arXiv subjects

Sylvain Fichet

Publications and source records attributed to Sylvain Fichet.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Searching for axion-like particles with proton tagging at the LHC

The existence of an axion-like particle (ALP) would induce anomalous scattering of light by light. This process can be probed at the Large Hadron Collider in central exclusive production of photon pairs in proton-proton collisions by tagging the surviving protons using forward proton detectors. Using a detailed simulation, we estimate the expected bounds on the ALP--photon coupling for a wide range of masses. We show that the proposed search is competitive and complementary to other collider bounds for masses above 600 GeV, especially for resonant ALP production between 600 GeV and 2 TeV. Our results are also valid for a CP-even scalar, and the efficiency of the search is independent of the width of the ALP.

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arXiv2017

Bounding Quantum Dark Forces

Dark sectors lying beyond the Standard Model and containing sub-GeV particles which are bilinearly coupled to nucleons would induce quantum forces of the Casimir-Polder type in ordinary matter. Such new forces can be tested by a variety of experiments over many orders of magnitude. We provide a generic interpretation of these experimental searches and apply it to a sample of forces from dark scalars behaving as $1/r^3$, $1/r^5$, $1/r^7$ at short range. The landscape of constraints on such quantum forces differs from the one of modified gravity with Yukawa interactions, and features in particular strong short-distance bounds from molecular spectroscopy and neutron scattering.

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arXiv2017

Anomalous gauge interactions in photon collisions at the LHC and the FCC

The forward proton detectors recently installed and operating at the LHC open the possibility to observe photon collisions with high precision, providing a novel window on physics beyond the Standard Model. We review recent simulations and theoretical developments about the measurement of anomalous $γγγγ$ and $Zγγγ$ interactions. The searches for these anomalous gauge interactions are expected to set bounds on a wide range of particles including generic electroweak particles, neutral particles with dimension-5 coupling to gauge bosons, polarizable dark particles, and are typically complementary from new physics searches in other channels.

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arXiv2017

Probing the anomalous $γγγZ$ coupling at the LHC with proton tagging

The sensitivities to the anomalous quartic gauge boson coupling $γγγZ$ are estimated via $γZ$ production with intact protons in the forward region at the LHC. Proton tagging proves to be a powerful tool to suppress the background, which allows consideration of the hadronic decays of the $Z$ boson in addition to the leptonic ones. We discuss the discovery potential for an integrated luminosity of $300\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ and $3000\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$. The sensitivity we obtain at $300\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ goes beyond the one expected from LHC bounds on the $Z\rightarrow γγγ$ decay by about three orders of magnitude. The $γZ$ channel provides important discriminatory information with respect to the exclusive $γγ$ channel, as many particles beyond the Standard Model (such as a radion or Kaluza Klein gravitons) predict a signal in the latter but not the former.

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arXiv2017

Sharpening the shape analysis for higher-dimensional operator searches

When the Standard Model is interpreted as the renormalizable sector of a low-energy effective theory, the effects of new physics are encoded into a set of higher dimensional operators. These operators potentially deform the shapes of Standard Model differential distributions of final states observable at colliders. We describe a simple and systematic method to obtain optimal estimations of these deformations when using numerical tools, like Monte Carlo simulations. A crucial aspect of this method is minimization of the estimation uncertainty: we demonstrate how the operator coefficients have to be set in the simulations in order to get optimal results. The uncertainty on the interference term turns out to be the most difficult to control and grows very quickly when the interference is suppressed. We exemplify our method by computing the deformations induced by the ${\cal O}_{3W}$ operator in $W^+W^-$ production at the LHC, and by deriving a bound on ${\cal O}_{3W}$ using $8$ TeV CMS data.

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arXiv2017

Shining Light on Polarizable Dark Particles

We investigate the possibilities of searching for a self-conjugate polarizable particle in the self-interactions of light. We first observe that polarizability can arise either from the exchange of mediator states or as a consequence of the inner structure of the particle. To exemplify this second possibility we calculate the polarizability of a neutral bosonic open string, and find it is described only by dimension-8 operators. Focussing on the spin-0 case, we calculate the light-by-light scattering amplitudes induced by the dimension-6 and 8 polarizability operators. Performing a simulation of exclusive diphoton production with proton tagging at the LHC, we find that the imprint of the polarizable dark particle can be potentially detected at 5$σ$ significance for mass and cutoff reaching values above the TeV scale, for $\sqrt{s}=$13~TeV and 300 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity. If the polarizable dark particle is stable, it can be a dark matter candidate, in which case we argue this exclusive diphoton search may complement the existing LHC searches for polarizable dark matter.

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arXiv2017

On new physics searches with multidimensional differential shapes

In the context of upcoming new physics searches at the LHC, we investigate the impact of multidimensional differential rates in typical LHC analyses. We discuss the properties of shape information, and argue that multidimensional rates bring limited information in the scope of a discovery, but can have a large impact on model discrimination. We also point out subtleties about systematic uncertainties cancellations and the Cauchy-Schwarz bound on interference terms.

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arXiv2017

The Global Higgs as a Signal for Compositeness at the LHC

The radial excitation of the global symmetry-breaking vacuum in composite Higgs models, called the "global Higgs", has been recently a focus of investigation. In this paper we study the prospects for detecting this composite scalar at the 13 TeV LHC. We compute the global Higgs production rates and estimate the discovery potential of a global Higgs decaying into top quark pairs and into Higgs and electroweak gauge bosons with subsequent hadronic decays. The global Higgs may also decay into fermion resonances such as top partners, providing a new window into compositeness. We show that top partner jets can be effectively unresolved in some regions of the parameter space. Such "boosted top partner" signatures would deserve the development of dedicated substructure analyses.

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arXiv2016

The correlation matrix of Higgs rates at the LHC

The imperfect knowledge of the Higgs boson decay rates and cross sections at the LHC constitutes a critical systematic uncertainty in the study of the Higgs boson properties. We show that the full covariance matrix between the Higgs rates can be determined from the most elementary sources of uncertainty by a direct application of probability theory. We evaluate the error magnitudes and full correlation matrix on the set of Higgs cross sections and branching ratios at $\sqrt{s}=7$, $8$, $13$ and $14$ TeV, which are provided in ancillary files. The impact of this correlation matrix on the global fits is illustrated with the latest $7$+$8$ TeV Higgs dataset.

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arXiv2016

The Excitation of the Global Symmetry-Breaking Vacuum in Composite Higgs Models

We consider scenarios of Higgs compositeness where the Higgs doublet arises as a pseudo-Nambu Goldstone boson. Our focus is the physical scalar ("radial") excitation associated with the global symmetry breaking vacuum, which we call the "global Higgs". For the minimal case of a $SO(5)/SO(4)$ coset, the couplings of the global Higgs to Standard Model (SM) particles are fully determined by group theoretical factors and two decay constants. The global Higgs also couples to the composite resonances of the theory, inducing an interaction with the SM gauge bosons at one-loop. We thoroughly analyze representative fermionic sectors, considering a global Higgs both in the $\bf 5$ and $\bf 14$ representations of $SO(5)$ and taking into account the renormalization group evolution of couplings in the composite sector. We derive the one-loop effective couplings and all decays of the global Higgs, showing that its decay width over mass can range from $ O (10^{-3})$ to $ O(1)$. Because of the multiplicity of the resonances, the coupling of the global Higgs to gluons is sizeable, potentially opening a new window into composite models at the LHC.

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arXiv2016

Accidental permutation symmetries as a test for Grand Unification: the supersymmetric $SU(5)$ case

Unification of matter fields implies the existence of accidental permutation symmetries, which potentially remain immune to large quantum corrections up to the TeV scale. We investigate the case of a supersymmetric $SU(5)$ grand unified theory, where such a permutation symmetry is present in the up-type squark sector. We present a variety of tests allowing to challenge the $SU(5)$ hypothesis based on the observation of squarks at the LHC. These tests appear as relations among observables involving flavour-violating or chirality-flipping decays of squarks. Moreover, they rely on top-polarimetry and charm-tagging. As an example, we discuss the application to the scenario of Natural Supersymmetry, while more examples can be found in the related journal publications.

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arXiv2016

Taming systematic uncertainties at the LHC with the central limit theorem

We study the simplifications occurring in any likelihood function in the presence of a large number of small systematic uncertainties. We find that the marginalisation of these uncertainties can be done analytically by means of second-order error propagation, error combination, the Lyapunov central limit theorem, and under mild approximations which are typically satisfied for LHC likelihoods. The outcomes of this analysis are i) a very light treatment of systematic uncertainties ii) a convenient way of reporting the main effects of systematic uncertainties such as the detector effects occuring in LHC measurements.

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arXiv2016

Measuring the diphoton coupling of a 750 GeV resonance

A slight excess has been observed in the first data of photon-photon events at the 13 TeV LHC, that might be interpreted has a hint of physics beyond the Standard Model. We show that a completely model-independent measurement of the photon-photon coupling of a putative 750 GeV resonance will be possible using the forward proton detectors scheduled at ATLAS and CMS.

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arXiv2016

Light-by-light scattering with intact protons at the LHC: from Standard Model to New Physics

We discuss the discovery potential of light-by-light scattering at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), induced by the Standard Model (SM) and by new exotic charged particles. Our simulation relies on intact proton detection in the planned forward detectors of CMS and ATLAS. The full four-photon amplitudes generated by any electrically charged particles of spins $1/2$ and $1$, including the SM processes involving loops of leptons, quarks and $W$ bosons are implemented in the Forward Physics Monte Carlo generator. Our method provides model-independent bounds on massive charged particles, only parametrized by the spin, mass and "effective charge" $Q_{\rm eff}$ of the new particle. We find that a new charged vector (fermion) with $Q_{\rm eff}=4$ can be discovered up to $m=640~\rm GeV$ ($m=300~\rm GeV$) with an integrated luminosity of $300~\rm fb^{-1}$ at the LHC. We also discuss the sensitivities to neutral particles such as a strongly-interacting heavy dilaton and warped Kaluza-Klein gravitons, whose effects could be discovered for masses in the multi-TeV range.

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arXiv2016

Scattering Light by Light at 750 GeV at the LHC

We consider the possibility that the diphoton excess at 750 GeV is caused by a new scalar resonance produced in photon fusion. This scenario is parametrised by only one relevant effective couplings and is thus minimal. We show that this setup can reproduce both the production rate and width of the resonance, and is not in conflict with the 8 TeV limits on the diphoton cross section. The scenario also predicts event rates for $WW$, $ZZ$, $Zγ$ final states. We suggest to perform precision measurements by studying light-by-light scattering with intact protons detected in forward detectors. We construct a simple model that shows that the required couplings can be achieved with new vectorlike, uncolored fermions (with a strong Yukawa coupling to the resonance) which may also account for the required width.

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arXiv2015

Prospects for new physics searches at the LHC in the forward proton mode

The installation of forward proton detectors at the LHC will provide the possibility to observe central exclusive processes, opening a novel window on physics beyond the Standard Model. We review recent developments on the discovery potential from central exclusive light-by-light scattering. The search for this process is expected to provide bounds on a wide range of particles, and turns out to be complementary from new physics searches in inclusive channels.

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arXiv2015

Relating LHC event rates to supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories containing $SU(5)$

We elaborate on a recently found $SU(5)$ relation confined to the up-(s)quark flavour space, that remains immune to large quantum corrections up to the TeV scale. We investigate the possibilities opened by this new window on the GUT scale in order to find TeV-scale $SU(5)$ tests realizable at the LHC. We present a variety of tests, which appear as relations among observables involving flavour violation or chirality flips and rely on the techniques of top polarimetry, charm-tagging, or Higgs detection from cascade decays. We discuss the cases of natural Supersymmetry and top-charm Supersymmetry as example cases. We find that $O(10)$ to $O(100)$ events are needed to obtain 50\% of relative precision at 3$σ$ significance for all proposed tests.

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arXiv2015

Anatomy of the Higgs fits: a first guide to statistical treatments of the theoretical uncertainties

The studies of the Higgs boson couplings based on the recent and upcoming LHC data open up a new window on physics beyond the Standard Model. In this paper, we propose a statistical guide to the consistent treatment of the theoretical uncertainties entering the Higgs rate fits. Both the Bayesian and frequentist approaches are systematically analysed in a unified formalism. We present analytical expressions for the marginal likelihoods, useful to implement simultaneously the experimental and theoretical uncertainties. We review the various origins of the theoretical errors (QCD, EFT, PDF, production mode contamination...). All these individual uncertainties are thoroughly combined with the help of moment-based considerations. The theoretical correlations among Higgs detection channels appear to affect the location and size of the best-fit regions in the space of Higgs couplings. We discuss the recurrent question of the shape of the prior distributions for the individual theoretical errors and find that a nearly Gaussian prior arises from the error combinations. We also develop the bias approach, which is an alternative to marginalisation providing more conservative results. The statistical framework to apply the bias principle is introduced and two realisations of the bias are proposed. Finally, depending on the statistical treatment, the Standard Model prediction for the Higgs signal strengths is found to lie within either the $68\%$ or $95\%$ confidence level region obtained from the latest analyses of the $7$ and $8$ TeV LHC datasets.

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