arXiv subjects

Wai-Yee Keung

Publications and source records attributed to Wai-Yee Keung.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

$E_6$ Models in Light of Precision $M_W$ Measurements

We propose a solution to the recent $W$ mass measurement by embedding the Standard Model within $E_6$ models. The presence of a new $U(1)$ group shifts the $W$ boson mass at the tree level and introduces a new gauge boson $Z^{\prime}$ which has been searched for at collider experiments. In this article, we identity the parameter space that explains the new $W$ mass measurement and is consistent with current experimental $Z^{\prime}$ searches. As $U(1)$ extensions can be accommodated in supersymmetric models, we also consider the supersymmetric scenario of $E_6$ models, and show that a 125 GeV Higgs may be easily achieved in such settings.

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arXiv2022

Iso-doublet Vector Leptoquark solution to the Muon $g-2$, $R_{K, K^}$, $R_{D,D^}$, and $W$-mass Anomalies

We investigate the iso-doublet vector leptoquark $V_2$ as a solution to the $B$ anomalies $R_{K, K^*}$ and $R_{D,D^*}$, as well as explaining the muon and electron anomalous magnetic moments, and the very recent $W$-mass anomaly.

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arXiv2021

Axion-like particles, two-Higgs-doublet models, leptoquarks, and the electron and muon g-2

Data from the Muon g-2 experiment and measurements of the fine structure constant suggest that the anomalous magnetic moments of the muon and electron are at odds with standard model expectations. We survey the ability of axion-like-particles, two-Higgs-doublet models and leptoquarks to explain the discrepancies. We find that accounting for other constraints, all scenarios except the Type-I, Type-II and Type-Y two-Higgs-doublet models fit the data well.

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arXiv2021

Stellar cooling, inelastic dark matter, and XENON

We consider a novel scenario of dark photon-mediated inelastic dark matter to explain the white dwarf cooling excess suggested by its luminosity function, and the excess in electron recoil events at XENON1T. In the Sun, the dark photon $A'$ is produced mainly via thermal processes, and the heavier dark matter $χ_2$ is produced by the scattering of halo dark matter $χ_1$ with electrons. The XENON1T signal arises primarily by solar $A'$ scattering, and $A'$ emission by white dwarfs accommodates the extra cooling while maintaining consistency with other stellar cooling observations. A tritium component in the XENON1T detector is also required. We show for parameters that explain the XENON1T data, but not the white dwarf cooling anomaly, that a second signal peak may be buried in the XENON1T data and revealable at XENONnT. However, the parameters that give the double peak in the spectrum are incompatible with constraints from horizontal branch stars.

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arXiv2020

Heating neutron stars with GeV dark matter

An old neutron star (NS) may capture halo dark matter (DM) and get heated up by the deposited kinetic energy, thus behaving like a thermal DM detector with sensitivity to a wide range of DM masses and a variety of DM-quark interactions. Near future infrared telescopes will measure NS temperatures down to a few thousand Kelvin and probe NS heating by DM capture. We focus on GeV-mass Dirac fermion DM (which is beyond the reach of current DM direct detection experiments) in scenarios in which the DM capture rate can saturate the geometric limit. For concreteness, we study (1) a model that invokes dark decays of the neutron to explain the neutron lifetime anomaly, and (2) a framework of DM coupled to quarks through a vector current portal. In the neutron dark decay model a NS can have a substantial DM population, so that the DM capture rate can reach the geometric limit through DM self-interactions even if the DM-neutron scattering cross section is tiny. We find NS heating to have greater sensitivity than multi-pion signatures in large underground detectors for the neutron dark decay model, and sub-GeV gamma-ray signatures for the quark vector portal model.

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arXiv2020

Vector-like Quark Interpretation for the CKM Unitarity Violation, Excess in Higgs Signal Strength, and Bottom Quark Forward-Backward Asymmetry

Due to a recent more precise evaluation of $V_{ud}$ and $V_{us}$, the unitarity condition of the first row in the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix: $|V_{ud}|^2 + |V_{us}|^2 + |V_{ub}|^2 = 0.99798 \pm 0.00038$ now stands at a deviation more than $4σ$ from unity. Furthermore, a mild excess in the overall Higgs signal strength appears at about $2σ$ above the standard model (SM) prediction, as well as the long-lasting discrepancy in the forward-backward asymmetry ${\cal A}_{\rm FB}^b$ in $Z\to b\bar b$ at LEP. Motivated from the above three anomalies we investigate an extension of the SM with vector-like quarks (VLQs) associated with the down-quark sector, with the goal of alleviating the tension among these datasets. We perform global fits of the model under the constraints coming from the unitarity condition of the first row of the CKM matrix, the $Z$-pole observables ${\cal A}_{\rm FB}^b$, $R_b$ and $Γ_{\rm had}$, Electro-Weak precision observables $ΔS$ and $ΔT$, $B$-meson observables $B_d^0$-$\overline{B}_d^0$ mixing, $B^+ \to π^+ \ell^+ \ell^-$ and $B^0 \to μ^+ μ^-$, and direct searches for VLQs at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Our results suggest that adding VLQs to the SM provides better agreement than the SM.

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arXiv2019

Annihilation signatures of neutron dark decay models in neutron oscillation and proton decay searches

We point out that two models that reconcile the neutron lifetime anomaly via dark decays of the neutron, also predict dark matter-neutron ($\barχ-n$) annihilation that may be observable in neutron-antineutron oscillation and proton decay searches at Super-Kamiokande, Hyper-Kamiokande and DUNE. We study signatures of $\barχn\to γπ^0$ (or multi-$π^0$) and $\barχn\to ϕγπ^0$ (or $ϕ+$multi-$π^0$), where $ϕ$ is an almost massless boson in one of the two models.

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arXiv2019

Constraining CP-violating electron-gluonic operators

We present an analysis of constraints on two types of CP-odd electron-gluonic operators $(\bar{e}iγ^5 e)G_{μν}^a G^{aμν}$ and $(\bar{e}e)G_{μν}^a \tilde{G}^{aμν}$ from current and future electric dipole moment (EDM) experiments. The recent result from the ACME experiment using ThO molecules is used to derive an impressive lower bound on the effective scale for $(\bar{e}iγ^5 e)G_{μν}^a G^{aμν}$ at 8 TeV, assuming a QCD one-loop factor and no helicity suppression from new physics. One interesting aspect is that $(\bar{e}iγ^5 e)G_{μν}^a G^{aμν}$ contributes to the observable EDM in ThO experiment mainly through CP-odd electron-nucleon interaction rather than direct electron EDM which arises from three-loop running and matching. For $(\bar{e}e)G_{μν}^a \tilde{G}^{aμν}$ the current bound is much weaker and suffers from large uncertainties. We also discuss the QCD running and matching for the CP-odd electron-gluonic operators and give an estimate of the relevant nucleon matrix elements and uncertainties that are needed in the calculation.

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arXiv2019

Vector-like Quark Interpretation of Excess in Higgs Signal Strength

There is a $+2σ$ deviation in the average Higgs-signal strength for all the $7+8+13$ TeV data up to Summer 2018. We find that a slight reduction of the bottom-Yukawa coupling can fit the data better than the standard model. We suggest an extension with a vector-like quark doublet, of which the right-handed component of $b'$ mixes nonnegligibly with the standard model $b$ quark. We show that the mixing would induce a reduction of the bottom Yukawa coupling. Simultaneously, the coupling of the $Z$ boson to the right-handed $b$ quark increases, which could reduce the forward-backward asymmetry of bottom production at LEP and bring it closer to the experimental value.

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arXiv2018

$CP$ violating mode of the stoponium decay into $Zh$

We show that a novel decay mode $Zh$ of the bound state of stop-anti-stop pair in the ground state $^1S_0(\widetilde t_1\widetilde t_1^*)$ may have a significant branching ratio if the $CP$ violating mixing appears in the stop sector, even after we apply the stringent constraint from the measurement of the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the electron. We show that the branching ratio can be as large as 10% in some parameter space that it may be detectable at the LHC.

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arXiv2017

Interpreting the 3 TeV $WH$ Resonance as a $W'$ boson

Motivated by a local $3.2-3.4$ sigma resonance in $WH$ and $ZH$ in the ATLAS Run 2 data, we attempt to interpret the excess in terms of a $W'$ boson in a $SU(2)_1 \times SU(2)_2 \times U(1)_X$ model. We stretch the deviation from the alignment limit of the Equivalence Theorem, so as to maximize $WH$ production while keeping the $WZ$ production rate below the experimental limit. We found a viable though small region of parameter space that satisfies all existing constraints on $W' \to jj, t \bar b, WZ$, as well as the precision Higgs data. The cross section of $W' \to WH$ that we obtain is about $5-6$ fb.

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arXiv2017

PeV Neutrino Events at IceCube from Single Top-Quark Production

Deep inelastic scattering of very high-energy neutrinos can potentially be enhanced by the production of a single top quark or charm quark via the interaction of a virtual $W$-boson exchange with a $b$-quark or $s$-quark parton in the nucleon. The single top contribution shows a sharp rise at neutrino energies above 0.5 PeV and gives a cross-section contribution of order 5 percent at 10 PeV, while single charm has a low energy threshold and contributes about 25 percent. Semi-leptonic decays of top and charm give di-muon events whose kinematic characteristics are shown. The angular separation of the di-muons from heavy quark production in the IceCube detector can reach up to one degree. Top quark production has a unique, but rare, three muon signal.

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arXiv2017

Axial Vector $Z'$ and Anomaly Cancellation

Whilst the prospect of new $Z'$ gauge bosons with only axial couplings to the Standard Model (SM) fermions is widely discussed, examples of anomaly-free renormalisable models are lacking in the literature. We look to remedy this by constructing several motivated examples. Specifically, we consider axial vectors which couple universally to all SM fermions, as well as those which are generation-specific, leptophilic, and leptophobic. Anomaly cancellation typically requires the presence of new coloured and charged chiral fermions, and we argue that in a large class of models masses of these new states are expected to be comparable to that of the axial vector. Finally, an axial vector mediator could provide a portal between SM and hidden sector states, and we also consider the possibility that the axial vector couples to dark matter. If the dark matter relic density is set due to freeze-out via the axial vector, this strongly constrains the parameter space.

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arXiv2017

A Reappraisal on Dark Matter Co-annihilating with a Top/Bottom Partner

We revisit the calculation of relic density of dark matter particles co-annihilating with a top or bottom partner, by properly including the QCD bound-states (onia) effects of the colored partners, as well as the relevant electroweak processes which become important in the low mass region. We carefully set up the complete framework that incorporates the relevant contributions and investigate their effects on the cosmologically preferred mass spectrum, which turn out to be comparable in size to those coming from the Sommerfeld enhancement. We apply the calculation to three scenarios: bino-stop and bino-sbottom co-annihilations in supersymmetry, and a vector dark matter co-annihilating with a fermionic top partner. In addition, we confront our analysis of the relic abundance with recent direct detection experiments and collider searches at the LHC, which have important implications in the bino-stop and bino-sbottom scenarios. In particular, in the bino-stop case recent LHC limits have excluded regions of parameter with a direct detection rate that is above the neutrino floor.

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arXiv2016

Resurgence of $Z'$ from the single electron-muon event at ATLAS

Inspired by the recent single $e^{\pm}μ^{\mp}$ event at 2.1 TeV invariant mass from the ATLAS at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV with 3.2 fb$^{-1}$ luminosity, we propose an explanation using a $Z'$ gauge boson, which possesses lepton-flavor-changing neutral currents originated from non-universal couplings to charged leptons. We assume that the left-handed charged-lepton mixing matrix equals to the PMNS matrix and no mixing in the neutrino sector to make this phenomenological $Z'$ model more predictive. There are indeed some parameter regions, where the $Z'$ can generate a large enough $e^{\pm}μ^{\mp}$ production cross section, while at the same time satisfies various observables from lepton-flavor violation and other constraints from the LHC.

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arXiv2015

Interpretations of the ATLAS Diboson Anomaly

Recently, the ATLAS Collaboration recorded an interesting anomaly in diboson production with excesses at the diboson invariant mass around 2 TeV in boosted jets of all the $WZ$, $W^+ W^-$, and $ZZ$ channels. We offer a theoretical interpretation of the anomaly using a phenomenological right-handed model with extra $W'$ and $Z'$ bosons. Constraints from narrow total decay widths, dijet cross sections, and $W/Z + H$ production are taken into account. We also comment on a few other possibilities.

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arXiv2015

Leptoquark induced rare decay amplitudes $h \to τ^\mp μ^\pm$ and $τ\to μγ$

Rare decay modes of the newly discovered standard-model-like Higgs boson $h$ may test the flavor changing couplings in the leptoquark sector through the process $h \to τ^\mpμ^\pm$. Motived by the recently reported excess in LHC data from the CMS detector, we found that a predicted branching fraction Br($h \to τ^\mpμ^\pm$) at the level of 1\% is possible even though the coupling parameters are subjected to the stringent constraint from the null observation of $τ\toμγ$, where the destructive cancellation among amplitudes is achievable by fine tuning.

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arXiv2014

Dips at Colliders

We categorize new physics signatures that manifest themselves as a "dip" structure at colliders. One potential way to realize a dip is to require interactions to be zero when all particles are mass on-shell, but not if one or more are mass off-shell. For three particle interactions, we have found three interesting cases: one massive gauge boson with two identical scalars; one massless gauge boson with two different scalars; one massive gauge boson with two identical massless gauge bosons. For each case, we identify the relevant effective operators to explore its dip signature at the LHC. Unfortunately, the unstable particle with a vanishing mass-on-shell interaction has a complex mass which is coincident with the complex pole in its propagator. As a result, a contact-like amplitude without a dip is produced. We then point out two other interesting ways that generate a dip in the cross section. The first way has a dip signature due to a zero in the vertex form factor of the time-like momentum in the s-channel. In the second way, the dip plus bump signature appears because there is destructive interference among processes of exchanging different s-channel particles.

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