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V. Barger

Publications and source records attributed to V. Barger.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

T-Anomaly Induced LHC Signals

$\cal T$-parity in the Little Higgs model could be violated by anomalies that allow the lightest $\cal T$-odd $A_H$ to decay into $ZZ$ and $W^+W^-$. We analyze these anomaly induced decays and the two-particle and the three-particle decay modes of other heavy quarks and bosons in this model which yield unique Large Hadron Collider (LHC) signals with fully reconstructable events. $\cal T$-odd quarks in the Little Higgs model are nearly degenerate in mass and they decay by almost identical processes; however, members of the heavy Higgs triplet follow distinct decay modes. The branching fractions of three-body decays increase with the global symmetry-breaking energy scale $f$ and are found to be at the level of a few percent in heavy quark decays while they can reach up to 10% for heavy bosons.

hep-ph↗

Which long-baseline neutrino experiments are preferable?

We discuss the physics of superbeam upgrades, where we focus on T2KK, a NuMI beam line based experiment NOvA*, and a wide band beam (WBB) experiment independent of the NuMI beam line. For T2KK, we find that the Japan-Korea baseline helps resolve parameter degeneracies, but the improvement due to correlated systematics between the two detectors (using identical detectors) is only moderate. For an upgrade of NOvA with a liquid argon detector, we demonstrate that the Ash River site is preferred compared to alternatives, such as at the second oscillation maximum, and is the optimal site within the U.S. For a WBB experiment, we find that high proton energies and long decay tunnels are preferable. We compare water Cherenkov and liquid argon technologies, and find the break-even point in detector cost at about 4:1. In order to compare the physics potential of the different experimental configurations, we use the concept of exposure to normalize the performance. We find that experiments with WBBs are the best experimental concept. NOvA* could be competitive with sufficient luminosity. If $\sin^2 2θ_{13}$ > 0.01, a WBB experiment can perform better than a neutrino factory.

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Challenging Lorentz noninvariant neutrino oscillations without neutrino masses

We show that the combined data from solar, long-baseline and reactor neutrino experiments can exclude the generalized bicycle model of Lorentz noninvariant direction-dependent and/or direction-independent oscillations of massless neutrinos. This model has five parameters, which is more than is needed in standard oscillation phenomenology with neutrino masses. Solar data alone are sufficient to exclude the pure direction-dependent case. The combination of solar and long-baseline data rules out the pure direction-independent case. With the addition of KamLAND data, a mixture of direction-dependent and direction-independent terms in the effective Hamiltonian is also excluded.

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Upgraded experiments with super neutrino beams: Reach versus Exposure

We introduce exposure as a means to making balanced comparisons of the sensitivities of long-baseline neutrino experiments to a nonzero θ_{13}, to CP violation and to the neutrino mass hierarchy. We illustrate its use by comparing the sensitivities of possible upgrades of superbeam experiments, namely NOvA*, T2KK and experiments with wide band beams. For the proposed exposures, we find the best nominal CP violation performance for T2KK. For equal exposures, a wide band beam experiment has the best mass hierarchy performance. The physics concept on which NOvA* is based has the best potential for discovering CP violation only for exposures above a threshold value.

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Report of the US long baseline neutrino experiment study

This report provides the results of an extensive and important study of the potential for a U.S. scientific program that will extend our knowledge of neutrino oscillations well beyond what can be anticipated from ongoing and planned experiments worldwide. The program examined here has the potential to provide the U.S. particle physics community with world leading experimental capability in this intensely interesting and active field of fundamental research. Furthermore, this capability could be unique compared to anywhere else in the world because of the available beam intensity and baseline distances. The present study was initially commissioned in April 2006 by top research officers of Brookhaven National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and, as the study evolved, it also provided responses to questions formulated and addressed to the study group by the Neutrino Scientific Advisory Committee (NuSAG) of the U.S. DOE and NSF. The participants in the study, its Charge and history, plus the study results and conclusions are provided in this report and its appendices. A summary of the conclusions is provided in the Executive Summary.

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Accelerating cosmologies tested by distance measures

We test if the latest Gold set of 182 SNIa or the combined "Platinum" set of 192 SNIa from the ESSENCE and Gold sets, in conjunction with the CMB shift parameter show a preference between the LambdaCDM model, three wCDM models, and the DGP model of modified gravity as an explanation for the current accelerating phase of the universe's expansion. We consider flat wCDM models with an equation of state w(a) that is (i) constant with scale factor $a$, (ii) varies as w(a)=w_0+w_a(1-a) for redshifts probed by supernovae but is fixed at -1 at earlier epochs and (iii) varies as w_0+w_a(1-a) since recombination. We find that all five models explain the data with comparable success.

astro-ph↗

Implications of Canonical Gauge Coupling Unification in High-Scale Supersymmetry Breaking

We systematically construct two kinds of models with canonical gauge coupling unification and universal high-scale supersymmetry breaking. In the first we introduce standard vector-like particles while in the second we also include non-standard vector-like particles. We require that the gauge coupling unification scale is from 5 x 10^{15} GeV to the Planck scale, that the universal supersymmetry breaking scale is from 10 TeV to the unification scale, and that the masses of the vector-like particles (M_V) are universal and in the range from 200 GeV to 1 TeV. Using two-loop renormalization group equation (RGE) running for the gauge couplings and one-loop RGE running for Yukawa couplings and the Higgs quartic coupling, we calculate the supersymmetry breaking scales, the gauge coupling unification scales, and the corresponding Higgs mass ranges. When the vector-like particle masses are less than 1 TeV, these models can be tested at the LHC.

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Proposal for an Experimental Program in Neutrino Physics and Proton Decay in the Homestake Laboratory

This report is intended to describe first, the principal physics reasons for an ambitious experimental program in neutrino physics and proton decay based on construction of a series of massive water Cherenkov detectors located deep underground (4850 ft) in the Homestake Mine of the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority (SDSTA); and second, the engineering design of the underground chambers to house the Cherenkov detector modules; and third, the conceptual design of the water Cherenkov detectors themselves for this purpose. Included in this document are preliminary costs and time-to-completion estimates which have been exposed to acknowledged experts in their respective areas. We have included some contingency factors. Nevertheless, we recognize that much more extensive documentation and contingency estimates will be needed for a full technical design report. In this proposal we show the event rates and physics sensitivity for beams from both FNAL (1300 km distant from Homestake) and BNL (2540 km distant from Homestake). The program we propose will benefit from a beam from FNAL because of the high intensities currently available from the Main Injector with modest upgrades. The possibility of tuning the primary proton energy over a large range from 30 to 120 GeV also adds considerable flexibility to the program from FNAL.

hep-ex↗

String Scale Gauge Coupling Unification with Vector-like Exotics and Non-Canonical U(1)_Y Normalization

We use a new approach to study string scale gauge coupling unification systematically, allowing both the possibility of non-canonical U(1)_Y normalization and the existence of vector-like particles whose quantum numbers are the same as those of the Standard Model (SM) fermions and their Hermitian conjugates and the SM adjoint particles. We first give all the independent sets (Yi) of particles that can be employed to achieve SU(3)_C and SU(2)_L string scale gauge coupling unification and calculate their masses. Second, for a non-canonical U(1)_Y normalization, we obtain string scale SU(3)_C x SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y gauge coupling unification by choosing suitable U(1)_Y normalizations for each of the Yi sets. Alternatively, for the canonical U(1)_Y normalization, we achieve string scale gauge coupling unification by considering suitable combinations of the Yi sets or by introducing additional independent sets (Zi), that do not affect the SU(3)_C x SU(2)_L unification at tree level, and then choosing suitable combinations, one from the Yi sets and one from the Zi sets. We also briefly discuss string scale gauge coupling unification in models with higher Kac-Moody levels for SU(2)_L or SU(3)_C.

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Precision physics with a wide band super neutrino beam

We carry out a state-of-the-art assessment of long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments with wide band beams. We describe the feasibility of an experimental program using existing high energy accelerator facilities, a new intense wide band neutrino beam (0-6 GeV) and a proposed large detector in a deep underground laboratory. We find that a decade-long program with 1 MW operation in the neutrino mode and 2 MW operation in the antineutrino mode, a baseline as long as the distance between Fermilab and the Homestake mine (1300 km) or the Henderson mine (1500 km), and a water Cherenkov detector with fiducial mass of about 300 kT has optimum sensitivity to θ_{13}, the mass hierarchy and to neutrino CP violation at the 3σC.L. for \sin^22θ_{13}>0.008. This program is capable of breaking the eight-fold degeneracy down to the octant degeneracy without additional external input.

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CP Studies and Non-Standard Higgs Physics

There are many possibilities for new physics beyond the Standard Model that feature non-standard Higgs sectors. These may introduce new sources of CP violation, and there may be mixing between multiple Higgs bosons or other new scalar bosons. Alternatively, the Higgs may be a composite state, or there may even be no Higgs at all. These non-standard Higgs scenarios have important implications for collider physics as well as for cosmology, and understanding their phenomenology is essential for a full comprehension of electroweak symmetry breaking. This report discusses the most relevant theories which go beyond the Standard Model and its minimal, CP-conserving supersymmetric extension: two-Higgs-doublet models and minimal supersymmetric models with CP violation, supersymmetric models with an extra singlet, models with extra gauge groups or Higgs triplets, Little Higgs models, models in extra dimensions, and models with technicolour or other new strong dynamics. For each of these scenarios, this report presents an introduction to the phenomenology, followed by contributions on more detailed theoretical aspects and studies of possible experimental signatures at the LHC and other colliders.

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Confronting mass-varying neutrinos with MiniBooNE

We study the proposal that mass-varying neutrinos could provide an explanation for the LSND signal for \barν_mu to \barν_e oscillations. We first point out that all positive oscillation signals occur in matter and that three active mass-varying neutrinos are insufficient to describe all existing neutrino data including LSND. We then examine the possibility that a model with four mass-varying neutrinos (three active and one sterile) can explain the LSND effect and remain consistent with all other neutrino data. We find that such models with a 3+1 mass structure in the neutrino sector may explain the LSND data and a null MiniBooNE result for 0.10 < \sin^2 2θ_x < 0.30. Predictions of the model include a null result at Double-CHOOZ, but positive signals for underground reactor experiments and for ν_μto ν_e oscillations in long-baseline experiments.

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Ultra high energy neutrino-nucleon cross section from cosmic ray experiments and neutrino telescopes

We deduce the cosmogenic neutrino flux by jointly analysing ultra high energy cosmic ray data from HiRes-I and II, AGASA and the Pierre Auger Observatory. We make two determinations of the neutrino flux by using a model-dependent method and a model-independent method. The former is well-known, and involves the use of a power-law injection spectrum. The latter is a regularized unfolding procedure. We then use neutrino flux bounds obtained by the RICE experiment to constrain the neutrino-nucleon inelastic cross section at energies inaccessible at colliders. The cross section bounds obtained using the cosmogenic fluxes derived by unfolding are the most model-independent bounds to date.

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Classification of dark energy models in the (w_0,w_a) plane

We classify dark energy models in a plane of observables that correspond to the common parameterization of a non-constant equation of state, w(a)=w_0 + w_a(1-a), where $a$ is the scale factor of the universe. The models fall into four classes and only two of these classes have a region of overlap in the observable plane. We perform a joint analysis of all Type Ia supernova (SNIa) data compiled by the High-Z SN Search Team (HZT) and the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) and find that no class of models is excluded by current SNIa data. However, an analysis of large scale structure, Ly$α$ forest and bias constraints from SDSS, the Gold SNIa data and WMAP data indicates that non-phantom barotropic models with a a positive sound speed are excluded at the 95% C.L.

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Supersymmetry Parameter Analysis: SPA Convention and Project

High-precision analyses of supersymmetry parameters aim at reconstructing the fundamental supersymmetric theory and its breaking mechanism. A well defined theoretical framework is needed when higher-order corrections are included. We propose such a scheme, Supersymmetry Parameter Analysis SPA, based on a consistent set of conventions and input parameters. A repository for computer programs is provided which connect parameters in different schemes and relate the Lagrangian parameters to physical observables at LHC and high energy e+e- linear collider experiments, i.e., masses, mixings, decay widths and production cross sections for supersymmetric particles. In addition, programs for calculating high-precision low energy observables, the density of cold dark matter (CDM) in the universe as well as the cross sections for CDM search experiments are included. The SPA scheme still requires extended efforts on both the theoretical and experimental side before data can be evaluated in the future at the level of the desired precision. We take here an initial step of testing the SPA scheme by applying the techniques involved to a specific supersymmetry reference point.

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Solar mass-varying neutrino oscillations

We propose that the solar neutrino deficit may be due to oscillations of mass-varying neutrinos (MaVaNs). This scenario elucidates solar neutrino data beautifully while remaining comfortably compatible with atmospheric neutrino and K2K data and with reactor antineutrino data at short and long baselines (from CHOOZ and KamLAND). We find that the survival probability of solar MaVaNs is independent of how the suppression of neutrino mass caused by the acceleron-matter couplings varies with density. Measurements of MeV and lower energy solar neutrinos will provide a rigorous test of the idea.

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Supernova neutrinos can tell us the neutrino mass hierarchy independently of flux models

We demonstrate that the detection of shock modulations of the neutrino spectra from a galactic core-collapse supernova is sufficient to obtain a high significance determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy if the supernova event is observed in both a Mton-class water Cherenkov detector and a 100 kton-class liquid argon detector. Neither detailed supernova neutrino flux modelling nor observation of Earth matter effects is needed for this determination. As a corollary, a nonzero value of θ_x will be established.

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Testing the LMA solution with solar neutrinos independently of solar models

We perform a comparative study of two methods of determining the survival probabilities of low, intermediate, and high energy solar neutrinos that emphasizes the general agreement between the Large Mixing Angle (LMA) solution and extant solar neutrino data. The first analysis is oscillation parameter-independent and the second analysis involves an approximate calculation of the survival probabilities in the three energy ranges that depends only on oscillation parameters. We show that future experiments like BOREXino, CLEAN, Heron, LENS and MOON, that measure $pp$ and $^7$Be neutrinos, will facilitate a stringent test of the LMA solution independently of the Standard Solar Model (SSM), without recourse to earth-matter effects. Throughout, we describe the role of SSM assumptions on our results. If the LMA solution passes the test without needing to be modified, it may be possible to establish that $θ_x$ is nonzero at more than $2σ$ assuming the SSM prediction for the $pp$ flux is correct.

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