arXiv subjects

Mengchao Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Mengchao Zhang.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Detecting an axion-like particle with machine learning at the LHC

Axion-like particles (ALPs) appear in various new physics models with spontaneous global symmetry breaking. When the ALP mass is in the range of MeV to GeV, the cosmology and astrophysics bounds are so far quite weak. In this work, we investigate such light ALPs through the ALP-strahlung production processes $pp \to W^\pm a, Z a$ with the sequential decay $a \to γγ$ at the 14 TeV LHC with an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb$^{-1}$ (HL-LHC). Building on the concept of jet image which uses calorimeter towers as the pixels of the image and measures a jet as an image, we investigate the potential of machine learning techniques based on convolutional neural network (CNN) to identify the highly boosted ALPs which decay to a pair of highly collimated photons. With the CNN tagging algorithm, we demonstrate that our approach can extend current LHC sensitivity and probe the ALP mass range from 0.3~GeV to 5~GeV. The obtained bounds are stronger than the existing limits on the ALP-photon coupling.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Photon-jet events as a probe of axion-like particles at the LHC

Axion-like particles (ALPs) are predicted by many extensions of the Standard Model (SM). When ALP mass lies in the range of MeV to GeV, the cosmology and astrophysics will be largely irrelevant. In this work, we investigate such light ALPs through the ALP-strahlung process $pp \to V a (\to γγ)$ at the 14 TeV LHC with an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb$^{-1}$ (HL-LHC). With the photon-jet algorithm, we demonstrate that our approach can probe the mass range of ALPs, which is inaccessible to previous LHC experiments. The obtained result can surpass the existing limits on ALP-photon coupling in the ALP mass range from 0.3 GeV to 10 GeV.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

FLiText: A Faster and Lighter Semi-Supervised Text Classification with Convolution Networks

In natural language processing (NLP), state-of-the-art (SOTA) semi-supervised learning (SSL) frameworks have shown great performance on deep pre-trained language models such as BERT, and are expected to significantly reduce the demand for manual labeling. However, our empirical studies indicate that these frameworks are not suitable for lightweight models such as TextCNN, LSTM and etc. In this work, we develop a new SSL framework called FLiText, which stands for Faster and Lighter semi-supervised Text classification. FLiText introduces an inspirer network together with the consistency regularization framework, which leverages a generalized regular constraint on the lightweight models for efficient SSL. As a result, FLiText obtains new SOTA performance for lightweight models across multiple SSL benchmarks on text classification. Compared with existing SOTA SSL methods on TextCNN, FLiText improves the accuracy of lightweight model TextCNN from 51.00% to 90.49% on IMDb, 39.8% to 58.06% on Yelp-5, and from 55.3% to 65.08% on Yahoo. In addition, compared with the fully supervised method on the full dataset, FLiText just uses less than 1% of labeled data to improve the accuracy by 6.59%, 3.94%, and 3.22% on the datasets of IMDb, Yelp-5, and Yahoo respectively.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2021

Leptophilic Composite Asymmetric Dark Matter and its Detection

We propose a model which explains the baryon asymmetry of the universe and dark matter relic density at the same time. In this model, dark matter candidate is the dark baryon composed by dark quarks. A scalar mediator, which couples to the standard model leptons and dark quarks, is introduced to generate the asymmetry of baryon and dark baryon simultaneously. Direct detection and collider detection of this model are studied. We find that current underground direct detection experiments and LHC can hardly detect this model. But future lepton colliders, such as CEPC, have great potential to detect a large portion of the model parameter space by "displaced lepton jet" signal.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Flavor Anomalies Accommodated in A Flavor Gauged Two Higgs Doublet Model

The $3.1σ$ $R_K$ anomaly after Moriond 2021 and $3.3 σ$ $Δa_μ$ from Fermilab Muon g-2 experiment implicate that the lepton flavor universality violation (LFUV) may play a role in the exploration of new physics. A Flavor Gauged Two-Higgs Doublet Model (FG2HDM) is proposed and investigated in this work. To get rid of the the redundancy in Yukawa coupling of 2HDM-III, a specific U(1) flavor symmetry is introduced. The charge difference between two scalar doublet forbid the appearance of pseudoscalar and hence there are only three particles (a charged and neutral heavy scalar together with a neutral gauge boson) adding to SM particle spectrum. The heavy neutral scalar-mediated flavor-changing interactions occur among down-type quarks. With obvious difference from 2HDM-II, the charged Higgs in FG2HDM can naturally explain $R_{D^{(*)}}$ anomaly. The heavy neutral vector boson $Z'$, changing flavor for down-type quark uniquely as well, provides a solution to $R_{K^{(*)}}$. The anomalous magnetic dipole moment (AMDM) of muon and electron, especially the new released $Δa_μ$, can further discriminate $Z'$ parameter space.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Probing bino NLSP at lepton colliders

We consider a scenario where light bino is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) and gravitino/axino is the lightest superysmmetric particle (LSP). For a bino mass less than or around hundred GeV, it can be pair produced at the future lepton colliders through $t-$channel slepton exchange, subsequently decaying into a gravitino/axino plus a photon. We study the prospects to look for such binos at the future colliders and find that a bino mass around 100 GeV can be probed at the $2σ$ ($5σ$) level for a slepton below 2 TeV (1.5 TeV) with a luminosity 3 $ab^{-1}$. For a bino mass around 10 GeV, a slepton mass less than 4 TeV (3 TeV) can be probed at the $2σ$ ($5σ$) level, which is much beyond the reach of the LHC for direct slepton searches.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Hunting for top partner with a new signature at the LHC

Vector-like top partner plays a central role in many new physics models which attempt to address the hierarchy problem. The top partner is conventionally assumed to decay to a quark and a SM boson. However, it is also possible that the top partner decays to a non-SM scalar and a top quark. Such an exotic decay channel can be the main decay channel of top partner, and thus provides new windows to search for top partner at the LHC. In this paper, with classical machine learning method Boosted Decision Tree (BDT), we perform a model independent study of the discovery potential of this new signature at the LHC. In order to suppress the main QCD background, we consider subdominant but clean decay channel $a\to γγ$. For completeness, the single production process and pair production process of top partner are all taken into account. We find that, for both single and pair production, the future High-Luminosity LHC can exclude the top partner mass up to TeV scale through channel $T\to t a$ ($a\to γγ$), even if $BR(a\to γγ)$ is as small as $\mathcal{O}$(0.1\%). Besides, our result shows that single production can overmatch pair production at 14 TeV LHC, provided that top partner is heavier than $800\sim 900$ GeV.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Strong first order electroweak phase transition in 2HDM confronting future Z & Higgs factories

The electroweak phase transition can be made first order by extending the Standard Model (SM) Higgs sector with extra scalars. The same new physics can explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe by supplying an extra source of CP violation and sphaleron processes. In this paper we study the existence of a strong first order electroweak phase transition (SFOEWPT) in the type-I and type-II two Higgs doublet models (2HDM). We focus on how the SFOEWPT requirement constraints the spectrum of non-SM Higgs. Through a parameter space scan, we find that SFOEWPT suggests upper limits on the masses of heavy Higgs $m_{A/H/H^\pm}$, which is less than 1 TeV. High temperature expansion and Higgs vacuum uplifting is used for an analytical understanding of our results. We also study the probe ability on SFOEWPT from Higgs and $Z$-pole precision measurements at the one-loop level at future Higgs & $Z$ factories. And together with theoretical constraints, sizeable loop corrections require $m_A \approx m_{H^\pm} > m_H$ to meet SFOEWPT condition in Type-II 2HDM.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Tagging a jet from a dark sector with Jet-substructures at colliders

The phenomenology of dark sector is complicated if dark sector is charged under a confined hidden gauge group. In such kind of model, a dark parton produced at a high energy collider showers and hadronize to a cluster of dark mesons. Dark mesons then decay to visible particles and produce a jet-like signal, which is called "dark jet" in this work. Collider signal of dark jet depends on the property of dark mesons. For example, a finite lifetime of dark meson would provide displaced vertex or displaced track, thus one can use these displaced objects to tag dark jet. However if the lifetime of dark meson is collider-negligible (too short to manifest a displaced vertex), it would be difficult to distinguish a dark jet from SM QCD jets. In this work we propose a new tagging strategy to identify dark jets from QCD backgrounds. This strategy is based on jet-substructure analysis. We study various jet-substructure variables and find out variables with good discrimination ability. Our result shows that by combining multiple jet-substructure variables, one could distinguish dark jets from QCD background, and thus enhance the sensitivity of dark sector search at collider.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Demystifying Freeze-In Dark Matter at the LHC

Freeze-in mechanism provides robust dark matter production in the early universe. Due to its feeble interactions, freeze-in dark matter leaves signals at colliders which are often involved with long lived particle decays and consequent displaced vertices (DV). In this paper, we develop a method to read off mass spectrum of particles being involved in the DV events at the LHC. We demonstrate that our method neatly works under a limited statistics, detector resolution and smearing effects. The signature of DV at the LHC can come from either highly suppressed phase-space or a feeble coupling of particle decay processes. By measuring invisible particle mass spectrum, one can discriminate these two cases and thus extract information of dominant freeze-in processes in the early universe at the LHC.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Exotic decays of top partners: mind the search gap

Many standard model extensions, including composite Goldstone Higgs models, predict vector-like fermionic top-partners at the TeV scale. The intensive search programmes by ATLAS and CMS focus on decays into a 3$^{\rm rd}$ generation quark and an electroweak boson ($W,Z,h$). However, underlying models of partial compositeness contain additional states that give rise to exotic top partner decays. We consider a well-motivated scenario in which a charge-$2/3$ top-partner decays into a pseudo-scalar, $T\rightarrow t\ a$, with $a\rightarrow gg \mbox{ or } b\bar{b}$ dominating below the $t\bar{t}$ threshold. We show that the constraints on the top partner mass from QCD pair production are substantially weakened, still allowing a top partner mass as light as $400$ GeV.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Revisiting lepton-specific 2HDM in light of muon g-2 anomaly

We examine the lepton-specific 2HDM as a solution of muon $g-2$ anomaly under various theoretical and experimental constraints, especially the direct search limits from the LHC and the requirement of a strong first-order phase transition in the early universe. We find that the muon g-2 anomaly can be explained in the region of 32 $<\tanβ<$ 80, 10 GeV $<m_A<$ 65 GeV, 260 GeV $<m_H<$ 620 GeV and 180 GeV $<m_{H^\pm}<$ 620 GeV after imposing the joint constraints from the theory, the precision electroweak data, the 125 GeV Higgs data, the leptonic/semi-hadronic $τ$ decays, the leptonic $Z$ decays and Br$(B_s \to μ^+ μ^-)$. The direct searches from the $h\to AA$ channels can impose stringent upper limits on Br$(h\to AA)$ and the multi-lepton event searches can sizably reduce the allowed region of $m_A$ and $\tanβ$ (10 GeV $<m_A<$ 44 GeV and 32 $<\tanβ<$ 60). Finally, we find that the model can produce a strong first-order phase transition in the region of 14 GeV $<m_A<$ 25 GeV, 310 GeV $<m_H<$ 355 GeV and 250 GeV $<m_{H^\pm}<$ 295 GeV, allowed by the explanation of the muon $g-2$ anomaly.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Examining the origin of dark matter mass at colliders

As conventional dark matter scenarios have been probed extensively so far, the physics of a light dark matter charged under a new gauge group (dark gauge group) becomes one of new research avenues in many theoretical and experimental studies. We examine properties of a dark photon showering, the radiation process of light gauge bosons from energetic dark matter particles produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This showering process provides different signatures at the LHC depending on the property of dark matter under the dark gauge group. We show that the LHC experiment can identify the chirality of a dark matter, which leads to understanding the mass origin of particles in the dark sector.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Exploring dynamical CP violation induced baryogenesis by gravitational waves and colliders

By assuming a dynamical source of CP violation, the tension between sufficient CP violation for successful electroweak baryogenesis and strong constraints from current electric dipole moment measurements could be alleviated. We study how to explore such scenarios through gravitational wave detection, collider experiments, and their possible synergies with a well-studied example.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Lepton-portal Dark Matter in Hidden Valley model and the DAMPE recent results

We study the recent $e^\pm$ cosmic ray excess reported by DAMPE in a Hidden Valley Model with lepton-portal dark matter. We find the electron-portal can account for the excess well and satisfy the DM relic density and direct detection bounds, while electron+muon/electron+muon+tau-portal suffers from strong constraints from lepton flavor violating observables, such as $μ\to 3 e$. We also discuss possible collider signatures of our model, both at the LHC and a future 100 TeV hadron collider.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Probing degenerate heavy Higgs bosons in NMSSM with vector-like particles

In this work, we investigate the degenerate heavy Higgs bosons in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) by introducing vector-like particles. Such an extension is well motivated from the top-down view since some grand unified theories usually predict the existence of singlet scalars and vector-like particles at weak scale. Under the constraints from the LHC and dark matter experiments, we find that (1) the null results of searching for high mass resonances have tightly constrained the parameter space; (2) two degenerate heavy singlet Higgs bosons $h_2$ and $a_1$ can sizably decay to $χ^0_1χ^0_1$ invisibly. Therefore, search for the monojet events through the process $gg \to h_2 / a_1 (\to χ^0_1 χ^0_1) j$ may further test our scenario at the future LHC.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Uncover Compressed Supersymmetry via Boosted Bosons from the Heavier Stop/Sbottom

A light stop around the weak scale is a hopeful messenger of natural supersymmetry (SUSY), but it has not shown up at the current stage of LHC. Such a situation raises the question of the fate of natural SUSY. Actually, a relatively light stop can easily be hidden in a compressed spectra such as mild mass degeneracy between stop and neutralino plus top quark. Searching for such a stop at the LHC is a challenge. On the other hand, in terms of the argument of natural SUSY, other members in the stop sector, including a heavier stop $\tilde{t}_2$ and lighter sbottom $\tilde{b}_1$ (both assumed to be left-handed-like), are also supposed to be relatively light and therefore searching for them would provide an alternative method to probe natural SUSY with a compressed spectrum. In this paper we consider quasi-natural SUSY which tolerates relatively heavy colored partners near the TeV scale, with a moderately large mass gap between the heavier members and the lightest stop. Then $W/Z/h$ as companions of $\tilde{t}_2$ and $\tilde{b}_1$ decaying into $\tilde{t}_1$ generically are well boosted, and they, along with other visible particles from $\tilde{t}_1$ decay, are a good probe to study compressed SUSY. We find that the resulting search strategy with boosted bosons can have better sensitivity than those utilizing multi-leptons.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Leptonic mono-top from single stop production at LHC

Top squark (stop) can be produced via QCD interaction but also the electroweak interaction at the LHC. In this paper, we investigate the observability of the associated production of stop and chargino, $pp \to \tilde{t}_1\tildeχ^-_1$, in compressed electroweakino scenario at the 14 TeV LHC. Due to the small mass-splitting between the lightest neutralino ($\tildeχ^0_1$) and chargino ($\tildeχ^-_1$), such a single stop production can give a mono-top signature through the stop decay $\tilde{t}_1 \to t \tildeχ^0_1$. Focusing on the leptonic mono-top channel, we propose a lab-frame observable $\cosθ_{b\ell}$ to reduce the SM backgrounds in virtue of a boosted top quark from the stop decay. We find that the single stop production can be probed at $2σ$ level at the HL-LHC for $m_{\tilde{t}_1}<760$ GeV and $m_{\tildeχ^0_1}<150$ GeV.

hep-ph↗