arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Thomas G. Rizzo.
In the general MSSM, first and second generation squarks and gluinos may be sufficiently light to be produced and studied at $e^+e^-$ colliders operating in the 0.5-1 TeV energy range. After a reminder that the MSSM is {\it not} the same as mSUGRA, we provide a brief overview of these possibilities within this more general framework
Split-UED allows for the possibility that the lowest lying KK excitations of the Standard Model fermions can be much lighter than the corresponding gauge or Higgs KK states. This can happen provided the fermion bulk masses are chosen to be large, in units of the inverse compactification radius, 1/R, and negative. In this setup, all of the other KK states would be effectively decoupled from low energy physics. Such a scenario would then lead to an apparent vector-like fourth generation with an associated discrete symmetry that allows us to accommodate a dark matter candidate. In this paper the rather unique phenomenology presented by this picture will be examined.
Extra dimensions provide a very useful tool in addressing a number of the fundamental problems faced by the Standard Model. The following provides a very basic introduction to this very broad subject area as given at the VIII School of the Gravitational and Mathematical Physics Division of the Mexican Physical Society in December 2009. Some prospects for extra dimensional searches at the 7 TeV LHC with $\sim$1 $fb^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity are provided.
We investigate the collider implications of Split Universal Extra Dimensions. The non-vanishing fermion mass in the bulk, which is consistent with the KK-parity, largely modifies the phenomenology of Minimal Universal Exta Dimensions. We scrutinize the behavior of couplings and study the discovery reach of the Tevatron and the LHC for level-2 Kaluza-Klein modes in the dilepton channel, which would indicates the presence of the extra dimensions. Observation of large event rates for dilepton resonances can result from a nontrivial fermion mass profile along the extra dimensions, which, in turn, may corroborate extra dimensional explanation for the observation of the positron excess in cosmic rays.
We show that the LHC will be able to differentiate between a four-dimensional model with quantum gravity at ~1 TeV where the (massless) graviton becomes strongly coupled to standard model particles at 1 TeV and brane world type models with a large extra-dimensional volume and massive Kaluza-Klein gravitons. We estimate that the 14 TeV LHC could put a limit of the order of ~5 TeV on the four dimensional Planck mass in a model independent way.
We explore the possibility of indirectly observing the effects of $Z'$-like particles with electroweak strength couplings in the Drell-Yan channel at the LHC with masses above the resonance direct search reach. We find that, mostly due to statistical limitations, this is very unlikely in almost all classes of models independently of the spin of the resonance. Not unexpectedly, the one possible exception to this general result is the case of degenerate Kaluza-Klein (KK) excitations of the photon and $Z$ that occur in some extra-dimensional models. In this special case, the strong destructive interference with the Standard Model (SM) exchanges below the resonance mass leads to a well-known significant suppression of the cross section and thus increased sensitivity to this particular new physics scenario.
We have recently completed a detailed scan of the 19-dimensional parameter space of the phenomenological MSSM, i.e., the CP-conserving MSSM assuming Minimal Flavor Violation(MFV) with the first two sfermion generations degenerate. We found a large set of parameter space points that satisfied all of the existing experimental and theoretical constraints. This analysis allows us to examine the general features of the MSSM without reference to any particular SUSY breaking scenario or any other assumptions about physics at higher scales. This study opens up new possibilities for SUSY phenomenology both at colliders and in astrophysical observations.
We explore the physics of the general CP-conserving MSSM with Minimal Flavor Violation, the pMSSM. The 19 soft SUSY breaking parameters are chosen so to satisfy all existing experimental and theoretical constraints assuming that the WIMP is the lightest neutralino. We scan this parameter space twice using both flat and log priors and compare the results which yield similar conclusions. Constraints from both LEP and the Tevatron play an important role in obtaining our final model samples. Implications for future TeV-scale $e^+e^-$ linear colliders(LC) are discussed.
The coupling of unparticles to the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson leads to a breaking of conformal symmetry which produces an effective mass term in the unparticle propagator. Simultaneously, the unparticle couplings to other SM fields produces an effective unparticle decay width via one-loop self-energy graphs. The resulting unparticle propagator then leads to a rather unique appearance for the shape of unparticle resonances that are not of the usual Breit-Wigner variety when they form in high energy collisions. In this paper we explore whether or not such resonances, appearing in the Drell-Yan channel at the LHC, can be differentiated from more conventional $Z'$-like structures which are representative of the typical Breit-Wigner lineshape. We will demonstrate that even with the high integrated luminosities available at the LHC it may be difficult to differentiate these two types of resonance structures for a substantial range of the unparticle model parameters.
We consider a 6D extension of the Randall-Sundrum (RS) model, RS6, where the Standard Model (SM) gauge fields are allowed to propagate in an additional dimension, compactified on $S^1$ or $S^1/Z_2$. In a minimal scenario, fermions propagate in the 5D RS subspace and their localization provides a model of flavor. New Kaluza-Klein (KK) states, corresponding to excitations of the gauge fields along the 6th dimension, appear near the TeV scale. The new gauge KK modes behave differently from those in the 5D warped models. These RS6 states have couplings with strong dependence on 5D field localization and, within the SM, only interact with heavy fermions and the Higgs sector, to a very good approximation. Thus, the collider phenomenology of the new gauge KK states sensitively depends on the 5D fermion geography. We briefly discuss inclusion of SM fermions in all 6 dimensions, as well as the possibility of going beyond 6D.
Several new physics scenarios can lead to monojet signatures at the LHC. If such events are observed above the Standard Model background it will be important to identify their origin. In this paper we compare and contrast these signatures as produced in two very different pictures: vector or scalar unparticle production in the scale-invariant/conformal regime and graviton emission in the Arkani-Hamed, Dimopoulos and Dvali extra-dimensional model. We demonstrate that these two scenarios can be distinguished at the LHC for a reasonable range of model parameters through the shape of their respective monojet and/or missing $E_T$ distributions.
If the LHC discovers a $Z'$-like state the extraction of its couplings to the particles of the Standard Model becomes mandatory in order to determine the nature of the underlying new physics theory. It has been well-known for some time that the direct measurements performed at the LHC in the Drell-Yan channel cannot determine these parameters uniquely in a model-independent manner even if large integrated luminosities, $\sim 100 fb^{-1}$, become available and the $Z'$ is relatively light $\lsim 1.5$ TeV. Here we examine the possibility that a proposed $e_{L,R}^\pm p$ collider upgrade at the LHC, the LHeC, with $\sqrt s=1.5-2$ TeV could be helpful with such coupling determinations in the years before a Linear Collider is constructed. We show that the polarization and charge asymmetries constructed from the cross sections for these processes can be useful in this regard depending upon the specific values of the particular $Z'$ model parameters.
We present the first detailed, large-scale study of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) at a $\sqrt s=500$ GeV International Linear Collider, including full Standard Model backgrounds and detector simulation. We investigate 242 points in the MSSM parameter space, which we term models, that have been shown by Arkani-Hamed et al to be difficult to study at the LHC. In fact, these points in MSSM parameter space correspond to 162 pairs of models which give indistinguishable signatures at the LHC, giving rise to the so-called LHC Inverse Problem. We first determine whether the production of the various SUSY particles is visible above the Standard Model background for each of these parameter space points, and then make a detailed comparison of their various signatures. Assuming an integrated luminosity of 500 fb$^{-1}$, we find that only 82 out of 242 models lead to visible signatures of some kind with a significance $\geq 5$ and that only 57(63) out of the 162 model pairs are distinguishable at $5(3)σ$. Our analysis includes PYTHIA and CompHEP SUSY signal generation, full matrix element SM backgrounds for all $2\to 2, 2\to 4$, and $2\to 6$ processes, ISR and beamstrahlung generated via WHIZARD/GuineaPig, and employs the fast SiD detector simulation org.lcsim.
Grinstein, O'Connell and Wise have recently presented an extension of the Standard Model (SM), based on the ideas of Lee and Wick (LW), which demonstrates an interesting way to remove the quadratically divergent contributions to the Higgs mass induced by radiative corrections. This model predicts the existence of negative-norm copies of the usual SM fields at the TeV scale with ghost-like propagators and negative decay widths, but with otherwise SM-like couplings. In earlier work, it was demonstrated that the LW states in the gauge boson sector of these models, though easy to observe, cannot be uniquely identified as such at the LHC. In this paper, we address the issue of whether or not this problem can be resolved at an $e^+e^-$ collider with a suitable center of mass energy range. We find that measurements of the cross section and the left-right polarization asymmetry associated with Bhabha scattering can lead to a unique identification of the neutral electroweak gauge bosons of the Lee-Wick type.
We consider direct experimental verification of warped models, based on the Randall-Sundrum (RS) scenario, that explain gauge and flavor hierarchies, assuming that the gauge fields and fermions of the Standard Model (SM) propagate in the 5D bulk. Most studies have focused on the bosonic Kaluza Klein (KK) signatures and indicate that discovering gauge KK modes is likely possible, yet challenging, while graviton KK modes are unlikely to be accessible at the LHC, even with a luminosity upgrade. We show that direct evidence for bulk SM fermions, {\it i.e.} their KK modes, is likely also beyond the reach of a luminosity-upgraded LHC. Thus, neither the spin-2 KK graviton, the most distinct RS signal, nor the KK SM fermions, direct evidence for bulk flavor, seem to be within the reach of the LHC. We then consider hadron colliders with $\sqrt{s} =$ 21, 28, and 60 TeV. We find that discovering the first KK modes of SM fermions and the graviton typically requires the Next Hadron Collider (NHC) with $\sqrt{s} \approx 60$ TeV and ${\cal O}(1)$ ab$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity. If the LHC yields hints of these warped models, establishing that Nature is described by them, or their 4D CFT duals, requires an NHC-class machine in the post-LHC experimental program.
High scale conformal physics can lead to unusual unparticle stuff at our low energies. In this paper we discuss how the exchange of unparticles between Standard Model fields can lead to new contact interaction physics as well as a pseudoresonance-like structure, an unresonance, that might be observable at the Tevatron or LHC in, e.g., the Drell-Yan channel. The specific signatures of this scenario are quite unique and can be used to easily identify this new physics given sufficient integrated luminosity.
In an extension of the Standard Model(SM) based on the ideas of Lee and Wick, Grinstein, O'Connell and Wise have found an interesting way to remove the usual quadratically divergent contributions to the Higgs mass induced by radiative corrections. Phenomenologically, the model predicts the existence of Terascale, negative-norm copies of the usual SM fields with rather unique properties: ghost-like propagators and negative decay widths, but with otherwise SM-like couplings. The model is both unitary and causal on macroscopic scales. In this paper we examine whether or not such states with these unusual properties can be uniquely identified as such at the LHC. We find that in the extended strong and electroweak gauge boson sector of the model, which is the simplest one to analyze, such an identification can be rather difficult. Observation of heavy gluon-like resonances in the dijet channel offers the best hope for this identification.
Apart from its mass and width, the most important property of a new charged gauge boson, $W'$, is the helicity of its couplings to the SM fermions. Such particles are expected to exist in many extensions of the Standard Model. In this paper we explore the capability of the LHC to determine the $W'$ coupling helicity at low integrated luminosities in the $\ell +E_T^{miss}$ discovery channel. We find that measurements of the transverse mass distribution, reconstructed from this final state in the $W-W'$ interference region, provides the best determination of this quantity. To make such measurements requires integrated luminosities of $\sim 10(60) fb^{-1}$ assuming $M_{W'}=1.5(2.5)$ TeV and provided that the $W'$ couplings have Standard Model magnitude. This helicity determination can be further strengthened by the use of various discovery channel leptonic asymmetries, also measured in the same interference regime, but with higher integrated luminosities.