arXiv subjects

Michael Geller

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Geller.

36 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Crunching Dilaton, Hidden Naturalness

We introduce a new approach to the Higgs naturalness problem, where the value of the Higgs mass is tied to cosmic stability and the possibility of a large observable Universe. The Higgs mixes with the dilaton of a CFT sector whose true ground state has a large negative vacuum energy. If the Higgs VEV is non-zero and below $\mathcal{O}({\rm TeV})$, the CFT also admits a second metastable vacuum, where the expansion history of the Universe is conventional. As a result, only Hubble patches with unnaturally small values of the Higgs mass support inflation and post-inflationary expansion, while all other patches rapidly crunch. The elementary Higgs VEV driving the dilaton potential is the essence of our new solution to the hierarchy problem. The main experimental prediction is a light dilaton field in the 0.1-10 GeV range that mixes with the Higgs. Part of the viable parameter space has already been probed by measurements of rare B-meson decays, and the rest will be fully explored by future colliders and experiments searching for light, weakly-coupled particles.

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arXiv2020

Self Destructing Atomic DM

Self-Destructing Dark Matter (SDDM) is a class of dark sector models in which the collision of a dark sector particle with the earth induces its prompt decay into Standard Model particles, generating unique signals at neutrino detectors. The inherent fragility of SDDM makes its survival from the early universe unlikely, implying a late time production mechanism. We present an efficient late time production mechanism for SDDM based on atomic rearrangement, the mechanism responsible for muon or anti-proton capture in hydrogen. In this model, an atomic rearrangement process occurs in our galaxy, converting dark atoms into highly excited bound states - our SDDM candidates. While the resulting SDDM is only a small fraction of the dark matter flux, its striking self-destruction signals imply a significant discovery reach in the existing data from the Super-Kamiokande experiment.

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arXiv2019

Crunching Away the Cosmological Constant Problem: Dynamical Selection of a Small $Λ$

We propose a novel explanation for the smallness of the observed cosmological constant (CC). Regions of space with a large CC are short lived and are dynamically driven to crunch soon after the end of inflation. Conversely, regions with a small CC are metastable and long lived and are the only ones to survive until late times. While the mechanism assumes many domains with different CC values, it does not result in eternal inflation nor does it require a long period of inflation to populate them. We present a concrete dynamical model, based on a super-cooled first order phase transition in a hidden conformal sector, that may successfully implement such a crunching mechanism. We find that the mechanism can only solve the CC problem up to the weak scale, above which new physics, such as supersymmetry, is needed to solve the CC problem all the way to the UV cutoff scale. The absence of experimental evidence for such new physics already implies a mild little hierarchy problem for the CC. Curiously, in this approach the weak scale arises as the geometric mean of the temperature in our universe today and the Planck scale, hinting on a new "CC miracle", motivating new physics at the weak scale independent of electroweak physics. We further predict the presence of new relativistic degrees of freedom in the CFT that should be visible in the next round of CMB experiments. Our mechanism is therefore experimentally falsifiable and predictive.

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arXiv2019

Primordial Anisotropies in the Gravitational Wave Background from Cosmological Phase Transitions

Phase transitions in the early universe can readily create an observable stochastic gravitational wave background. We show that such a background necessarily contains anisotropies analogous to those of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) of photons, and that these too may be within reach of proposed gravitational wave detectors. Correlations within the gravitational wave anisotropies and their cross-correlations with the CMB can provide new insights into the mechanism underlying primordial fluctuations, such as multi-field inflation, as well as reveal the existence of non-standard ``hidden sectors" of particle physics in earlier eras.

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arXiv2018

Detecting a Secondary Cosmic Neutrino Background from Majoron Decays in Neutrino Capture Experiments

We consider theories in which the generation of neutrino masses is associated with the breaking of an approximate global lepton number symmetry. In such a scenario the spectrum of light states includes the Majoron, the pseudo-Nambu Goldstone boson associated with the breaking of the global symmetry. For a broad range of parameters, the Majoron decays to neutrinos at late times, after the cosmic neutrinos have decoupled from the thermal bath, resulting in a secondary contribution to the cosmic neutrino background. We determine the current bounds on this scenario, and explore the possibility of directly detecting this secondary cosmic neutrino background in experiments based on neutrino capture on nuclei. For Majoron masses in the eV range or below, the neutrino flux from these decays can be comparable to that from the primary cosmic neutrino background, making it a promising target for direct detection experiments. The neutrinos from Majoron decay are redshifted by the cosmic expansion, and exhibit a characteristic energy spectrum that depends on both the Majoron mass and its lifetime. For Majoron lifetimes of order the age of the universe or larger, there is also a monochromatic contribution to the neutrino flux from Majoron decays in the Milky Way that can be comparable to the diffuse extragalactic flux. We find that for Majoron masses in the eV range, direct detection experiments based on neutrino capture on tritium, such as PTOLEMY, will be sensitive to this scenario with 100 gram-years of data. In the event of a signal, the galactic and extragalactic components can be distinguished on the basis of their distinct energy distributions, and also by using directional information obtained by polarizing the target nuclei.

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arXiv2018

Cosmological Signatures of a Mirror Twin Higgs

We explore the cosmological signatures associated with the twin baryons, electrons, photons and neutrinos in the Mirror Twin Higgs framework. We consider a scenario in which the twin baryons constitute a subcomponent of dark matter, and the contribution of the twin photon and neutrinos to dark radiation is suppressed due to late asymmetric reheating, but remains large enough to be detected in future cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. We show that this framework can lead to distinctive signals in large scale structure and in the cosmic microwave background. Baryon acoustic oscillations in the mirror sector prior to recombination lead to a suppression of structure on large scales, and leave a residual oscillatory pattern in the matter power spectrum. This pattern depends sensitively on the relative abundances and ionization energies of both twin hydrogen and helium, and is therefore characteristic of this class of models. Although both mirror photons and neutrinos constitute dark radiation in the early universe, their effects on the CMB are distinct. This is because prior to recombination the twin neutrinos free stream, while the twin photons are prevented from free streaming by scattering off twin electrons. In the Mirror Twin Higgs framework the relative contributions of these two species to the energy density in dark radiation is predicted, leading to testable effects in the CMB. These highly distinctive cosmological signatures may allow this class of models to be discovered, and distinguished from more general dark sectors.

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arXiv2018

Inflating to the Weak Scale

We present a new solution to the hierarchy problem, where the Higgs mass is at its observed electroweak value because such a patch inflates the most in the early universe. If the Higgs mass depends on a field undergoing quantum fluctuations during inflation, then inflation will fill the universe with the Higgs mass that corresponds to the largest vacuum energy. The hierarchy problem is solved if the maximum vacuum energy occurs for the observed Higgs mass. We demonstrate this notion with a proof-of-principle model containing an axion, a modulus field and the Higgs, and show that inflation can be responsible for the weak scale.

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arXiv2018

Dark quarkonium formation in the early universe

The relic abundance of heavy stable particles charged under a confining gauge group can be depleted by a second stage of annihilations near the deconfinement temperature. This proceeds via the formation of quarkonia-like states, in which the heavy pair subsequently annihilates. The size of the quarkonium formation cross section was the subject of some debate. We estimate this cross section in a simple toy model. The dominant process can be viewed as a rearrangement of the heavy and light quarks, leading to a geometric cross section of hadronic size. In contrast, processes in which only the heavy constituents are involved lead to mass-suppressed cross sections. These results apply to any scenario with bound states of sizes much larger than their inverse mass, such as U(1) models with charged particles of different masses, and can be used to construct ultra-heavy dark-matter models with masses above the naïve unitarity bound. They are also relevant for the cosmology of any stable colored relic.

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arXiv2017

Tree-level Quartic for a Holographic Composite Higgs

We present a new class of composite Higgs models where an adjustable tree-level Higgs quartic coupling allows for a significant reduction in the tuning of the Higgs potential. Our 5D warped space implementation is the first example of a holographic composite Higgs model with a tree-level quartic. It is inspired by a 6D model where the quartic originates from the Tr [A_5,A_6]^2 term of the gauge field strength, the same model that led to the original little Higgs construction of Arkani-Hamed, Cohen, and Georgi. Beyond the reduction of the tuning and the standard composite Higgs signatures, the model predicts a doubling of the KK states with relatively small splittings as well as a Higgs sector with two doublets in the decoupling limit.

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arXiv2016

Quantum Simulation of Molecular Collisions in the Time-Dependent Formulation

Quantum particle simulations have largely been based on time-independent, split-operator schemes in which kinetic and potential operators are interwoven to provide accurate approximations to system dynamics. These simulations can be very expensive in terms of the number of gates required, although individual cases, such as tunneling, have been found where prethreshold simulations are possible. By prethreshold, we mean a quantum computation or simulation with an existing architecture and not requiring error correction. In the case of molecular collisions, switching to a time-dependent formulation can reduce the system dimensionality significantly and provide an opportunity for pre-threshold simulation. Here, we study the efficiency of gate-based quantum simulation of a set of molecular collisions of increasing complexity. We show that prethreshold quantum simulation of such systems is feasible up to Hilbert space dimension 8, but beyond that error correction would be required.

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arXiv2015

The Flavor of the Composite Twin Higgs

The assumption of anarchic quark flavor puts serious stress on composite Higgs models: flavor bounds imply a tuning of a few per-mille (at best) in the Higgs potential. Composite twin Higgs (CTH) models significantly reduce this tension by opening up a new region of parameter space, obtained by raising the coupling among the composites close to the strong coupling limit $g_* \sim 4π$, thereby raising the scale of composites to around 10 TeV. This does not lead to large tuning in the Higgs potential since the leading quantum corrections are canceled by the twin partners (rather than the composites). We survey the leading flavor bounds on the CTH, which correspond to tree-level $ΔF=2$ four-Fermi operators from Kaluza-Klein (KK) Z exchange in the kaon system and 1-loop corrections from KK fermions to the electric dipole moment of the neutron. We provide a parametric estimate for these bounds and also perform a numeric scan of the parameter space using the complete calculation for both quantities. The results confirm our expectation that CTH models accommodate anarchic flavor significantly better than regular composite Higgs (CH) models. Our conclusions apply both to the identical and fraternal twin cases.

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arXiv2014

A Holographic Twin Higgs Model

We present a UV completion of the twin Higgs idea in the framework of holographic composite Higgs. The SM contribution to the Higgs potential is effectively cut off by the SM-singlet mirror partners at the sigma-model scale f, naturally allowing for m_{KK} beyond the LHC reach. The bulk symmetry is SU(7) X SO(8), broken on the IR brane into SU(7) X SO(7) and on the UV brane into (SU(3) X SU(2) X U(1))^{SM} X (SU(3) X SU(2) X U(1))^{mirror} X Z2. The field content on the UV brane is the SM, extended by a sector transforming under the mirror gauge group, with the Z2 exchanging the two sectors. An additional Z2 breaking term is holographically generated to reproduce the Higgs mass and VEV, with a mild O(10%) tuning. This model has no trace at the LHC, but can by probed by precision Higgs measurements at future lepton colliders, and by direct searches for KK excitations at a 100 TeV collider.

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arXiv2014

The 125 GeV Higgs in the context of four generations with 2 Higgs doublets

We interpret the recent discovery of a 125 GeV Higgs-like state in the context of a two Higgs doublets model with a heavy 4th sequential generation of fermions, in which one Higgs doublet couples only to the 4th generation fermions, while the second doublet couples to the lighter fermions of the 1st-3rd families. This model is designed to accommodate the apparent heaviness of the 4th generation fermions and to effectively address the low-energy phenomenology of a dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking scenario. The physical Higgs states of the model are, therefore, viewed as composites primarily of the 4th generation fermions. We find that the lightest Higgs, h, is a good candidate for the recently discovered 125 GeV spin-zero particle, when tanβ~ O(1), for typical 4th generation fermion masses of M_{4G} = 400 -600 GeV, and with a large t - t' mixing in the right-handed quarks sector. This, in turn, leads to BR(t' -> t h) ~ O(1), which drastically changes the t' decay pattern. We also find that, based on the current Higgs data, this two Higgs doublet model generically predicts an enhanced production rate (compared to the SM) in the pp -> h -> tau tau channel and a reduced VV -> h -> gamma gamma and pp -> V -> Vh -> Vbb ones. Finally, the heavier CP-even Higgs is excluded by the current data up to m_H ~ 500 GeV, while the pseudoscalar state, A, can be as light as 130 GeV. These heavier Higgs states and the expected deviations from the SM in some of the Higgs production channels can be further excluded or discovered with more data.

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arXiv2014

Higgs-radion unification: radius stabilization by an SU(2) bulk doublet and the 126 GeV scalar

We investigate a Randall-Sundrum model with an SU(2) doublet propagating in the bulk. Upon calculating its gravitational effect we find that a stabilized radius can be generated without the use of an additional scalar, as needed for example in the Goldberger-Wise (GW) mechanism, and with no additional fine-tuning other than the inescapable one due to the cosmological constant; similar tuning is also present in the GW mechanism. The lowest scalar excitation in this scenario, the counterpart of the radion of the GW mechanism, has both radion-like and Higgs-like couplings to the SM fields. It, thus, plays a dual role and we, therefore, denote it as the "Higgs-radion" ($h_r$). As opposed to the GW radion case, our Higgs-radion is found to be compatible with the 126 GeV scalar recently discovered at the LHC, at the level of $1σ$, with a resulting $95\%$ CL bound on the KK-gluon mass of: $4.48~TeV<M_{KKG}< 5.44~TeV$. An important consequence of our setup should be accentuated: the radion of the traditional RS scenarios simply does not exist, so that our Higgs-radion is not the conventional mixed state between the GW radion and the Higgs.

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arXiv2013

Hybrid dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking with heavy quarks and the 125 GeV Higgs

Existing models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) find it very difficult to get a Higgs of mass lighter than $m_t$. Consequently, in light of the LHC discovery of the ~125 GeV Higgs, such models face a significant obstacle. Moreover, with three generations those models have a superheavy cut-off around $10^{17}$ GeV, requiring a significant fine-tuning. To overcome these twin difficulties, we propose a hybrid framework for EWSB, in which the Higgs mechanism is combined with a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio mechanism. The model introduces a strongly coupled doublet of heavy quarks with a mass around 500 GeV, which forms a condensate at a compositeness scale $Λ$ about a few TeV, and an additional unconstrained scalar doublet which behaves as a "fundamental" doublet at $Λ$. This "fundamental"-like doublet has a vanishing quartic term at $Λ$ and is, therefore, not the SM doublet, but should rather be viewed as a pseudo-Goldstone boson of the underlying strong dynamics. This setup is matched at the compositeness scale $Λ$ to a tightly constrained hybrid two Higgs doublet model, where both the composite and unconstrained scalars participate in EWSB. This allows us to get a good candidate for the recently observed 125 GeV scalar which has properties very similar to the Standard Model Higgs. The heavier (mostly composite) CP-even scalar has a mass around 500 GeV, while the pseudoscalar and the charged Higgs particles have masses in the range 200 -300 GeV.

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arXiv2012

Two Higgs doublets, a 4th generation and a 125 GeV Higgs: a review

We review the possible role that multi-Higgs models may play in our understanding of the dynamics of a heavy 4th sequential generation of fermions. We describe the underlying ingredients of such models, focusing on two Higgs doublets, and discuss how they may effectively accommodate the low energy phenomenology of such new heavy fermionic degrees of freedom. We also discuss the constraints on these models from precision electroweak data as well as from flavor physics and the implications for collider searches of the Higgs particles and of the 4th generation fermions, bearing in mind the recent observation of a light Higgs with a mass of ~125 GeV.

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arXiv2012

The Need for New Search Strategies for Fourth Generation Quarks at the LHC

Most limits on the fourth generation heavy top quark (the t') are based on the assumed dominance of t' -> Wb, which is expected to be case in the minimal fourth generation framework with a single Higgs (the so called SM4). Here we show, within a variant of a Two Higgs Doublet Model with four generations of fermions, that, in general, a different t' detection strategy is required if the physics that underlies the new heavy fermionic degrees of freedom goes beyond the "naive" SM4. We find that the recent CMS lower bounds: m_{t'}< 450 GeV in the semi-leptonic channel pp -> t't' -> lνqqbb and m_{t'}< 557 GeV in the dilepton channel pp -> t't' ->llννbb, that were obtained using the customary (SM4-driven) detection strategies, do not apply. In particular, we demonstrate that if the decay t' -> ht dominates, then applying the "standard" CMS search tools leads to a considerably relaxed lower bound: m_{t'} >~350 GeV. We, therefore, suggest an alternative search strategy that is more sensitive to beyond SM4 dynamics of the fourth generation fermions.

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arXiv2007

Controlled-NOT gate design for Josephson phase qubits with tunable inductive coupling: Weyl chamber steering and area theorem

Superconducting qubits with tunable coupling are ideally suited for fast and accurate implementation of quantum logic. Here we present a simple approach, based on Weyl chamber steering, to CNOT gate design for inductively coupled phase qubits with tunable coupling strength g. In the presence of simultaneous rf pulses on the individual qubits that appropriately track the coupling strength as it is varied, we show that an infinite family of switching sequences preserving the time integral or "area" of g can be used to generate CNOT logic. We demonstrate our approach by considering time-dependencies most likely to be used in actual implementations: trapezoidal, sine, and soft quartic (also known as Landau's hat).

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