arXiv subjects

Thomas G. Rizzo

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas G. Rizzo.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Kinetic Mixing, Dark Photons and Extra Dimensions III: Brane Localized Dark Matter

Extra dimensions have proven to be a very useful tool in constructing new physics models. In earlier work, we began investigating toy models for the 5-D analog of the kinetic mixing/vector portal scenario where the interactions of dark matter, taken to be, e.g., a complex scalar, with the brane-localized fields of the Standard Model (SM) are mediated by a massive $U(1)_D$ dark photon living in the bulk. These models were shown to have many novel features differentiating them from their 4-D analogs and which, in several cases, avoided some well-known 4-D model building constraints. However, these gains were obtained at the cost of the introduction of a fair amount of model complexity, e.g., dark matter Kaluza-Klein excitations. In the present paper, we consider an alternative setup wherein the dark matter and the dark Higgs, responsible for $U(1)_D$ breaking, are both localized to the 'dark' brane at the opposite end of the 5-D interval from where the SM fields are located with only the dark photon now being a 5-D field. The phenomenology of such a setup is explored for both flat and warped extra dimensions and compared to the previous more complex models.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Building Kinetic Mixing From Scalar Portal Matter

The nature of dark matter (DM) and how it might interact with the particles of the Standard Model (SM) is an ever-growing mystery. It is possible that the existence of new `dark sector' forces, yet undiscovered, are the key to solving this fundamental problem. In this paper, we construct a model in which a dark photon mediates interactions with the SM via kinetic mixing. Unlike traditional models, in which the dark photon, which couples to a dark charge, $Q_D$, mixes with the hypercharge boson, our model effectively mixes the dark photon directly with the photon after electroweak symmetry is broken, but remains unmixed until the symmetry breaks. The kinetic mixing is generated at one loop by fields which satisfy $\sum Q_D Q_{em} = 0$, a condition which guarantees a finite result at one loop. In the literature, this has been traditionally obtained via heavy fermions, which may lie out of the reach of current accelerators. In this model, by contrast, this process is mediated by scalar `portal matter' fields, which are charged under the $SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y$ of the standard model as well as the dark gauge group $U(1)_D$ and acquire GeV-scale vevs which give mass to the dark Higgs and dark photon. The additional scalar fields are relatively light, at or below the weak scale, yet may remain undetected by current experiments since their couplings to SM fermions come only through percent level mixing with the SM Higgs. At colliders, these models are typified by relatively low MET due the BSM states decaying into MET and SM bosons, with MET which is balanced by the decay of the associated production object. Nevertheless, the higher statistics of HL-LHC may be able to probe the entirety of the model space.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Dark Initial State Radiation and the Kinetic Mixing Portal

Data from Planck measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) place important constraints on models with light dark matter (DM) and light mediators especially when both lie in the mass range below $\sim 1 $ GeV. In models involving kinetic mixing where the dark photon acts as the mediator, these constraints are easily satisfied and the appropriate DM relic density achievable if the DM is, e.g., a complex scalar, where $p$-wave annihilation occurs, or is the lighter component of a split pseudo-Dirac state where co-annihilation dominates. In both of these cases, although higher order in the dark gauge coupling, $g_D$, the corresponding annihilation processes including dark photon initial state radiation (ISR) will be dominantly $s$-wave with essentially temperature independent cross sections. The rates for these dark ISR associated processes, though not yielding cross sections large enough to contribute to the relic density, can still run into possible conflicts with the bounds arising from the CMB. In this paper we perform a preliminary study of the present and potential future constraints that the CMB imposes on the parameter spaces for both of these scenarios due to the existence of this dark ISR. Further analyses of the effects of dark ISR in DM annihilation is clearly warranted.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Dark Matter Freeze Out with Tsallis Statistics in the Early Universe

The nature of dark matter (DM) and how it might interact with the particles of the Standard Model (SM) is one of greatest mysteries currently facing particle physics, and addressing these issues should provide some understanding of how the observed relic abundance was produced. One widely considered production mechanism, a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) produced as a thermal relic, provides a target cross section for DM annihilation into SM particles by solving the Boltzmann equation. In this thermal freeze-out mechanism, dark matter is produced in thermal equilibrium with the SM in the early universe, and drops out of equilibrium to its observed abundance as the universe cools and expands. In this paper, we study the impact of a generalized thermodynamics, known as Tsallis statistics and governed by a parameter $q$, on the target DM annihilation cross section. We derive the phase space distributions of particles in this generalized statistical framework, and check their thermodynamic consistency, as well as analyzing the impact of this generalization on the collisional term of the Boltzmann equation. We consider the case of an initial value of $q_0>1$, with $q$ relaxing to 1 as the universe expands and cools, and solve the generalized Boltzmann numerically for several benchmark DM masses, finding the corresponding target annihilation cross sections as a function of $q_0$. We find that as $q$ departs from the standard thermodynamic case of $q=1$, the collisional term falls less slowly as a function of $x = m_χ/T$ than expected in the standard case. We also find that the target cross section falls sharply from $σv \simeq 2.2-2.6\times10^{-26} \textrm{cm}^3/\textrm{s}$ for $q_0=1$ to, for example, $σv \simeq 3\times 10^{-34} \textrm{cm}^3/\textrm{s}$ for $q_0=1.05$ for a 100 GeV WIMP.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Local $SU(2) \times U(1)$ Quark Flavor Symmetry in the RS Bulk

We propose a model of quark flavor based on an additional $SU(2)\times U(1)$ local symmetry in a warped extra dimensional bulk. In contrast to other works, we break the additional gauge symmetry in the bulk via two complex scalars which acquire bulk vevs, rather than relying on brane-localized symmetry breaking. A gauge-covariant Kaluza-Klein decomposition of a theory with a bulk spontaneously broken gauge symmetry is performed, and exact expressions for the bulk profiles of all physical particles in such systems are given. The SM quark masses and mixings are then recreated using gauge-covariant bulk quark mass terms and Yukawa-like couplings to the new bulk scalars. A numerical sampling of points in the model parameter space that recreate the quark masses and mixings is performed at a KK scale of $M_{KK} =5$ TeV. We then compute the $ΔF = 2$ 4-quark operators arising from our new flavor gauge bosons and scalars, and those arising from Kaluza-Klein modes of SM gauge bosons. By decoupling one of our bulk scalar fields to all quark fields except the right-handed up-like sector, we find that it is possible to greatly suppress tree-level contributions to the highly constrained Kaon mixing parameters. Instead, the dominant constraints on the model emerge from neutral $B_d$ and $D$ meson mixing. These constraints are explored with our numerical sampling of the model parameter space, and the specific contribution of the new flavor gauge bosons and scalars is discussed. We find that for a significant range of realistic flavor gauge couplings, the new gauge bosons compete with the normally dominant gluon flavor-changing currents, but flavor-changing operators emerging from the bulk scalar fields are highly suppressed. Finally, we briefly comment on flavor constraints that are independent of the flavor gauge sector arising from the $Z \bar{b}_L b_L$ coupling and rare top decays.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Towards A UV-Model of Kinetic Mixing and Portal Matter

The nature of dark matter (DM) and how it might interact with the particles of the Standard Model (SM) is an ever-growing mystery. It is possible that the existence of new `dark sector' forces, yet undiscovered, are the key to solving this fundamental problem, and one might hope that in the future such forces might even be `unified' with the ones we already know in some UV-complete framework. In this paper, following a bottom-up approach, we attempt to take the first steps in the construction of such a framework. The much-discussed possibility of the kinetic mixing (KM) of the `dark photon' with the hypercharge gauge boson of the SM via loops of portal matter (PM) fields, charged in both sectors, offers an attractive starting point for these efforts. Given the anticipated finite strength of the KM in a UV-complete theory, the absence of anomalies, and the lifetime constraints on the PM fields arising from CMB and nucleosynthesis constraints, PM must behave as vector-like copies of the known SM fermion fields, such as those which appear naturally in $E_6$-type models. Within such a setup, the SM and their corresponding partner PM fields would be related by a new $SU(2)_I$ gauge symmetry. With this observation as a springboard, we construct a generalization of these ideas where $SU(2)_I$ is augmented by an additional $U(1)_{I_Y}$ factor so that the light dark photon is the result of a symmetry breaking analogous to the SM, \ie, $SU(2)_I\times U(1)_{I_Y}\to U(1)_D$, but with $U(1)_D$ now also broken at the $\lesssim$ GeV scale. While SM fields are $U(1)_D$ singlets, as in the conventional dark photon approach, they transform nontrivially under the full $SU(2)_I\times U(1)_{I_Y}$ gauge group. This approach leads to numerous interesting signatures, both at low energies and at colliders, and can be viewed as an initial step in the construction of a more UV-complete framework.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Thick Branes in Extra Dimensions and Suppressed Dark Couplings

In this paper we show that the interaction between new light dark matter mediators and the SM particles can be naturally suppressed if one employs a single, flat extra dimension (ED). In this setup, the SM fields are localized in a finite width `fat' brane, similar to models of Universal Extra Dimensions (UED), while DM, in turn, is confined to a thin brane at the opposite end of the ED interval. Including brane localized kinetic terms on the fat brane for the mediator fields, the resulting coupling between the SM and these light mediators can be several orders of magnitude smaller than the corresponding ones between the mediators and DM which we assume to be a typical gauge coupling. We investigate the implications of this scenario for both vector (i.e., dark photon, DP) and scalar mediator fields in the 5-D bulk. In this setup kinetic mixing, which is usually employed to suppress light mediator couplings, is not required. Here we assume that the SM particles couple to the DP via their $B-L$ charges while the DP couples to the DM via a dark charge. Both the vector DP couplings and the corresponding Higgs portal couplings with the SM are shown to be natural small in magnitude with a size dependent on ratio of the 5-D compactification radius, $R^{-1} \sim 0.1-1$ GeV, and the SM brane thickness, $L^{-1} \sim 2-10$ TeV, a range chosen to avoid LHC and other experimental constraints. In this framework one can obtain the observed value of the DM relic abundance for a wide range of parameter choices, while the constrains due to direct DM detection and the invisible width of the Higgs do not impose significant challenges to the model. Finally, this mechanism can lead to distinct signatures in both present and upcoming experiments as it combines some common features of UED and DP models in a single ED setup.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Kinetic Mixing and Portal Matter Phenomenology

Dark photons (DP) are interesting as potential mediators between the dark matter (DM) sector and the fields of the Standard Model (SM). The interaction of the DP, described by a broken $U(1)_D$ gauge symmetry, with the SM is usually generated at the one-loop level via kinetic mixing through the existence of portal matter (PM), here assumed to be fermionic, which carries both a dark charge as well as a SM $U(1)_Y$ hypercharge. For theoretical consistency, as well as for many phenomenological reasons, this PM must be vector-like with respect to the SM and dark gauge groups and, in particular, is shown to be allowed only to transform as vector-like copies of the usual SM fields. The dark Higgs that is responsible for the breaking of $U(1)_D$ can then generate a mixing between the PM and SM fields with the same electric charge thus altering the DP interactions with (at least some of) the SM fields and also providing a path for the PM fields to decay. In this paper we briefly explore the phenomenology of some specific simple models of this PM including, for the case where the PM is leptonic in nature, their potential impact on experiments probing low energy parity-violation and the g-2 of the muon. In the case of color-triplet, bottom quark-like PM, their direct pair- and single-production at the LHC is shown to be observable in final states that include missing $E_T$ and/or very highly boosted lepton-jets together with pairs of high $p_T$ b-jets that can be used to trigger on such events. These signatures are quite distinct from those usually employed in the search for vector-like quarks at the LHC and, furthermore, we demonstrate that the conventional signal channels for vector-like quarks involving the SM Higgs and gauge fields are essentially closed in the case of PM.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Heavy resonances at energy-frontier hadron colliders

This paper explores the physics reach of the proton-proton Future Circular Collider (FCC-hh) and of the High-Energy LHC (HE-LHC) for searches of new particles produced in the $s$-channel and decaying to two high-energy leptons, jets (non-tops), tops or W/Z bosons. We discuss the expected discovery potential and exclusion limits for benchmark models predicting new massive particles that result in resonant structures in the invariant mass spectrum. We also present a detailed study of the HE-LHC potential to discriminate among different models, for a $Z'$ that could be discovered by the end of High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC).

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Kinetic Mixing, Dark Photons and Extra Dimensions II: Fermionic Dark Matter

Extra dimensions can be very useful tools when constructing new physics models. Previously, we began investigating toy models for the 5-D analog of the kinetic mixing/vector portal scenario where the interactions of bulk dark matter with the brane-localized fields of the Standard Model are mediated by a massive $U(1)_D$ dark photon also living in the bulk. In that setup, where the dark matter was taken to be a complex scalar, a number of nice features were obtained such as $U(1)_D$ breaking by boundary conditions without the introduction of a dark Higgs field, the absence of potentially troublesome SM Higgs-dark singlet mixing, also by boundary conditions, the natural similarity of the dark matter and dark photon masses and the decoupling of the heavy gauge Kaluza-Klein states from the Standard Model. In the present paper we extend this approach by examining the more complex cases of Dirac and Majorana fermionic dark matter. In particular, we discuss a new mechanism that can occur in 5-D (but not in 4-D) that allows for light Dirac dark matter in the $\sim 100$ MeV mass range, even though it has an $s$-wave annihilation into Standard Model fields, by avoiding the strong constraints that arise from both the CMB and 21 cm data. This mechanism makes use of the presence of the Kaluza-Klein excitations of the dark photon to extremize the increase in the annihilation cross section usually obtained via resonant enhancement. In the Majorana dark matter case, we explore the possibility of a direct $s$-channel dark matter pair-annihilation process producing the observed relic density, due to the general presence of parity-violating dark matter interactions, without employing the usual co-annihilation mechanism which is naturally suppressed in this 5-D setup.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Kinetic Mixing, Dark Photons and an Extra Dimension: I

Extra dimensions (ED) can provide a useful tool for model-building. In this paper we introduce a single, flat ED extension of the kinetic-mixing/dark photon (DP) portal for dark matter (DM) interactions with the Standard Model (SM) assuming a compactification `radius' of order $R^{-1}\sim10-1000$ MeV and examine the resulting modifications to and augmentation of the usual DP phenomenology. In the present scenario, both the DP and DM experience the full 5-D while the SM fields are constrained to lie on a 4-D brane at the boundary of the ED. Such a setup can naturally yield the observed value of the DM relic density and explain the required rough degeneracy of the DM and DP masses needed to obtain it. Gauge symmetry breaking can occur via boundary conditions without the introduction of an additional singlet Higgs scalar thus avoiding all constraints associated with the coupling of such a field to the usual SM Higgs field in 5-D. The self-consistency of the field redefinitions that map the gauge fields into a canonical basis and thus removing the kinetic mixing terms is found to lead to a strong model building constraint on the ED setup involving a brane localized kinetic term for the 5-D gauge field on the SM brane. Multiple variations of this scenario are found to be possible which are consistent with all current experimental constraints but which predict very different phenomenologies. In this paper, after setting up the general model formalism, we discuss in detail the case of a complex scalar 5-D DM field, consistent with constraints arising from the CMB, which may or may not obtain a vacuum expectation value (vev). The resulting Kaluza-Klein (KK) towers of both the DM and DP fields are found to yield interesting and distinctive signatures.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Dark Photons, Kinetic Mixing and Light Dark Matter From 5-D

Extra dimensions provide a unique tool for building new physics models. Here we extend the kinetic mixing/dark photon mediator scenario for the case of complex scalar dark matter interacting with the Standard Model to 5-D. We assume that the inverse size of the new, flat extra dimension is $\sim 10 - 1000$ MeV, the mass range of interest in numerous current experiments, and discuss the resulting phenomenology. Here we see that 5-D constructions can be used to soften some of the possible tuning issues which are sometimes encountered in the corresponding 4-D models.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Ghosts- and Tachyon-Free Regions of the Randall-Sundrum Model Parameter Space

Model building within the Randall-Sundrum (RS) framework generally involves placing the Standard Model fields in the bulk. Such fields may possess non-zero values for their associated brane-localized kinetic terms (BLKTs) in addition to possible bulk mass parameters. In this paper we clearly identify the regions of the RS model parameter space where the presence of bulk mass terms and BLKTs yield a setup which is free from both ghost and tachyon instabilities. Such physically acceptable parameter space regions can then be used to construct realistic and phenomenologically viable RS models.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Gravity-Mediated Dark Matter Annihilation in the Randall-Sundrum Model

Observational evidence for dark matter stems from its gravitational interactions, and as of yet there has been no evidence for dark matter interacting via other means. We examine models where dark matter interactions are purely gravitational in a Randall-Sundrum background. In particular, the Kaluza-Klein tower of gravitons which result from the warped fifth dimension can provide viable annihilation channels into Standard Model final states, and we find that we can achieve values of the annihilation cross section, $\left< σv \right>$, which are consistent with the observed relic abundance in the case of spin-1 dark matter. We examine constraints on these models employing both the current photon line and continuum indirect dark matter searches, and assess the prospects of hunting for the signals of such models in future direct and indirect detection experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Complementarity of Resonant Scalar, Vector-Like Quark and Superpartner Searches in Elucidating New Phenomena

The elucidation of the nature of new phenomena requires a multi-pronged approach to understand the essential physics that underlies it. As an example, we study the simplified model containing a new scalar singlet accompanied by vector-like quarks, as motivated by the recent diphoton excess at the LHC. To be specific, we investigate three models with $SU(2)_L$-doublet, vector-like quarks with Yukawa couplings to a new scalar singlet and which also couple off-diagonally to corresponding Standard Model fermions of the first or third generation through the usual Higgs boson. We demonstrate that three classes of searches can play important and complementary roles in constraining this model. In particular, we find that missing energy searches designed for superparticle production, supply superior sensitivity for vector-like quarks than the dedicated new quark searches themselves.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

750 GeV Diphoton Resonance in Warped Geometries

We examine the scenario of a warped extra dimension containing bulk SM fields in light of the observed diphoton excess at 750 GeV. We demonstrate that a spin-2 graviton whose action contains localized kinetic brane terms for both gravity and gauge fields is compatible with the excess, while being consistent with all other constraints. The graviton sector of this model contains a single free parameter, once the mass of the graviton is fixed. The scale of physics on the IR-brane is found to lie in the range of a $\sim$ few TeV, relevant to the gauge hierarchy. There remains significant flexibility in the coupled gauge/fermion KK sectors to address the strong constraints arising from precision measurements.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

pMSSM SUSY and the ATLAS Z+jets+MET Excess

A possible explanation of the excesses observed by ATLAS in the Z+jets+MET channel within the p(henomenological)MSSM is discussed. We have found that the cascade of first/second generation squarks to binos to Higgsino LSPs, with judiciously chosen sparticle masses, can provide a viable scenario that is consistent with all other experimental constraints.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

The CP-Violating pMSSM

We investigate the sensitivity of the next generation of flavor-based low-energy experiments to probe the supersymmetric parameter space in the context of the phenomenological MSSM (pMSSM), and examine the complementarity with direct searches for Supersymmetry at the 13 TeV LHC in a quantitative manner. To this end, we enlarge the previously studied pMSSM parameter space to include all physical non-zero CP-violating phases, namely those associated with the gaugino mass parameters, Higgsino mass parameter, and the tri-linear couplings of the top quark, bottom quark and tau lepton. We find that future electric dipole moment and flavor measurements can have a strong impact on the viability of these models even if the sparticle spectrum is out of reach of the 13 TeV LHC. In particular, the lack of positive signals in future low-energy probes would exclude values of the phases between ${\cal O}(10^{-2})$ and ${\cal O}(10^{-1})$. We also find regions of parameter space where large phases remain allowed due to cancellations. Most interestingly, in some rare processes, such as BR($B_s \to μ^+ μ^-$ ), we find that contributions arising from CP-violating phases can bring the potentially large SUSY contributions into better agreement with experiment and Standard Model predictions.

hep-ph↗