arXiv subjects

S. Dawson

Publications and source records attributed to S. Dawson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

BSM Benchmarks for Effective Field Theories in Higgs and Electroweak Physics

Effective Field Theories (EFTs) capture effects from heavy dynamics at low energy and represent an essential ingredient in the context of Standard Model (SM) precision tests. This document gathers a number of relevant scenarios for heavy physics beyond the SM and presents explicit expressions for the Wilson coefficients in their low-energy EFT. It includes i) weakly coupled scenarios in which one or a few particles of different spins and quantum numbers interact linearly with the SM and generate EFT effects at tree-level, ii) scenarios where heavy particles interact quadratically whereupon the resulting EFT arises only at loop-level and iii) strongly coupled scenarios where the size of Wilson coefficients is controlled by symmetry arguments. This review aims at motivating experimental EFT studies in which only a subset of all possible EFT interactions is used, as well as facilitating the theoretical interpretation of EFT fits.

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arXiv2020

Higgs boson potential at colliders: status and perspectives

This document summarises the current theoretical and experimental status of the di-Higgs boson production searches, and of the direct and indirect constraints on the Higgs boson self-coupling, with the wish to serve as a useful guide for the next years. The document discusses the theoretical status, including state-of-the-art predictions for di-Higgs cross sections, developments on the effective field theory approach, and studies on specific new physics scenarios that can show up in the di-Higgs final state. The status of di-Higgs searches and the direct and indirect constraints on the Higgs self-coupling at the LHC are presented, with an overview of the relevant experimental techniques, and covering all the variety of relevant signatures. Finally, the capabilities of future colliders in determining the Higgs self-coupling are addressed, comparing the projected precision that can be obtained in such facilities. The work has started as the proceedings of the Di-Higgs workshop at Colliders, held at Fermilab from the 4th to the 9th of September 2018, but it went beyond the topics discussed at that workshop and included further developments.

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arXiv2019

Standard Model Physics at the HL-LHC and HE-LHC

The successful operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the excellent performance of the ATLAS, CMS, LHCb and ALICE detectors in Run-1 and Run-2 with $pp$ collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 TeV as well as the giant leap in precision calculations and modeling of fundamental interactions at hadron colliders have allowed an extraordinary breadth of physics studies including precision measurements of a variety physics processes. The LHC results have so far confirmed the validity of the Standard Model of particle physics up to unprecedented energy scales and with great precision in the sectors of strong and electroweak interactions as well as flavour physics, for instance in top quark physics. The upgrade of the LHC to a High Luminosity phase (HL-LHC) at 14 TeV center-of-mass energy with 3 ab$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity will probe the Standard Model with even greater precision and will extend the sensitivity to possible anomalies in the Standard Model, thanks to a ten-fold larger data set, upgraded detectors and expected improvements in the theoretical understanding. This document summarises the physics reach of the HL-LHC in the realm of strong and electroweak interactions and top quark physics, and provides a glimpse of the potential of a possible further upgrade of the LHC to a 27 TeV $pp$ collider, the High-Energy LHC (HE-LHC), assumed to accumulate an integrated luminosity of 15 ab$^{-1}$.

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arXiv2019

Higgs Physics at the HL-LHC and HE-LHC

The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments, was a success achieved with only a percent of the entire dataset foreseen for the LHC. It opened a landscape of possibilities in the study of Higgs boson properties, Electroweak Symmetry breaking and the Standard Model in general, as well as new avenues in probing new physics beyond the Standard Model. Six years after the discovery, with a conspicuously larger dataset collected during LHC Run 2 at a 13 TeV centre-of-mass energy, the theory and experimental particle physics communities have started a meticulous exploration of the potential for precision measurements of its properties. This includes studies of Higgs boson production and decays processes, the search for rare decays and production modes, high energy observables, and searches for an extended electroweak symmetry breaking sector. This report summarises the potential reach and opportunities in Higgs physics during the High Luminosity phase of the LHC, with an expected dataset of pp collisions at 14 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 ab$^{-1}$. These studies are performed in light of the most recent analyses from LHC collaborations and the latest theoretical developments. The potential of an LHC upgrade, colliding protons at a centre-of-mass energy of 27 TeV and producing a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 15 ab$^{-1}$, is also discussed.

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arXiv2019

SMEFT and the Drell-Yan Process at High Energy

The Drell-Yan process is a copious source of lepton pairs at high energy and is measured with great precision at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Barring any new light particles, beyond the Standard Model effects can be studied in Drell-Yan production using an effective field theory. At tree level, new 4-fermion interactions dominate, while at one loop operators modifying 3-gauge boson couplings contribute effects that are enhanced at high energy. We study the sensitivity of the neutral Drell-Yan process to these dimension-6 operators and compare the sensitivity to that of $W^+W^-$ pair production at the LHC.

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arXiv2018

Enhanced di-Higgs Production in the Complex Higgs Singlet Model

We consider the Standard Model extended by the addition of a complex scalar singlet, with no assumptions about additional symmetries of the potential. This model provides for resonant di-Higgs production of Higgs particles with different masses. We demonstrate that regions of parameter space allowed by precision electroweak measurements, experimental limits on single Higgs production, and perturbative unitarity allow for large di-Higgs production rates relative to the SM rates. In this scenario, the dominant production mechanism of the new scalar states is di-Higgs production. Results are presented for $\sqrt{S}=13$, $27$ and $100~TeV$.

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arXiv2018

TASI 2016 Lectures: Electroweak Symmetry Breaking and Effective Field Theory

I give a pedagogical introduction to the physics of electroweak symmetry breaking and the uses of effective field theory in the context of Higgs physics. Higgs boson production and decay at the LHC and the consistency of the Higgs measurements with triviality arguments, vacuum stability, and precision electroweak measurements are discussed. Effective Lagrangian techniques are used to understand potential deviations from the Standard Model (SM) predictions. Finally, I end with a brief discussion of the future of Higgs physics.

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arXiv2017

Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 4. Deciphering the Nature of the Higgs Sector

This Report summarizes the results of the activities of the LHC Higgs Cross Section Working Group in the period 2014-2016. The main goal of the working group was to present the state-of-the-art of Higgs physics at the LHC, integrating all new results that have appeared in the last few years. The first part compiles the most up-to-date predictions of Higgs boson production cross sections and decay branching ratios, parton distribution functions, and off-shell Higgs boson production and interference effects. The second part discusses the recent progress in Higgs effective field theory predictions, followed by the third part on pseudo-observables, simplified template cross section and fiducial cross section measurements, which give the baseline framework for Higgs boson property measurements. The fourth part deals with the beyond the Standard Model predictions of various benchmark scenarios of Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, extended scalar sector, Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and exotic Higgs boson decays. This report follows three previous working-group reports: Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 1. Inclusive Observables (CERN-2011-002), Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 2. Differential Distributions (CERN-2012-002), and Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 3. Higgs properties (CERN-2013-004). The current report serves as the baseline reference for Higgs physics in LHC Run 2 and beyond.

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arXiv2017

Vector-like Fermions and Higgs Effective Field Theory Revisited

Heavy vector-like quarks (VLQs) appear in many models of beyond the Standard Model physics. Direct experimental searches require these new quarks to be heavy, $\gsim$ 800-1000 GeV. We perform a global fit of the parameters of simple VLQ models in minimal representations of $SU(2)_L$ to precision data and Higgs rates. An interesting connection between anomalous $Z b {\overline {b}}$ interactions and Higgs physics in VLQ models is discussed. Finally, we present our analysis in an effective field theory (EFT) framework and show that the parameters of VLQ models are already highly constrained. Exact and approximate analytical formulas for the $S$ and $T$ parameters in the VLQ models we consider are posted at https://quark.phy.bnl.gov/Digital_Data_Archive/dawson/vlq_17/ as Mathematica files.

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arXiv2016

Resummation of Jet Veto Logarithms at partial N$^3$LL + NNLO for $W^+W^-$ Production at the LHC

We compute the resummed on-shell $W^+ W^-$ production cross section under a jet-veto at the LHC to partial N$^3$LL order matched to the fixed order NNLO result. Differential NNLO cross sections are obtained from an implementation of $q_T$ subtraction in Sherpa. The two-loop virtual corrections to the $q \bar q \rightarrow W^+ W^-$ amplitude, used in both fixed order and resummation predictions, are extracted from the public code {\tt qqvvamp}. We perform resummation using soft collinear effective theory (SCET), with approximate beam functions where only the logarithmic terms are included at two-loop. In addition to scale uncertainties from the hard matching scale and the factorization scale, rapidity scale variations are obtained within the analytic regulator approach. Our resummation results show a decrease in the jet-veto cross-section compared to NNLO fixed order predictions, with reduced scale uncertainties compared to NNLL+NLO resummed predictions. We include the loop-induced $gg$ contribution with jet veto resummation to NLL+LO. The prediction shows good agreement with recent LHC measurements.

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arXiv2016

Singlet Model Interference Effects with High Scale UV Physics

One of the simplest extensions of the Standard Model (SM) is the addition of a scalar gauge singlet, S. If S is not forbidden by a symmetry from mixing with the Standard Model Higgs boson, the mixing will generate non-SM rates for Higgs production and decays. In general, there could also be unknown high energy physics that generates additional effective low energy interactions. We show that interference effects between the scalar resonance of the singlet model and the effective field theory (EFT) operators can have significant effects in the Higgs sector. We examine a non-$Z_2$ symmetric scalar singlet model and demonstrate that a fit to the 125 GeV Higgs boson couplings and to limits on high mass resonances, S, exhibit an interesting structure and possible large cancellations of effects between the resonance contribution and the new EFT interactions, that invalidate conclusions based on the renormalizable singlet model alone.

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arXiv2015

Progress in Electroweak Symmetry Breaking

In this talk, I discuss theoretical advances in understanding the properties of the Higgs boson and the implications for models of electroweak symmetry breaking. I begin by reviewing some of the recent progress in Standard Model calculations for Higgs boson production and decay rates, followed by a lightning tour of the use of effective field theories in the search for new physics in the Higgs sector. I end with a discussion of the complementarity of precision Higgs coupling measurements and direct searches for heavy particles for the discovery of Beyond the Standard Model physics in the electroweak sector.

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arXiv2015

NLO Corrections to Double Higgs Production in the Higgs Singlet Model

Higgs pair production at the LHC from gluon fusion is small in the Standard Model, but can be enhanced in models where a resonant enhancement is allowed. We examine the effect of a resonant contribution from a second scalar arising in a model with a gauge singlet scalar field in addition to the usual SU(2) scalar doublet, with mass up to $M_H$~600 GeV and discuss the interference effects in double Higgs production. We compute the NLO QCD corrections in the large $m_t$ limit and show that they can significantly distort kinematic distributions near the resonance peak.

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arXiv2015

Higgs CP Violation from Vectorlike Quarks

We explore CP violating aspects in the Higgs sector of models where new vectorlike quarks carry Yukawa couplings mainly to the third generation quarks of the Standard Model. We point out that in the simplest model, Higgs CP violating interactions only exist in the hWW channel. At low energy, we find that rare B decays can place similarly strong constraints as those from electric dipole moments on the source of CP violation. These observations offer a new handle to discriminate from other Higgs CP violating scenarios such as scalar sector extensions of the Standard Model, and imply an interesting future interplay among limits from different experiments.

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arXiv2015

What's in the Loop? The Anatomy of Double Higgs Production

Determination of Higgs self-interactions through the double Higgs production from gluon fusion is a major goal of current and future collider experiments. We point out this channel could help disentangle and resolve the nature of ultraviolet contributions to Higgs couplings to two gluons. Analytic properties of the double Higgs amplitudes near kinematic threshold are used to study features resulting from scalar and fermionic loop particles mediating the interaction. Focusing on the hh invariant mass spectrum, we consider the effect from anomalous top and bottom Yukawa couplings, as well as from scalar and fermionic loop particles. In particular, the spectrum at high hh invariant mass is sensitive to the spin of the particles in the loop.

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arXiv2015

Complementarity of LHC and EDMs for Exploring Higgs CP Violation

We analyze the constraints on a CP-violating, flavor conserving, two Higgs doublet model from the measurements of Higgs properties and from the search for heavy Higgs bosons at LHC, and show that the stronger limits typically come from the heavy Higgs search channels. The limits on CP violation arising from the Higgs sector measurements are complementary to those from EDM measurements. Combining all current constraints from low energy to colliders, we set generic upper bounds on the CP violating angle which parametrizes the CP odd component in the 126 GeV Higgs boson.

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arXiv2015

Usefulness of effective field theory for boosted Higgs production

The Higgs + jet channel at the LHC is sensitive to the effects of new physics both in the total rate and in the transverse momentum distribution at high p_T. We examine the production process using an effective field theory (EFT) language and discuss the possibility of determining the nature of the underlying high scale physics from boosted Higgs production. The effects of heavy color triplet scalars and top partner fermions with TeV scale masses are considered as examples and Higgs-gluon couplings of dimension-5 and dimension-7 are included in the EFT. As a by-product of our study, we examine the region of validity of the EFT. Dimension-7 contributions in realistic new physics models give effects in the high p_T tail of the Higgs signal which are so tiny that they are likely to be unobservable.

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arXiv2014

Exploring Resonant di-Higgs production in the Higgs Singlet Model

We study the enhancement of the di-Higgs production cross section resulting from the resonant decay of a heavy Higgs boson at hadron colliders in a model with a Higgs singlet. This enhancement of the double Higgs production rate is crucial in understanding the structure of the scalar potential and we determine the maximum allowed enhancement such that the electroweak minimum is a global minimum. The di-Higgs production enhancement can be as large as a factor of ~ 18 (13) for the mass of the heavy Higgs around 270 (420) GeV relative to the Standard Model rate at 14 TeV for parameters corresponding to a global electroweak minimum.

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