction familiar from the Boltzmann approach is realised within the CTP framework; and we show how in time-independent situations, no lepton asymmetry emerges, in accordance with the CPT-theorem. The CTP approach provides new quantum statistical corrections from evaluating the loop integrals. These lead to an enhancement of the asymmetry that is originating from the Bose statistics of the Higgs particles. To quantify this effect, we define and evaluate an effective CP-violating parameter. We also solve the kinetic equations and show explicitly that the new quantum statistical corrections can be neglected in the strong washout regime, while, depending on initial conditions, they can be very sizable for weak washout.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2009

Colour structure in threshold resummation and squark-antisquark production at NLL

We consider the resummation of soft and Coulomb gluons for pair-production processes of heavy coloured particles at hadron colliders, and discuss recent results on the construction of a basis in colour space that diagonalizes the soft function to all orders in perturbation theory and the determination of the two-loop soft anomalous dimension needed for NNLL resummations. We present results for the combined NLL resummation of soft gluon and Coulomb-gluon effects for squark-antisquark production at the LHC.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2008

alpha_s and the tau hadronic width: fixed-order, contour-improved and higher-order perturbation theory

The determination of $α_s$ from hadronic $τ$ decays is revisited, with a special emphasis on the question of higher-order perturbative corrections and different possibilities of resumming the perturbative series with the renormalisation group: fixed-order (FOPT) vs. contour-improved perturbation theory (CIPT). The difference between these approaches has evolved into a systematic effect that does not go away as higher orders in the perturbative expansion are added. We attempt to clarify under which circumstances one or the other approach provides a better approximation to the true result. To this end, we propose to describe the Adler function series by a model that includes the exactly known coefficients and theoretical constraints on the large-order behaviour originating from the operator product expansion and the renormalisation group. Within this framework we find that while CIPT is unable to account for the fully resummed series, FOPT smoothly approaches the Borel sum, before the expected divergent behaviour sets in at even higher orders. Employing FOPT up to the fifth order to determine $α_s$ in the $\MSb$ scheme, we obtain $α_s(M_τ)=0.320 {}^{+0.012}_{-0.007}$, corresponding to $α_s(M_Z) = 0.1185 {}^{+0.0014}_{-0.0009}$. Improving this result by including yet higher orders from our model yields $α_s(M_τ)=0.316 \pm 0.006$, which after evolution leads to $α_s(M_Z) = 0.1180 \pm 0.0008$. Our results are lower than previous values obtained from $τ$ decays.

hep-ph↗