arXiv subjects

Tuhin S. Roy

Publications and source records attributed to Tuhin S. Roy.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A Phenomenological Model of Mesons for Charged Current Weak Decays

We propose a phenomenological model of pseudo scalar mesons to describe charged-current weak decays of heavy-light mesons. The approach combines chiral symmetry in the light sector with heavy-quark flavor symmetry, while Cabibbo--Kobayashi--Maskawa (CKM) matrix elements are incorporated as spurions that encode explicit symmetry breaking. Restricting to charged-current interactions, we systematically organize the leading-order current-current operators at dimension six and identify the relevant operator structures governing fully-leptonic, semi-leptonic, and hadronic decays. This framework reproduces known heavy-quark scaling relations for decay constants and form factors in agreement with expectations from heavy quark effective theory, providing nontrivial consistency checks. Operators responsible for hadronic transitions are further classified into double-trace operators and single-trace operators. These single traces, interestingly, often capture several higher order corrections, non-factorizable effects etc. We check for consistencies for both single-trace and double-trace operators demanding that the resulting amplitudes should satisfy established isospin sum rules. As an application, we analyze the decay modes $B\to K + η_{c} / η^{\prime}/ η$. We find that these processes receive contributions from a host of non-trivial processes such as mixing between various states, non-perturbative QCD parameters such as the heavy quark condensates, non-factorizable effects, etc, apart from the straightforward perturbative $W$ exchange diagrams in the quark picture. Our set-up neatly captures all of these effects. The phenomenological model we provide here is a symmetry-guided, hadron-level description of charged-current processes and offers a complementary perspective to conventional quark-level approaches, with a natural avenue for incorporating non-factorizable effects.

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arXiv2025

Dynamical Up-quark Mass Generation in QCD-like theories

We calculate the dynamically generated up quark mass in some QCD-like theories with $F=3$ light flavors, obtained from supersymmetric QCD perturbed via anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking. We match the low-energy effective theory to the traditional chiral Lagrangian of QCD and determine the coefficients to next-to-leading order in chiral perturbation theory, while also varying the number of colors $N$. We find that the dynamically generated up quark mass vanishes in the large $N$ limit, and is small for $F<N$, however for $F=N$ there is a sizeable $O(1)$ contribution. While our results are reliable only for small supersymmetry breaking, we observe that extrapolating the $F=N$ result to large supersymmetry breaking would lead to a dynamical up quark mass that is large enough to account for its entire physical mass.

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arXiv2024

Signatures of composite dark matter in the Cosmic Microwave Background spectral distortions

We compute the spectral distortions of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) created by an exotic process that extracts or injects photons of a particular frequency into the CMB. Such signatures are a natural prediction of a class of composite dark matter models characterized by electrically neutral states but with non-zero higher order electromagnetic moments. We consider a simplified model where dark matter exists as a two state system separated by a fixed transition frequency, which can range from radio waves to gamma rays. The electromagnetic transitions between the two states due to CMB photons give rise to thermal distortions, namely, the $μ$-type distortion in the redshift range $10^5\lesssim z \lesssim 2\times 10^6$ and the $y$-type distortion as well as non-thermal distortions at redshifts $z \lesssim 10^5$. The nature of spectral distortions depends sensitively on the dark matter transition frequency and the strength of couplings of dark matter with visible sector particles as well as its self-interactions, thus opening a new window to probe the nature of dark matter. Non-thermal distortions have unique spectral shapes making them distinguishable from the standard $μ$ and $y$-type distortions and potentially detectable in the next-generation experiments such as Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE). We also find that the spectral distortion limits from the COsmic Background Explorer/Far-Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer (COBE/FIRAS) already give a constraint on the electromagnetic coupling of dark matter which is three orders of magnitude stronger compared to the current direct detection limits for $\sim$ MeV mass dark matter with transition energy in $\sim 1$-$10$ eV range.

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arXiv2024

EDGES of the dark forest: A new absorption window into the composite dark matter and large scale structure

We propose a new method to hunt for dark matter using dark forest/absorption features across the whole electromagnetic spectrum from radio to gamma rays, especially in the bands where there is a desert i.e. regions where no strong lines from baryons are expected. Such novel signatures can arise for dark matter models with a composite nature and internal electromagnetic transitions. The photons from a background source can interact with the dark matter resulting in an absorption signal in the source spectrum. In the case of a compact source, such as a quasar, such interactions in the dark matter halos can produce a series of closely spaced absorption lines, which we call the dark forest. We show that the dark forest feature is a sensitive probe of the dark matter self-interactions and the halo mass function, especially at the low mass end. There is a large volume of parameter space where dark forest is more sensitive compared to the best current and proposed direct detection experiments. Moreover, the absorption of CMB photons by dark matter gives rise to a global absorption signal in the CMB spectrum. For dark matter transition energies in the range $2.5\times 10^{-4}$ eV$-$ $5\times 10^{3}$ eV, such absorption features result in spectral distortions of the CMB in the COBE/FIRAS band of 60-600 GHz. If the dark matter transition frequency is $\sim$156 GHz, we show that the absorption of CMB photons by dark matter can provide an explanation for the anomalous absorption feature detected by the EDGES collaboration in 50-100 MHz range.

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arXiv2023

A twisted tale of the transverse-mass tail

We propose a tantalizing possibility that misinterpretation of the reconstructed missing momentum may have yielded the observed discrepancies among measurements of the $W$-mass in different collider experiments. We introduce a proof-of-principle scenario characterized by a new physics particle, which can be produced associated with the $W$-boson in hadron collisions and contributes to the net missing momentum observed in a detector. We show that these exotic events pass the selection criteria imposed by various collaborations at reasonably high rates. Consequently, in the presence of even a handful of these events, a fit based on the ansatz that the missing momentum is primarily due to neutrinos (as it happens in the Standard Model), yields a $W$-boson mass that differs from its true value. Moreover, the best fit mass depends on the nature of the collider and the center-of-mass energy of collisions. We construct a barebones model that demonstrates this possibility quantitatively while satisfying current constraints. Interestingly, we find that the nature of the new physics particle and its interactions appear as a variation of the physics of Axion-like particles after a field redefinition.

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arXiv2023

On the Dynamical Origin of the $η'$ Potential and the Axion Mass

We investigate the dynamics responsible for generating the potential of the $η'$, the (would-be) Goldstone boson associated with the anomalous axial $U(1)$ symmetry of QCD. The standard lore posits that pure QCD dynamics generates a confining potential with a branched structure as a function of the $θ$ angle, and that this same potential largely determines the properties of the $η'$ once fermions are included. Here we test this picture by examining a supersymmetric extension of QCD with a small amount of supersymmetry breaking generated via anomaly mediation. For pure $SU(N)$ QCD without flavors, we verify that there are $N$ branches generated by gaugino condensation. Once quarks are introduced, the flavor effects qualitatively change the strong dynamics of the pure theory. For $F$ flavors we find $|N-F|$ branches, whose dynamical origin is gaugino condensation in the unbroken subgroup for $F N+1$. For the special cases of $F = N-1, N, N + 1$ we find no branches and the entire potential is consistent with being a one-instanton effect. The number of branches is a simple consequence of the selection rules of an anomalous $U(1)_R$ symmetry. We find that the $η'$ mass does not vanish in the large $N$ limit for fixed $F/N$, since the anomaly is non-vanishing. The same dynamics that is responsible for the $η'$ potential is also responsible for the axion potential. We present a simple derivation of the axion mass formula for an arbitrary number of flavors.

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arXiv2022

Signatures of generalized ALP interactions in SM decays of mesons

In addition to giving rise to spectacular new physics signals in the final states of meson decays, Axion-like-particles also induce modifications in the standard model decays of mesons. These `indirect' signatures can be parametrized as the modifications of the hadronic form factors and can be probed using meson decay width and decay distribution measurements. Starting with a generalized ALP Lagrangian, we demonstrate these effects for semileptonic Kaon decays and derived bounds using NA48/2 data. We also briefly discuss other indirect signatures such as modification of meson mass spectrum and `sum rules' comprised of meson decay amplitudes which show deviation in presence of ALP.

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arXiv2022

ALP-Pions generalized

A light axion-like particle or an ALP not just gives rise to interesting and spectacular signals of new physics as final states in meson decays, it necessarily leaves tell-tale signatures in processes that involve standard model (SM) fields only (i.e., SM processes). These effects result in the violation of the Gell-Mann--Okubo mass relation, modified form factors, altered integrated and differential rates for various SM transitions etc. This suggests that in the presence of a low lying state, such as an ALP, extraction of masses, mixing angles, and form factors in an entirely data-driven way from meson-physics observables is a highly non-trivial exercise. However, once done correctly, these same observables may, in turn, provide important (indirect) bounds on ALP physics, which remain robust even in the limits where new physics effects conspire to weaken the bounds from direct searches. Starting with a generalized ALP-quark Lagrangian (where restrictions due to parity are removed) we demonstrate this approach by focussing on $K^+_{\ell_3}$ decays, where we derive (indirect) bounds on ALP physics using NA48/2 data and lattice results. We also find sum rules which not just show deviations in the presence of an ALP, but also give hints towards the specific nature of the ALP physics itself.

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arXiv2021

Dark Neutrino interactions phase out the Hubble tension

New interactions of neutrinos can stop them from free streaming even after the weak interaction freeze-out. This results in a phase shift in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) acoustic peaks which can alleviate the Hubble tension. In addition, the perturbations in neutrinos do not decay away on horizon entry and contribute to metric perturbation enhancing the matter power spectrum. We demonstrate that this acoustic phase shift can be achieved using new interactions of standard left-handed neutrinos with dark matter without changing the number of effective relativistic degrees of freedom. Using Planck CMB and the WiggleZ galaxy survey $ (k\le 0.12 h \ {\rm Mpc}^{-1} ) $ data, we demonstrate that in this model the Hubble tension reduces to approximately $ 2.1 σ$. Our model predicts potentially observable modifications of the CMB B-modes and the matter power spectrum that can be observed in future data sets.

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arXiv2020

A robust anomaly finder based on autoencoders

We propose a robust method to identify anomalous jets by vetoing QCD-jets. The robustness of this method ensures that the distribution of the proposed discriminating variable (which allows us to veto QCD-jets) remains unaffected by the phase space of QCD-jets, even if they were different from the region on which the model was trained. This suggests that our method can be used to look for anomalous jets in high m/p T bins by simply training on jets from low m/p T bins, where sufficient background-enriched data is available. The robustness follows from combining an autoencoder with a novel way of pre-processing jets. We use momentum rescaling followed by a Lorentz boost to find the frame of reference where any given jet is characterized by predetermined mass and energy. In this frame we generate jet images by constructing a set of orthonormal basis vectors using the Gram-Schmidt method to span the plane transverse to the jet axis. Due to our preprocessing, the autoencoder loss function does not depend on the initial jet mass, momentum or orientation while still offering remarkable performance. We also explore the application of this loss function combined (using supervised learning techniques like boosted decision trees) with few other jet observables like the mass and Nsubjettiness for the purpose of top tagging. This exercise shows that our method performs almost as well as existing top taggers which use a large amount of physics information associated with top decays while also reinforcing the fact that the loss function is mostly independent of the additional jet observables.

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arXiv2020

Jets with electrons from boosted top quarks

We propose a method to identify jets consisting of all the visible remnants of boosted top particles when these decay semileptonically to electrons. Within these jets, the electron shower overlaps with the shower initiated by the $b$ quark, which makes the identification of the electron hard. Even if an electron inside a jet is identified, it is difficult to pinpoint whether the electron rich jet is indeed due to top quark decay or not, since the invisible neutrino carries away a nontrivial part of the energy-momentum of the original top quark. Broadly speaking, the method proposed here has three key components. It uses the distribution of energy in various parts of the detector to identify whether the observed jet is consistent with a jet containing an energetic electron. It uses the substructure of the jet to determine the momentum associated with the electron. Finally, it constructs new variables that carry tell-tale features of top quark decay kinematics using an extra ansatz that, there exists a massless invisible four-momentum \emph{roughly} collimated to the electron, which reconstructs a $W$ and a top when it is combined with the electron and the full jet respectively. We demonstrate the efficacy of this proposal using simulated data and show that our method not only reduces the backgrounds from light flavor jets, $b$ jets from QCD, and hadronic top jets, it can also tell apart jets rich in electrons but not due to top quark decays.

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arXiv2019

A radiatively generated source of flavor universal scalar soft masses

We report that models of electroweak supersymmetry with gaugino mass unification and sequestered scalar masses can still produce viable spectra, as long as we include a set of non-standard supersymmetry breaking terms, which are trilinear in scalars like the A-terms, but are non-holomorphic in visible sector fields unlike the A- terms. These terms impart a subtle feature to one loop renormalisation group equations of soft supersymmetry breaking terms, indirectly sourcing flavor universal contributions to all scalar masses. These new contributions can even dominate over radiative corrections form bino, and help raise right handed sleptons above bino, while leaving a tell-tale signature in the spectrum.

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arXiv2019

Tensors for tending to tensions in $ τ$ decays

We propose a manifestly gauge invariant effective tensor operator that can account for the $ CP $ asymmetry anomaly in $ τ$ decays, contrary to the claim made in literature. Additionally, this operator can also help in resolving the long-standing discrepancy in the value of $ V_{us} $ extracted from inclusive $ τ$ decays. By construction, the operator evades bounds from neutron electric dipole moment, while keeping the extraction of $ V_{us} $ from exclusive $ τ$ decays unaffected. We explicitly provide a renormalizable model of flavor symmetries that yields the desired effective tensor operator.

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arXiv2018

A Framework for Finding Anomalous Objects at the LHC

Search for new physics events at the LHC mostly rely on the assumption that the events are characterized in terms of standard-reconstructed objects such as isolated photons, leptons, and jets initiated by QCD-partons. While such strategy works for a vast majority of physics beyond the standard model scenarios, there are examples aplenty where new physics give rise to anomalous objects (such as collimated and equally energetic particles, decays due to long lived particles etc.) in the detectors, which can not be classified as any of the standard-objects. Varied methods and search strategies have been proposed, each of which is trained and optimized for specific models, topologies, and model parameters. Further, as LHC keeps excluding all expected candidates for new physics, the need for a generic method/tool that is capable of finding the unexpected can not be understated. In this paper, we propose one such method that relies on the philosophy that all anomalous objects are $\it{not}$ standard-objects. The anomaly finder, we suggest, simply is a collection of vetoes that eliminate all standard-objects up to a pre-determined acceptance rate. Any event containing at least one anomalous object (that passes all these vetoes), can be identified as a candidate for new physics. Subsequent offline analyses can determine the nature of the anomalous object as well as of the event, paving a robust way to search for these new physics scenarios in a model-independent fashion. Further, since the method relies on learning only the standard-objects, for which control samples are readily available from data, one can build the analysis in an entirely data-driven way.

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arXiv2018

Dark neutrino interactions make gravitational waves blue

New interactions of neutrinos can stop them from free streaming in the early Universe even after the weak decoupling epoch. This results in the enhancement of the primordial gravitational wave amplitude on small scales compared to the standard $Λ$CDM prediction. In this paper we calculate the effect of dark matter neutrino interactions in CMB tensor $B$-modes spectrum. We show that the effect of new neutrino interactions generates a scale or $\ell$ dependent imprint in the CMB $B$-modes power spectrum at $\ell \gtrsim 100$. In the event that primordial $B$-modes are detected by future experiments, a departure from scale invariance, with a blue spectrum, may not necessarily mean failure of simple inflationary models but instead may be a sign of non-standard interactions of relativistic particles. New interactions of neutrinos also induce a phase shift in the CMB B-mode power spectrum which cannot be mimicked by simple modifications of the primordial tensor power spectrum. There is rich information hidden in the CMB $B$-modes spectrum beyond just the tensor to scalar ratio.

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arXiv2018

Charting generalized supersoft supersymmetry

Without any shred of evidence for new physics from LHC, the last hiding spots of natural electroweak supersymmetry seem to lie either in compressed spectra or in spectra where scalars are suppressed with respect to the gauginos. While in the MSSM (or in any theory where supersymmetry is broken by the $F$-vev of a chiral spurion), a hierarchy between scalar and gaugino masses requires special constructions, it is automatic in scenarios where supersymmetry is broken by $D$-vev of a real spurion. In the latter framework, gaugino mediated contributions to scalar soft masses are finite (loop suppressed but not $\log$-enhanced), a feature often referred to as "supersoftness". Though phenomenologically attractive, pure supersoft models suffer from the $μ$-problem, potential color-breaking minima, large $T$-parameter, etc. These problems can be overcome without sacrificing the model's virtues by departing from pure supersoftness and including $μ$-type operators that use the same $D$-vev, a framework known as generalized supersoft supersymmetry. The main purpose of this paper is to point out that the new operators also solve the last remaining issue associated with supersoft spectra, namely that a right handed (RH) slepton is predicted to be the lightest superpartner, rendering the setup cosmologically unfeasible. In particular, we show that the $μ$-operators in generalized supersoft generate a new source for scalar masses, which can raise the RH-slepton mass above bino due to corrections from renormalisation group evolutions (RGEs). In fact, a mild tuning can open up the bino--RH slepton coannihilation regime for a thermal dark matter. We derive the full set of RGEs required to determine the spectrum at low energies. Beginning with input conditions at a high scale, we show that completely viable spectra can be achieved.

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arXiv2016

Augmenting Collider Searches and Enhancing Discovery Potentials through Stochastic Jet Grooming

The jet Trimming procedure has been demonstrated to greatly improve event reconstruction in hadron collisions, by mitigating contamination due initial state radiation, multiple interactions, and event pileup. Meanwhile, Qjets -- a nondeterministic approach to tree-based jet substructure has been shown to be a powerful technique in decreasing random statistical fluctuations, yielding significant effective luminosity improvements. This manifests through an improvement in the significance $S/δB$, relative to conventional methods. Qjets also provide novel observables in many cases, like mass-volatility, that could be used to further discriminate between signal and background events. The statistical robustness and volatility observables, for tagging, are obtained simultaneously. We explore here a combination of the two techniques, and demonstrate that significant enhancements in discovery potentials may be obtained in non-trivial ways. We will illustrate this by considering a diboson resonance analysis as a case study -- enabling us to interpolate between scenarios where the gains are purely due to statistical robustness and scenarios where the gains are also reinforced by volatility variable discriminants. The former, for instance, is applicable to digluon/diquark resonances, while the latter will be of relevance to di-$W^\pm$/di-$Z^0$ resonances, where the boosted vector bosons are decaying hadronically and have an intrinsic mass scale attached to them. We argue that one can enhance signal significance and discovery potentials markedly through stochastic grooming, and help augment studies at the Large Hadron Collider and future hadron colliders.

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arXiv2016

A Cautionary Tale of Mis-measured Tails from $q/g$ Bias

Jet substructure techniques such as subjet $p_T$-asymmetry, mass-drop, and grooming have become powerful and widely used tools in experimental searches at the LHC. While these tools provide much-desired handles to separate signal from background, they can introduce unexpected mass scales into the analysis. These scales may be misinterpreted as excesses if these are not correctly incorporated into background modeling. As an example, we study the ATLAS hadronic di-$W/Z$ resonance search. There, we find that the substructure analysis -- in particular the combination of a subjet asymmetry cut with the requirement on the number of tracks within a jet -- induces a mass scale where the dominant partonic subprocess in the background changes from $pp \to g \!+\! q/\bar q$ to $pp \to q\bar{q}$. In light of this scale, modeling the QCD background using a simple smooth function with monotonically decreasing slope appears insufficient.

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