arXiv subjects

Sean Benevedes

Publications and source records attributed to Sean Benevedes.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Many Wrongs Make a Right: Leveraging Biased Simulations Towards Unbiased Parameter Inference

In particle physics, as in many areas of science, parameter inference relies on simulations to bridge the gap between theory and experiment. Recent developments in simulation-based inference have boosted the sensitivity of analyses; however, biases induced by simulation-data mismodeling can be difficult to control within standard inference pipelines. In this work, we propose a Template-Adapted Mixture Model to confront this problem in the context of signal fraction estimation: inferring the population proportion of signal in a mixed sample of signal and background, both of which follow arbitrarily complex distributions. We harness many biased simulations to perform data-driven estimates of each process distribution in the signal region, substantially reducing the bias on the signal fraction due to the domain shift between simulation and reality. We explore different methodological choices, including model selection, feature representation, and statistical method, and apply them to a Gaussian toy example and to a semi-realistic di-Higgs measurement. We find that the presented methods successfully leverage the biased simulations to provide estimates with well-calibrated uncertainties.

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arXiv2025

Frequentist Uncertainties on Neural Density Ratios with wifi Ensembles

We introduce wifi ensembles as a novel framework to obtain asymptotic frequentist uncertainties on density ratios, with a particular focus on neural ratio estimation in the context of high-energy physics. When the density ratio of interest is a likelihood ratio conditioned on parameters, wifi ensembles can be used to perform simulation-based inference on those parameters. After training the basis functions f_i(x), uncertainties on the weights w_i can be straightforwardly propagated to the estimated parameters without requiring extraneous bootstraps. To demonstrate this approach, we present an application in quantum chromodynamics at the Large Hadron Collider, using wifi ensembles to estimate the likelihood ratio between generated quark and gluon jets. We use this learned likelihood ratio to estimate the quark fraction in a synthetic mixed quark/gluon sample, showing that the resultant uncertainties empirically satisfy the desired coverage properties.

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arXiv2025

Gauge hierarchy and metastability from Higgs-driven crunching

We present a new solution to the Higgs hierarchy problem based on dynamical vacuum selection in a landscape scanning the Higgs mass. In patches where the Higgs mass parameter takes a natural value, the Higgs potential only admits a minimum with a large and negative energy density. This causes a cosmological crunch, removing such patches from the landscape. Conversely, in patches where the Higgs mass parameter is smaller than a critical value, the Higgs potential admits a metastable minimum with the standard cosmological history. This critical value is determined by the instability scale, where the quartic coupling turns negative due to its running. The ability of this mechanism to explain the observed Higgs mass hinges on new physics at the TeV scale, such as vector-like fermions. We study two simple realizations of this scenario in a heavy neutral lepton model and in the singlet-doublet model, the latter mimicking a Higgsino-bino system. We show that the relevant parts of their parameter spaces can be probed by proposed future colliders, such as the FCC-ee or a muon collider.

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arXiv2024

Spontaneous symmetry breaking, gauge hierarchy and electroweak vacuum metastability

The so-called metastability bound asserts that an unnaturally small Higgs mass is a necessary condition for electroweak vacuum metastability, offering a new approach towards solving the hierarchy problem. So far, this result relies on the assumption of a negative Higgs mass parameter, or equivalently, on electroweak spontaneous symmetry breaking. We derive a new, corresponding bound for the case of a positive mass parameter. When the new bound is significantly more restrictive than or comparable to its established counterpart, it may offer an explanation for the sign of the Higgs mass parameter, and thus, spontaneous symmetry breaking itself. New physics at scales $\mathcal{O} (1-10)$ TeV can lower these bounds as far as the TeV-scale. As an illustration, we consider vacuum stability in the presence of additional TeV-scale fermions with Yukawa couplings to the Higgs, as well as a dimension-six term parameterizing new physics in the UV. This scenario requires new physics that couples strongly to the Higgs, and can potentially be probed at future colliders. Finally, to allow for comparison with concrete mechanisms predicting metastability, we provide the mass-dependent lifetime of the electroweak vacuum for this model.

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arXiv2021

The Muon Smasher's Guide

We lay out a comprehensive physics case for a future high-energy muon collider, exploring a range of collision energies (from 1 to 100 TeV) and luminosities. We highlight the advantages of such a collider over proposed alternatives. We show how one can leverage both the point-like nature of the muons themselves as well as the cloud of electroweak radiation that surrounds the beam to blur the dichotomy between energy and precision in the search for new physics. The physics case is buttressed by a range of studies with applications to electroweak symmetry breaking, dark matter, and the naturalness of the weak scale. Furthermore, we make sharp connections with complementary experiments that are probing new physics effects using electric dipole moments, flavor violation, and gravitational waves. An extensive appendix provides cross section predictions as a function of the center-of-mass energy for many canonical simplified models.

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