arXiv subjects

Vernon Barger

Publications and source records attributed to Vernon Barger.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Neutralino dark matter in mSUGRA/CMSSM with a 125 GeV light Higgs scalar

The minimal supergravity (mSUGRA or CMSSM) model is an oft-used framework for exhibiting the properties of neutralino (WIMP) cold dark matter (CDM). However, the recent evidence from Atlas and CMS on a light Higgs scalar with mass m_h\simeq 125 GeV highly constrains the superparticle mass spectrum, which in turn constrains the neutralino annihilation mechanisms in the early universe. We find that stau and stop co-annihilation mechanisms -- already highly stressed by the latest Atlas/CMS results on SUSY searches -- are nearly eliminated if indeed the light Higgs scalar has mass m_h\simeq 125 GeV. Furthermore, neutralino annihilation via the A-resonance is essentially ruled out in mSUGRA so that it is exceedingly difficult to generate thermally-produced neutralino-only dark matter at the measured abundance. The remaining possibility lies in the focus-point region which now moves out to m_0\sim 10-20 TeV range due to the required large trilinear soft SUSY breaking term A_0. The remaining HB/FP region is more fine-tuned than before owing to the typically large top squark masses. We present updated direct and indirect detection rates for neutralino dark matter, and show that ton scale noble liquid detectors will either discover mixed higgsino CDM or essentially rule out thermally-produced neutralino-only CDM in the mSUGRA model.

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arXiv2012

Strongly First Order Phase Transitions Near an Enhanced Discrete Symmetry Point

We propose a group theoretic condition which may be applied to extensions of the Standard Model in order to locate regions of parameter space in which the electroweak phase transition is strongly first order, such that electroweak baryogenesis may be a viable mechanism for generating the baryon asymmetry of the universe. Specifically, we demonstrate that the viable corners of parameter space may be identified by their proximity to an enhanced discrete symmetry point. At this point, the global symmetry group of the theory is extended by a discrete group under which the scalar sector is non-trivially charged, and the discrete symmetry is spontaneously broken such that the discrete symmetry relates degenerate electroweak preserving and breaking vacua. This idea is used to investigate several specific models of the electroweak symmetry breaking sector. The phase transitions identified through this method suggest implications for other relics such as dark matter and gravitational waves.

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arXiv2012

LHC discovery potential for supersymmetry with \sqrt{s}=7 TeV and 5-30 fb^{-1}

We extend our earlier results delineating the supersymmetry (SUSY) reach of the CERN Large Hadron Collider operating at a centre-of-mass energy \sqrt{s}=7 TeV to integrated luminosities in the range 5 - 30 fb^{-1}. Our results are presented within the paradigm minimal supergravity model (mSUGRA or CMSSM). Using a 6-dimensional grid of cuts for the optimization of signal to background ratio -- including missing E_T-- we find for m(gluino) \sim m(squark) an LHC 5σSUSY discovery reach of m(gluino) \sim 1.3,\ 1.4,\ 1.5 and 1.6 TeV for 5, 10, 20 and 30 fb^{-1}, respectively. For m(squark)>> m(gluino), the corresponding reach is instead m(gluino)\sim 0.8,\ 0.9,\ 1.0 and 1.05 TeV, for the same integrated luminosities.

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arXiv2012

WZ plus missing-E_T signal from gaugino pair production at LHC7

LHC searches for supersymmetry currently focus on strongly produced sparticles, which are copiously produced if gluinos and squarks have masses of a few hundred GeV. However, in supersymmetric models with heavy scalars, as favored by the decoupling solution to the SUSY flavor and CP problems, and m_{\tg}> 500 GeV as indicated by recent LHC results, chargino--neutralino (\tw_1^\pm\tz_2) production is the dominant cross section for m_{\tw_1} \sim m_{\tz_2} < m_{\tg}/3 at LHC with \sqrt{s}=7 TeV (LHC7). Furthermore, if m_{\tz_1}+m_Z \lesssim m_{\tz_2}\lesssim m_{\tz_1}+m_h, then \tz_2 dominantly decays via \tz_2\to\tz_1 Z, while \tw_1 decays via \tw_1\to \tz_1 W. We investigate the LHC7 reach in the WZ + MET channel (for both leptonic and hadronic decays of the W boson) in models with and without the assumption of gaugino mass universality. In the case of the mSUGRA/CMSSM model with heavy squark masses, the LHC7 discovery reach in the WZ+MET channel becomes competetive with the reach in the canonical MET + jets channel for integrated luminosities \sim 30 fb^-1. We also present the LHC7 reach for a simplified model with arbitrary m_{\tz_1} and m_{\tw_1} \sim m_{\tz_2}. Here, we find a reach of up to m_{\tw_1}\sim 200 (250) GeV for 10 (30) fb^-1.

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arXiv2012

Dilaton at the LHC

The dilaton, a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson appearing in spontaneous scale symmetry breaking at a TeV scale f, may be found in Higgs boson searches. The dilaton couples to standard model fermions and weak bosons with the same structure as the Higgs boson except for the overall strength. Additionally, the dilaton couples to a Higgs boson pair. The couplings of the dilaton to a gluon pair and a photon pair, appearing at loop level, are largely enhanced compared to the corresponding Higgs couplings. We present regions of the mass and VEV of the dilaton allowed by WW, ZZ, and gammagamma limits from the LHC at 7 TeV with 1.0-2.3 fb-1 integrated luminosity. A scale of f less than 1 TeV is nearly excluded. We discuss how the dilaton chi can be distinguished from the Higgs boson h by observation of the decays chi -> gammagamma and chi -> hh -> (WW)(WW).

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arXiv2012

Constraint on parity-violating muonic forces

Using the nonobservance of missing mass events in the leptonic kaon decay $K \to μX$, we place a strong constraint on exotic parity-violating gauge interactions of the right-handed muon. By way of illustration, we apply it to an explanation of the proton size anomaly that invokes such a new force; scenarios in which the gauge boson decays invisibly or is long-lived are constrained.

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arXiv2012

Wh plus missing-E_T signature from gaugino pair production at the LHC

In SUSY models with heavy squarks and gaugino mass unification, the gaugino pair production reaction pp-> \tw_1^\pm\tz_2 dominates gluino pair production for m_{\tg}\agt 1 TeV at LHC with \sqrt{s}=14 TeV (LHC14). For this mass range, the two-body decays \tw_1\to W\tz_1 and \tz_2\to h\tz_1 are expected to dominate the chargino and neutralino branching fractions. By searching for \ell b\bar{b}+MET events from \tw_1^\pm\tz_2 production, we show that LHC14 with 100 fb^{-1} of integrated luminosity becomes sensitive to chargino masses in the range m_{\tw_1}\sim 450-550 GeV corresponding to m_{\tg}\sim 1.5-2 TeV in models with gaugino mass unification. For 10^3 fb^{-1}, LHC14 is sensitive to the Wh channel for m_{\tw_1}\sim 300-800 GeV, corresponding to m_{\tg}\sim 1-2.8 TeV, which is comparable to the reach for gluino pair production followed by cascade decays. The Wh+MET search channel opens up a new complementary avenue for SUSY searches at LHC, and serves to point to SUSY as the origin of any new physics discovered via multijet and multilepton + MET channels.

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arXiv2012

Bremsstrahlung in dark matter annihilation

We show that the energy spectra from dark matter (DM) annihilation into $f^+f^-γ$ (where $f$ is a light fermion) via chirality preserving interactions are identical in 3 scenarios: (a) DM is a Majorana fermion and the particle exchanged is a scalar, (b) DM is a Majorana fermion and the particle exchanged is a vector and (c) DM is a scalar and the particle exchanged is a fermion. For cases (a) and (c), we also calculate the differential cross section to $\ell^+f^-V$, where $V=W,Z,γ$, and $\ell$ is a light fermion that may or not be the same as $f$. The form of the cross section depends on whether the DM is a Majorana fermion or a scalar but in both cases its form is independent of $V$.

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arXiv2011

Implications of a high mass light MSSM Higgs scalar for SUSY searches at the LHC

The Atlas and CMS collaborations have both reported an excess of events in the WW\star \rightarrow \ell+\ell- + ETmiss search channel, which could be the first evidence for the Higgs boson. In the context of the MSSM, the lightest SUSY Higgs scalar h is expected to occur with mass mh = 135 GeV, depending on the range of SUSY parameters scanned over. Since the h \rightarrow WW\star branching fraction falls swiftly with decreasing mh, a signal in the WW\star channel would favor an h at the high end of its predicted mass range. We scan over general GUT scale SUSY model parameters to find those which give rise to mh > 130 GeV. A value of m0 \sim 10 - 20 TeV is favored, with A0 \sim \pm2m0, while the lower range of m1/2 < 1 TeV is also slightly favored. This gives rise to an "effective SUSY" type of sparticle mass spectrum. For low m1/2, gluino pair production followed by three-body gluino decay to top quarks may ultimately be accesible to LHC searches, while for higher m1/2 values, the SUSY spectra would likely be out of range of any conceivable LHC reach. Since the thermal neutralino relic abundance tends to be very high, late-time entropy dilution or neutralino decay to light axinos would be required to gain accord with the measured dark matter abundance

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arXiv2011

Hollow cone sieve for top tagging

A method of top tagging is introduced. Using the anti-kt algorithm to define jets, events with nj = 2 fat jets of cone size R = 1.5 are decomposed into R = 0.6 sub-jets and retained if nj (R= 0.6) \geq 4 . One pair of sub-jets reconstructs the W-mass and another jet is tagged as a b-jet, as necessary for hadronic or semileptonic events of tt origin. This 'hollow cone' method distinguishes the tt events from the light parton QCD dijet events. Our simulations are made for the LHC at 7 TeV.

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arXiv2011

Parity Nonconservation in Strong Interactions

For top-quarks produced via the subprocess $q\bar q\to t\bar t$, the longitudinal t-quark polarization ($P_{\parallel}$) vanishes in QCD. $P_{\parallel}$ can be measured by the angular distribution of the lepton in $t$-quark semileptonic decay. New physics contributions that are parity nonconserving will be manifest by non-vanishing $P_{\parallel}$, which may be large. We illustrate this with the s-channel exchange of a massive $X$-gluon with chiral quark couplings.

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arXiv2011

Lorentz noninvariant oscillations of massless neutrinos are excluded

The bicycle model of Lorentz noninvariant neutrino oscillations without neutrino masses naturally predicts maximal mixing and a 1/E dependence of the oscillation argument for muon-neutrino to tau-neutrino oscillations of atmospheric and long-baseline neutrinos, but cannot also simultaneously fit the data for solar neutrinos and KamLAND. Within the Standard Model Extension, we examine all 19 possible structures of the effective Hamiltonian for Lorentz noninvariant oscillations of massless neutrinos that naturally have a 1/E dependence at high neutrino energy. Due to the lack of any evidence for direction dependence, we consider only direction-independent oscillations. Although we find a number of models with a 1/E dependence for atmospheric and long-baseline neutrinos, none can also simultaneously fit solar and KamLAND data.

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arXiv2011

Hidden SUSY at the LHC: the light higgsino-world scenario and the role of a lepton collider

While the SUSY flavor, CP and gravitino problems seem to favor a very heavy spectrum of matter scalars, fine-tuning in the electroweak sector prefers low values of superpotential mass μ. In the limit of low μ, the two lightest neutralinos and light chargino are higgsino-like. The light charginos and neutralinos may have large production cross sections at LHC, but since they are nearly mass degenerate, there is only small energy release in three-body sparticle decays. Possible dilepton and trilepton signatures are difficult to observe after mild cuts due to the very soft p_T spectrum of the final state isolated leptons. Thus, the higgsino-world scenario can easily elude standard SUSY searches at the LHC. It should motivate experimental searches to focus on dimuon and trimuon production at the very lowest p_T(μ) values possible. If the neutralino relic abundance is enhanced via non-standard cosmological dark matter production, then there exist excellent prospects for direct or indirect detection of higgsino-like WIMPs. While the higgsino-world scenario may easily hide from LHC SUSY searches, a linear e^+e^- collider or a muon collider operating in the \sqrt{s}\sim 0.5-1 TeV range would be able to easily access the chargino and neutralino pair production reactions.

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arXiv2011

Higgs finder and mass estimater

We exploit the spin and kinematic correlations in the decay of a scalar boson into a pair of real or virtual W-bosons, with both W-bosons decaying leptonically, for Higgs boson discovery at 7 TeV LHC energy with 10 fb-1 luminosity. Without reconstruction of the events, we obtain estimators of the higgs mass from the peak and width of the signal distribution in (mll). The separation of signal and background with other distributions, such as the azimuthal angle between two W decay planes, the rapidity difference between the two leptons, missing ET and the pT of leptons, are also prescribed. Our approach identifies the salient higgs to dilepton signatures that allow subtraction of the continuum W*W* background.

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arXiv2011

Observing CP-violating Higgs Signals with Heavy Majorana Neutrinos

We demonstrate the ability to measure the CP-phase of a Higgs boson state by looking at the decays of heavy, Majorana neutrinos in the process $pp \to H \to N N$ at the LHC. This is shown for signals with both opposite-sign ($l^{\pm} l^{\mp} W^{\pm} W^{\mp}$) and same-sign ($l^{\pm} l^{\pm} W^{\mp} W^{\mp}$) leptonic final states. These signals are investigated in the general framework of a sequential fourth generation of fermions with an additional right-handed neutrino. Such a scenario would naturally give rise to heavy Majorana neutrinos as well as significant enhancements to Higgs production via gluon fusion due to the contributions of the new, heavy quark states running in the fermion loops. Combined with the low background inherent to a same-sign lepton signal, this could be a useful way to investigate the CP-nature of a Higgs boson state at the LHC.

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arXiv2011

Determining the squark mass at the LHC

We propose a new way to determine the squark mass based on the shape of di-jet invariant mass distribution of supersymmetry (SUSY) di-jet events at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Our algorithm, which is based on event kinematics, requires that the branching ratio $B(\tilde{q} \rightarrow q \tilde{z}_1)$ is substantial for at least some types of squarks, and that $m_{\tilde{z}_1}^2/m_{\tilde{q}}^2 \ll 1$. We select di-jet events with no isolated leptons, and impose cuts on the total jet transverse energy, $E_T^{tot}=E_T(j_1)+E_T(j_2)$, on $α= E_T(j_2)/m_{jj}$, and on the azimuthal angle between the two jets to reduce SM backgrounds. The shape of the resulting di-jet mass distribution depends sensitively on the squark mass, especially if the integrated luminosity is sufficient to allow a hard enough cut on $E_T^{tot}$ and yet leave a large enough signal to obtain the $m_{jj}$ distribution. We simulate the signal and Standard Model (SM) backgrounds for 100 fb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity at 14 TeV requiring $E_T^{tot}> 700$ GeV. We show that it should be possible to extract $m_{\tilde{q}}$ to within about 3% at 95% CL --- similar to the precision obtained using $m_{T2}$ --- from the di-jet mass distribution if $m_{\tilde{q}} \sim 650$ GeV, or to within $\sim 5$% if $m_{\tilde{q}}\sim 1$ TeV.

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arXiv2011

Rise of Kp Total Cross Section and Universality

The increase of the measured hadronic total cross sections at the highest energies is empirically described by squared log of center-of-mass energy sqrt s as sigma(tot)= B (log s)2, consistent with the energy dependence of the Froissart unitarity bound. The coefficient B is argued to have a universal value, but this is not proved directly from QCD. In the previous tests of this universality, the p(pbar)p, pi p, and K p forward scatterings were analyzed independently and found to be consistent with B(pp) = B(pip) = B(Kp), although the determined value of B(Kp) had large uncertainty. In the present work, we have further analyzed forward Kp scattering to obtain a more exact value of B(Kp). Making use of continuous moment sum rules(CMSR) we have fully exploited the information of low-energy scattering data to predict the high-energy behavior of the amplitude hrough duality. The estimation of B(Kp) is improved remarkably, and our result strongly supports the universality of B.

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arXiv2011

Many Leptons at the LHC from the NMSSM

We present a benchmark in the parameter space of the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) that provides for a dramatic multi-lepton signal and no jets containing 5 or more leptons resulting from the cascade decays of the third lightest neutralino, $χ^{0}_{3}$, and the lightest chargino, $χ^{\pm}_{1}$, via light charged sleptons. This is a very clean signal with almost no Standard Model (SM) background. In some cases, a total signal of $\ge 3 $leptons + 0 jets can be detected at the $5 σ$ level at the LHC running at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV with approximately 3 fb$^{-1}$ of data and with less than 1 fb$^{-1}$ when running at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV. In addition, kinematic edges in the invariant mass distributions of 2, 3, and 4 leptons are easily detectable with large integrated luminosities ($\sim 600$ fb$^{-1}$) which can lead to simple measurements of the mass differences of heavy particles in the decay chains, including all combinations of the three lightest neutralinos.

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