arXiv subjects

Monoranjan Guchait

Publications and source records attributed to Monoranjan Guchait.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Constraining Asymmetric Dark Matter using Colliders and Direct Detection

We reappraise the viability of asymmetric dark matter (ADM) realized as a Dirac fermion coupling dominantly to the Standard Model fermions. Treating the interactions of such a DM particle with quarks/leptons in an effective-interactions framework, we derive updated constraints using mono-jet searches from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and mono-photon searches at the Large Electron-Positron (LEP) collider. We carefully model the detectors used in these experiments, which is found to have significant impact. The constraint of efficient annihilation of the symmetric part of the ADM, as well as other observational constraints are synthesized to produce a global picture. Consistent with previous work, we find that ADM with mass in the range $1-100$ GeV is strongly constrained, thus ruling out its best motivated mass range. However, we find that leptophilic ADM remains allowed for $\gtrsim 10$ GeV DM, including bounds from colliders, direct detection, and stellar heating. We forecast that the Future Circular Collider for electron-positron collisions (FCC-ee) will improve sensitivity to DM-lepton interactions by almost an order of magnitude.

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arXiv2023

Hunting ewinos and a light scalar of $Z_3$-NMSSM with a bino-like dark matter in top squark decays at the LHC

We study the prospects of a simultaneous hunt at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of relatively light electroweakinos and a singlet-like scalar of the $Z_3$-symmetric Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model ($Z_3$-NMSSM) in the cascade decays of not so heavy ($\lesssim 1.5$ TeV) top squarks that are produced in pairs at the LHC which characteristically involve the singlet-like states. We work in a scenario where the lightest (next-to-lightest) SUSY particle is bino (singlino)-like with a mass below 100 GeV ($\gtrsim 100$ GeV), whereas a pair of immediately heavier neutralinos and the lighter chargino are higgsino-like with masses in the range $\sim 500$ GeV -- 1 TeV. Further, the singlet-like scalar present in the spectrum provides a funnel for a rapid enough mutual annihilation of the LSP thus making the latter meet the experimental upper bound on its relic abundance. The scenario is motivated by its ability to offer a bino-like dark matter with such a mass unlike what is now disfavored in the MSSM while avoiding the stringent lower bounds from the LHC experiments on the masses of these involved particles and still remaining reasonably `natural'. We find that while a usual cut-based analysis (CBA) on LHC data worth 300 $\text{fb}^{-1}$ would be unable to discover such excitations, a multivariate analysis (MVA) can be reasonably sensitive to higgsino-like electroweakinos having masses $\gtrsim 650$ GeV when the lighter top squark has a mass $\gtrsim 1$ TeV. On the other hand, with 3000 $\text{fb}^{-1}$ of data these masses become accessible in a CBA while even an MVA on such a data set is unlikely to find these electroweakinos with masses around 1 TeV when the mass of the lighter top squark hits $\sim 1.5$ TeV.

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arXiv2023

Exploring SMEFT operators in the tHq production at the LHC

We study the top-quark production along with a Higgs boson and a jet (tHq) at the LHC experiment within the framework of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). A strategy is developed to constrain the Wilson Coefficients (WC) corresponding to the associated SMEFT operators using the latest LHC measurements. The best-fit values of these WCs are presented. Finally, we demonstrate the feasibility of finding the effects of these operators on various kinematical observables of the tHq process at the LHC. We find that for a set of best-fitted values of the considered WCs, the excess of signal over the backgrounds can be achieved with a reasonable significance at the center of mass energy $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV and for integrated luminosity options ${\cal L}=$300 $\rm fb^{-1}$ and 3000 $\rm fb^{-1}$.

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arXiv2023

Tagging a Boosted Top quark with a $τ$ final state

Boosted top quark tagging is one of the challenging, and at the same time exciting, tasks in high energy physics experiments, in particular in the exploration of new physics signals at the LHC. Several techniques have already been developed to tag a boosted top quark in its hadronic decay channel. Recently tagging the same in the semi-leptonic channel has begun to receive a lot of attention. In the current study, we develop a methodology to tag a boosted top quark ($p_T>$ 200 GeV) in its semi-leptonic decay channel with a $τ$-lepton in the final state. In this analysis, the constituents of the top fatjet are reclustered using jet substructure technique to obtain the subjets, and then $b$- and $τ$- like subjets are identified by applying standard $b$- and $τ$-jet identification algorithms. We show that the dominant QCD background can be rejected effectively using several kinematic variables of these subjects, such as energy sharing among the jets, invariant mass, transverse mass, Nsubjettiness etc., leading to high signal tagging efficiencies. We further assess possible improvements in the results by employing multivariate analysis techniques. We find that using this proposed top-tagger, a signal efficiency of $\sim 77\%$ against a background efficiency of $\sim 3\%$ can be achieved. We also extend the proposed top-tagger to the case of polarized top quarks by introducing a few additional observables calculated in the rest frame of the $b-τ$ system. We comment on how the same methodology will be useful for tagging a boosted heavy BSM particle with a $b$ and $τ$ in the final state.

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arXiv2022

Exploring SMEFT operators through single top-quark production associated with the Higgs boson at the LHC

The Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT) provides a general framework to include the dynamics of the beyond standard model physics residing at a certain higher energy scale $Λ$. We study the top-quark production along with a Higgs boson and a jet (tHq) at the LHC experiment within the framework of the SMEFT. First, identifying the relevant sensitive dimension-6 SMEFT operators, a strategy is developed to constrain the Wilson Coefficients (WC) corresponding to these associated SMEFT operators using the latest LHC measurements, providing a complementary way to the global-fit approach. The best-fit values of these WCs are presented. Finally, we discuss the discovery potential of the signatures of those operators. We find that a discoverable excess due to SMEFT effects can be observed in the tHq process at the LHC with the center of mass energy $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV and integrated luminosity options ${\cal L}=$300 $\rm fb^{-1}$ and 3000 $\rm fb^{-1}$.

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arXiv2022

Boosted top quark tagging and polarization measurement using machine learning

Machine learning techniques are used for treating jets as images to explore the performance of boosted top quark tagging. Tagging performances are studied in both hadronic and leptonic channels of top quark decay, employing a convolutional neural network (CNN) based technique along with boosted decision trees (BDT). This computer vision approach is also applied to distinguish between left and right polarized top quarks. In this context, an experimentally measurable asymmetry variable is proposed to estimate the polarization. Results indicate that the CNN based classifier is more sensitive to top quark polarization than the standard kinematic variables. It is observed that the overall tagging performance in the leptonic channel is better than the hadronic case, and the former also serves as a better probe for studying polarization.

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arXiv2021

Probing mild-tempered neutralino dark matter through top-squark production at the LHC

The lightest neutralino, assumed to be the lightest supersymmetric particle, is proposed to be a dark matter (DM) candidate for the mass $\cal{O}$(100) GeV. Constraints from various direct dark matter detection experiments and Planck measurements exclude a substantial region of parameter space of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). However, a "mild-tempered" neutralino with dominant bino composition and a little admixture of Higgsino is found to be a viable candidate for DM. Within the MSSM framework, we revisit the allowed region of parameter space that is consistent with all existing constraints. Regions of parameters that are not sensitive to direct detection experiments, known as "blind spots," are also revisited. Complimentary to the direct detection of DM particles, a mild-tempered neutralino scenario is explored at the LHC with the center of mass energy $\rm \sqrt{s}$=13 TeV through the top-squark pair production, and its subsequent decays with the standard-model-like Higgs boson in the final state. Our considered channel is found to be very sensitive also to the blind spot scenario. Detectable signal sensitivities are achieved using the cut-based method for the high luminosity options $\rm 300$ and $\rm 3000 ~fb^{-1}$, which are further improved by applying the multi-variate analysis technique.

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arXiv2020

Light Singlino Dark Matter at the LHC

The light singlino-like neutralino is expected to be a promising candidate for DM in the allowed parameter space of the NMSSM. The DM annihilation process takes place via the light Higgs bosons which are natural in this model. Identifying the allowed region of parameter space including various constraints, the detection prospect of such light DM candidate and Higgs bosons are explored at the LHC with its high luminosity options. Light Higgs bosons and the DM candidate, the lightest singlino-like neutralino are indirectly produced at the LHC via the SM Higgs production and its subsequent decays. Jet substructure techniques are used to tag boosted Higgs. It is found that the favourable range of masses of Higgs bosons and neutralino, compatible with a low mass DM solution, can be discovered with a reasonable signal significance ($\sim 5 σ$) at the LHC, with the center of mass energy $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV and integrated luminosity options $\rm{\cal L}=300~fb^{-1}$ and 3000 $\rm fb^{-1}$.

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arXiv2019

Boosted Top quark polarization

In top quark production, the polarization of top quarks, decided by the chiral structure of couplings, is likely to be modified in the presence of any new physics contribution to the production. Hence the same is a good discriminator for those new physics models wherein the couplings have a chiral structure different than that in the Standard Model (SM). In this note we construct probes of the polarization of a top quark decaying hadronically, using easily accessible kinematic variables such as the energy fraction or angular correlations of the decay products. Tagging the boosted top quark using the usual jet sub structure technique we study robustness of these observables for a benchmark process, $W^{\prime} \to tb$. We demonstrate that the energy fraction of b-jet in the laboratory frame and a new angular variable, constructed by us in the top rest frame, are both very powerful tools to discriminate between the left and right polarized top quarks. Based on the polarization sensitive angular variables, we construct asymmetries which reflect the polarization. We study the efficiency of these variables for two new physics processes where which give rise to boosted top quarks: (i) decay of the top squark in the context of supersymmetry searches, and (ii) decays of the Kaluza-Klein(KK) graviton and KK gluon, in Randall Sundrum(RS) model. Remarkably, it is found that the asymmetry can vary over a wide range about +20\% to -20\%. The dependence of asymmetry on top quark couplings of the new particles present in these models beyond the SM (BSM) is also investigated in detail.

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arXiv2019

Probing Heavy Charged Higgs Boson at the LHC

Signature of heavier charged Higgs boson, much above the top quark mass, is investigated at the LHC Run 2 experiments, following its decay mode via top and bottom quark focusing on both hadronic and leptonic signal final states. The generic two Higgs doublet model framework is considered with a special emphasis on supersymmetry motivated Type II model. The signal is found to heavily affected by the huge irreducible backgrounds due to the top pair production and QCD events. The jet substructure technique is used to tag moderately boosted top jets in order to reconstruct charged Higgs mass. The simple cut based analysis is performed optimizing various kinematic selections, and the signal sensitivity is found to be reasonable for only lower range of charged Higgs masses for very high luminosity 3000 fb$^{-1}$ option. However, employing the multi-variate analysis(MVA) technique, a remarkable improvement in signal sensitivity is achieved. We find, the charged Higgs signal for the mass range about $300-600$ is observable with 1000 fb$^{-1}$ luminosity option. However, for more high luminosity option 3000 fb$^{-1}$, the discovery potential can be extended to $700-800$ GeV.

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arXiv2017

Detection prospects of light pseudoscalar Higgs boson at the LHC

The discovery potential of light pseudo scalar Higgs boson for the mass range 10-60 GeV is explored. In the context of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard(NMSSM) model, the branching fraction of light pseudo scalar Higgs boson decaying to a pair of photon can be quite large. A pair of light pseudo scalar Higgs boson produced indirectly through the standard model Higgs boson decay yields multiple photons in the final state and the corresponding production rate is restricted by ATLAS data. Discussing the impact of this constraint in the NMSSM, the detection prospects of light pseudoscalar Higgs boson in the channel consisting of at least three photons, a lepton and missing transverse energy are reported. It is observed that the possibilities of finding the pseudoscalar Higgs boson for the above mass range are promising for an integrated luminosity $\mathcal{L}=100 \text{fb}^{-1}$ with moderate significances, which can reach to more than 5$σ$ for higher luminosity options.

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arXiv2016

Diphoton Signal of light pseudoscalar in NMSSM at the LHC

We explore the detection possibility of light pseudoscalar Higgs boson in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric Standard Model(NMSSM) at the LHC with the center of mass energy, $\sqrt{S}=13$ TeV. We focus on the parameter space which provides one of the Higgs boson as the SM-like with a mass of 125 GeV and some of the non-SM-like Higgs bosons can be light having suppressed couplings with fermions and gauge bosons due to their singlet nature. It is observed that for certain region of model parameter space, the singlet like light pseudoscalar can decay to di-photon($γγ$) channel with a substantial branching ratio. In this study, we consider this di-photon signal of light pseudoscalar Higgs boson producing it through the chargino-neutralino production and the subsequent decay of neutralino. We consider signal consisting of two photons plus missing energy along with a lepton from the chargino decay. Performing a detailed simulation of the signal and backgrounds including detector effects, we present results for a few benchmark points corresponding to the pseudoscalar Higgs boson mass in the range 60 -100 GeV. Our studies indicate that some of the benchmark points in the parameter space can be probed with a reasonable significance for 100 fb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity. We also conclude that exploiting this channel it is possible to distinguish the NMSSM from the other supersymmetric models.

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arXiv2016

Light Higgs Bosons in NMSSM at the LHC

The next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model (NMSSM) with an extended Higgs sector offers one of the Higgs boson as the Standard model (SM) like Higgs with a mass around 125 GeV along with other Higgs bosons with lighter and heavier masses and not excluded by any current experiments. At the LHC, phenomenology of these non SM like Higgs bosons is very rich and considerably different from the other supersymmetric models. In this work, assuming one of the Higgs bosons to be the SM like, we revisit the mass spectrum and couplings of non SM like Higgs bosons taking into consideration all existing constraints and identify the relevant region of parameter space. The discovery potential of these non SM like Higgs bosons, apart from their masses, is guided by their couplings with gauge bosons and fermions which are very much parameter space sensitive. We evaluate the rates of productions of these non SM like Higgs bosons at the LHC for a variety of decay channels in the allowed region of the parameter space. Although bb, ττ decay modes appear to be the most promising, it is observed that for a substantial region of parameter space the two-photon decay mode has a remarkably large rate. In this work we emphasize that this diphoton mode can be exploited to find the NMSSM Higgs signal and can also be potential avenue to distinguish the NMSSM from the MSSM. In addition, we discuss briefly the various detectable signals of these non SM Higgs bosons at the LHC.

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arXiv2016

A QCD analysis of CMS inclusive differential Z production data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV

The parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton are one of the essential ingredients to describe physics processes at hadron colliders. The Z boson production data at the LHC have a potential to constrain PDFs, especially the gluon distribution. In this study the CMS measurement of the inclusive double differential Z boson production cross section in terms of transverse momentum and rapidity are compared to the next-to-leading order theory predictions at the center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s)=8 TeV with an integrated luminosity of 19.71 inverse femtobarns. In addition, the sensitivity of this measurement to PDFs is studied within the framework of the HERAFitter. A moderate improvement to the gluon distribution is observed at the Bjorken x ~ 0.1 region. However, in order to obtain further improvement to the gluon distribution in the global fits, the higher-order theory calculations accessible via fast techniques are necessary.

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arXiv2015

Looking for lepton flavour violation in supersymmetry at the LHC

We consider models of supersymmetry which can incorporate sizeable mixing between different generations of sfermions. While the mixing is constrained by the non-observation of various flavour changing neutral current (FCNC) processes, there exist regions of SUSY parameter space where the effects of such mixing can be probed at colliders. In this work, we explore this possibility by focussing on the slepton sector. The sleptons are produced through cascade decays in direct neutralino-chargino ($χ_2^0χ_1^\pm$) pair production at the LHC. The final state is characterized by 3 leptons and missing energy. We probe the lepton flavour violating (LFV) vertex originating from $χ_2^0$ decay and identify a distinct and unambiguous combination of the tri-lepton final state which include a lepton pair with same flavour and same sign (SFSS) in addition to a pair with opposite flavour and opposite sign (OFOS). This combination of tri-lepton final state containing both OFOS and SFSS pairs, can not only suppress the SM background but can also differentiate the flavour violating decays of $χ_2^0$ from its corresponding flavour conserving decays. We present results for various signal benchmark points taking into account background contributions assuming two luminosity options (100 fb$^{-1}$ and 1000 fb$^{-1}$) for LHC Run 2 experiment.

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arXiv2014

Testing SUSY models for the muon g-2 anomaly via Chargino-Neutralino Pair Production at the LHC

Non-universal gaugino mass models can naturally account for the dark matter relic density via the bulk annihilation process with relatively light bino LSP and right sleptons in the mass range of ~ 100 GeV, while accommodating the observed Higgs boson mass of ~ 125 GeV with TeV scale squark/gluino masses. A class of these models can also account for the observed muon g-2 anomaly via SUSY loops with wino and left sleptons in the mass range of 400 -- 700 GeV. These models can be tested at LHC via electroweak production of charged and neutral wino pair, leading to robust trilepton and same sign dilepton signals. We investigate these signals along with the standard model background for both 8 and 13 TeV LHC runs.

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arXiv2013

Probing the flavor violating scalar top quark signal at the LHC

The Large Hadron Collider(LHC) has completed its run at 8 TeV with the experiments ATLAS and CMS having collected about 25 $\rm fb^{-1}$ of data each. Discovery of a light Higgs boson, coupled with lack of evidence for supersymmetry at the LHC so far, has motivated studies of supersymmetry in the context of naturalness with the principal focus being the third generation squarks. In this work, we analyze the prospects of the flavor violating decay mode $\rm \tilde{t}_1\to cχ_{1}^{0}$ at 8 and 13 TeV center of mass energy at the LHC. This channel is also relevant in the dark matter context for the stop-coannihilation scenario, where the relic density depends on the mass difference between the lighter stop quark ($\tilde{t}_1$) and the lightest neutralino($χ_{1}^{0}$) states. This channel is extremely challenging to probe, specially for situations when the mass difference between the lighter stop quark and the lightest neutralino is small. Using certain kinematical properties of signal events we find that the level of backgrounds can be reduced substantially. We find that the prospect for this channel is limited due to the low production cross section for top squarks and limited luminosity at 8 TeV, but at the 13 TeV LHC with 100 $fb^{-1}$ luminosity, it is possible to probe top squarks with masses up to $\sim$ 450 GeV. We also discuss how the sensitivity could be significantly improved by tagging charm jets.

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arXiv2013

Looking for an Invisible Higgs Signal at the LHC

While the recent discovery of a Higgs-like boson at the LHC is an extremely important and encouraging step towards the discovery of the {\it complete} standard model(SM), the current information on this state does not rule out possibility of beyond standard model (BSM) physics. In fact the current data can still accommodate reasonable values of the branching fractions of the Higgs into a channel with `invisible' decay products, such a channel being also well motivated theoretically. In this study we revisit the possibility of detecting the Higgs in this invisible channel for both choices of the LHC energies, 8 and 14 TeV, for two production channels; vector boson fusion(VBF) and associated production($ZH$). In the latter case we consider decays of the $Z$ boson into a pair of leptons as well as a $b \bar b$ pair. For the VBF channel the sensitivity is found to be more than $5 σ$ at both the energies up to an invisible branching ratio ${\cal B}r_{invis} \sim 0.80$, with luminosities $\sim 20/30 {\rm fb}^{-1}$. The sensitivity is further extended to values of ${\cal B}r_{invis} \sim 0.25$ for $300 {\rm fb}^{-1}$ at 14 TeV. However the reach is found to be more modest for the $ZH$ mode with leptonic final state; with about $3.5 σ$ for the planned luminosity at 8 TeV, reaching $8 σ$ only for 14 TeV for $50 {\rm fb}^{-1}$. In spite of the much larger branching ratio of the $Z$ into a $b \bar b$ channel compared to the dilepton case, the former channel, can provide useful reach upto ${\cal B}r_{invis} \gsim 0.75$, only for the higher luminosity ($300{\rm fb}^{-1}$) option using jet-substructure and jet clustering methods for $b$-jet identification.

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