arXiv subjects

Zuowei Liu

Publications and source records attributed to Zuowei Liu.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Probing dark matter particles at CEPC

We investigate the capability of the future electron collider CEPC in probing the parameter space of several dark matter models, including millicharged dark matter models, $Z'$ portal dark matter models, and effective field theory dark matter models. In our analysis, the monophoton final state is used as the primary channel to detect dark matter models at CEPC. To maximize the signal to background significance, we study the energy and angular distributions of the monophoton channel arising from dark matter models and from the standard model to design a set of detector cuts. For the $Z'$ portal dark matter, we also analyze the $Z'$ boson visible decay channel which is found to be complementary to the monophoton channel in certain parameter space. The CEPC reach in the parameter space of dark matter models is also put in comparison with Xenon1T. We find that CEPC has the unprecedented sensitivity to certain parameter space for the dark matter models considered; for example, CEPC can improve the limits on millicharge by one order of magnitude than previous collider experiments for ${\cal O}(1)-100$ GeV dark matter.

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arXiv2022

CDF W mass anomaly from a dark sector with a Stueckelberg-Higgs portal

We propose an explanation to the new W mass measurement recently reported by the CDF collaboration, which is larger than the standard model expectation by about 7 standard deviations. To alleviate the tensions that are imposed on the electroweak sector by the new W mass measurement, we carry out an analysis in the Stueckelberg extended standard model where a new neutral gauge boson appears which mixes with the two neutral gauge bosons in the electroweak sector both via the Stueckelberg mass terms and via the gauge invariant Stueckelberg-Higgs portal interaction and spoils the custodial symmetry at the tree level so that the simple relation between the W boson mass and the Z boson mass does not hold. We find that such an extension increases the W boson mass if the new gauge boson mass is larger than the Z boson mass. We further show that there exists a significant part of the parameter space in the extended model which includes the CDF mass anomaly and is consistent with the various observables at the Z pole and consistent with the ATLAS dilepton limits. The Stueckelberg $Z'_{\rm St}$ boson, which resolves the CDF W mass anomaly, should be searchable in future LHC experiments.

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arXiv2022

Probing sub-GeV leptophilic dark matter at Belle II and NA64

An analysis is given of the Belle II sensitivities and NA64 constraints on the sub-GeV Dirac dark matter that interacts with charged leptons. We consider two different types of interactions between sub-GeV Dirac dark matter and the charged leptons: the EFT operators and the light vector mediators. We compute the Belle II mono-photon sensitivities on sub-GeV dark matter with 50 ab$^{-1}$ data which are expected to be accumulated in the full Belle II runs. Although the Belle II mono-photon sensitivities on the EFT operators are of similar size as the LEP constraints, Belle II can probe new parameter space of the light vector mediator models that are unexplored by LEP. For both the EFT operators and the light vector mediator models, the Belle II mono-photon sensitivities can be several orders of magnitude stronger than the current dark matter direct detection limits, as well as the white dwarf limits. The light vector mediator can also be directly searched for by reconstructing the invariant mass of its di-lepton decay final states at Belle II, which is found to be complementary to the mono-photon channel. We compute the NA64 constraints on the sub-GeV Dirac dark matter and provide analytic expressions of the dark matter cross section in the Weizsäcker-Williams approximation, for the EFT operators, and for the light vector mediator models. We find that the current NA64 data (with $2.84 \times 10^{11}$ electron-on-target events) provide strong constraints on sub-GeV dark matter. Although the NA64 constraints are found to be about one order of magnitude smaller than the Belle II sensitivities for the EFT operators, NA64 can probe some regions of the parameter space in the light vector mediator models that are beyond the reach of Belle II.

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arXiv2022

Unleashing the full power of LHCb to probe Stealth New Physics

In this paper, we describe the potential of the LHCb experiment to detect Stealth physics. This refers to dynamics beyond the Standard Model that would elude searches that focus on energetic objects or precision measurements of known processes. Stealth signatures include long-lived particles and light resonances that are produced very rarely or together with overwhelming backgrounds. We will discuss why LHCb is equipped to discover this kind of physics at the Large Hadron Collider and provide examples of well-motivated theoretical models that can be probed with great detail at the experiment.

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arXiv2021

Millicharged particles at electron colliders

We propose to search for millicharged particles in electron colliders operated with the center-of-mass energies at ${\cal O}$(1-10) GeV, which include Belle II, BESIII, BaBar, and also the proposed experiment STCF. We use the monophoton final state at electron colliders to probe the parameter space of millicharged particles, that is spanned by millicharge $ε$ and mass $m$. We find that electron colliders have sensitivity to the previously unexplored parameter space for millicharged particles with MeV-GeV mass: $ε\lesssim {\cal O}(10^{-1})$ for $0.5$ GeV $\lesssim m \lesssim 3.5$ GeV in BaBar, $ε\lesssim {\cal O}(10^{-3})$ for $0.1$ GeV $\lesssim m \lesssim 1.5$ GeV in BESIII, $ε\lesssim 10^{-3}-10^{-2}$ for $0.1$ GeV $\lesssim m \lesssim 4$ GeV in Belle II, and $ε\lesssim {\cal O}(10^{-4})$ for $1$ MeV $\lesssim m \lesssim 1$ GeV in STCF.

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arXiv2021

Two-component millicharged dark matter and the EDGES 21cm signal

We propose a two-component dark matter explanation to the EDGES 21 cm anomalous signal. The heavier dark matter component is long-lived whose decay is primarily responsible for the relic abundance of the lighter dark matter which is millicharged. To evade the constraints from CMB, underground dark matter direct detection, and XQC experiments, the lifetime of the heavier dark matter has to be larger than $0.1\, τ_U$, where $τ_U$ is the age of the universe. Our model provides a viable realization of the millicharged dark matter model to explain the EDGES 21 cm, since the minimal model in which the relic density is generated via thermal freeze-out is ruled out by various constraints.

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arXiv2021

Composite strongly interacting dark matter

It has been suggested that cold dark matter (CDM) has difficulties in explaining tentative evidence for noncuspy halo profiles in small galaxies, and the low velocity dispersions observed in the largest Milky Way satellites ("too big to fail" problem). Strongly self-interacting dark matter has been noted as a robust solution to these problems. The elastic cross sections required are much larger than predicted by generic CDM models, but could naturally be of the right size if dark matter is composite. We explore in a general way the constraints on models where strongly interacting CDM is in the form of dark "atoms" or "molecules," or bound states of a confining gauge interaction ("hadrons"). These constraints include considerations of relic density, direct detection, big bang nucleosynthesis, the cosmic microwave background, and LHC data.

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arXiv2021

A vector leptoquark interpretation of the muon $g-2$ and $B$ anomalies

We show that a single vector leptoquark can explain both the muon $g-2$ anomaly recently measured by the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab, and the various $B$ decay anomalies, including the $R_{D^{(*)}}$ and $R_{K^{(*)}}$ anomalies which have been recently reported by the LHCb experiment. In order to provide sizeable positive new physics contributions to the muon $g-2$, we assume that the vector leptoquark particle couples to both left-handed and right-handed fermions with equal strength. Our model is found to satisfy the experimental constraints from the large hadron collider.

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arXiv2020

On-shell mediator dark matter models and the Xenon1T anomaly

We present a dark matter model to explain the excess events in the electron recoil data recently reported by the Xenon1T experiment. In our model, dark matter $χ$ annihilates into a pair of on-shell particles $ϕ$ which subsequently decay into $ψψ$ final state; $ψ$ interacts with electron to generate the observed excess events. Due to the mass hierarchy, the velocity of $ψ$ can be rather large and can have an extended distribution, which provides a good fit to the electron recoil energy spectrum. We estimated the flux of $ψ$ from dark matter annihilations in the galaxy and further determined the interaction cross section which is sizable but small enough to allow $ψ$ to penetrate the rocks to reach the underground labs.

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arXiv2019

Two-mediator dark matter models and cosmic electron excess

The cosmic electron energy spectrum recently observed by the DAMPE experiment exhibits two interesting features, including a break around 0.9 TeV and a sharp resonance near 1.4 TeV. In this analysis, we propose a dark matter explanation to both exotic features seen by DAMPE. In our model, dark matter annihilates in the galaxy via two different channels that lead to both a narrow resonance spectrum near 1.4 TeV and electron excess events over an extended energy range thus generating the break structure around TeV. The two annihilation channels are mediated by two gauge bosons that interact both with dark matter and with the standard model fermions. Dark matter annihilations through the s-channel process mediated by the heavier boson produce monoenergetic electron-positron pairs leading to the resonance excess. The lighter boson has a mass smaller than the dark matter such that they can be on-shell produced in dark matter annihilations in the galaxy; the lighter bosons in the final state subsequently decay to generate the extended excess events due to the smeared electron energy spectrum in this process. We further analyze constraints from various experiments, including HESS, Fermi, AMS, and LHC, to the parameter space of the model where both excess events can be accounted for. In order to interpret the two new features in the DAMPE data, dark matter annihilation cross sections in the current galaxy are typically much larger than the canonical thermal cross section needed for the correct dark matter relic abundance. This discrepancy, however, is remedied by the nonperturbative Sommerfeld enhancement because of the existence of a lighter mediator in the model.

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arXiv2018

Probing millicharge at BESIII

We propose to search for millicharged particles at the BESIII detector which is operated at the Beijing Electron Positron Collider. We compute the monophoton signal events at the BESIII detector due to millicharged particle production, as well as due to standard model irreducible/reducible backgrounds. By utilizing all the data accumulated at the BESIII detector since 2011, we derive new leading upper limits on millicharge, $\varepsilon \lesssim (0.86-2.5) \times10^{-3}$, for the mass range, $0.1~\text{GeV} \lesssim m \lesssim 1~\text{GeV}$. Furthermore, projections with more data to be collected at the BESIII detector are also made. Our analysis significantly reduces the parameter region of millicharge to account for the anomalous 21 cm absorption signal near redshift $z\simeq 17$ recently observed by the EDGES experiment

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arXiv2017

TeV dark matter and the DAMPE electron excess

The recent high energy electron and positron flux observed by the DAMPE experiment indicates possible excess events near 1.4 TeV. Such an excess may be evidence of dark matter annihilations or decays in a dark matter subhalo that is located close to the solar system. We give here an analysis of this excess from annihilations of Dirac fermion dark matter which is charged under a new $U(1)_X$ gauge symmetry. The interactions between dark matter and the standard model particles are mediated the $U(1)_X$ gauge boson. We show that dark matter annihilations from a local subhalo can explain the excess with the canonical thermal annihilation cross section. We further discuss the constraints from the relic density, from the dark matter direct detection, from the dark matter indirect detection, from the cosmic microwave background, and from the particle colliders.

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arXiv2017

A combined analysis of PandaX, LUX, and XENON1T experiments within the framework of dark matter effective theory

Weakly interacting massive particles are a widely well-probed dark matter candidate by the dark matter direct detection experiments. Theoretically, there are a large number of ultraviolet completed models that consist of a weakly interacting massive particle dark matter. The variety of models makes the comparison with the direct detection data complicated and often non-trivial. To overcome this, in the non-relativistic limit, the effective theory was developed in the literature which works very well to significantly reduce the complexity of dark matter-nucleon interactions and to better study the nuclear response functions. In the effective theory framework for a spin-1/2 dark matter, we combine three independent likelihood functions from the latest PandaX, LUX, and XENON1T data, and give a joint limit on each effective coupling. The astrophysical uncertainties of the dark matter distribution are also included in the likelihood. We further discuss the isospin violating cases of the interactions. Finally, for both dimension-five and dimension-six effective theories above the electroweak scale, we give updated limits of the new physics mass scales.

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arXiv2016

Multimediator models for the galactic center gamma ray excess

Tentative evidence for excess GeV-scale gamma rays from the galactic center has been corroborated by several groups, including the Fermi collaboration, on whose data the observation is based. Dark matter annihilation into standard model particles has been shown to give a good fit to the signal for a variety of final state particles, but generic models are inconsistent with constraints from direct detection. Models where the dark matter annihilates to mediators that subsequently decay are less constrained. We perform global fits of such models to recent data, allowing branching fractions to all possible fermionic final states to vary. The best fit models, including constraints from the AMS-02 experiment (and also antiproton ratio), require branching primarily to muons, with a $\sim 10-20\%$ admixture of $b$ quarks, and no other species. This suggests models in which there are two scalar mediators that mix with the Higgs, and have masses consistent with such a decay pattern. The scalar that decays to $μ^+μ^-$ must therefore be lighter than $2m_τ\cong 3.6$ GeV. Such a small mass can cause Sommerfeld enhancement, which is useful to explain why the best-fit annihilation cross section is larger than the value needed for a thermal relic density. For light mediator masses $\sim (0.2-2)$ GeV, it can also naturally lead to elastic DM self-interactions at the right level for addressing discrepancies in small structure formation as predicted by collisionless cold dark matter.

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arXiv2016

Degenerate Higgs bosons: hiding a second Higgs at 125 GeV

More than one Higgs boson may be present near the currently discovered Higgs mass, which can not be properly resolved due to the limitations in the intrinsic energy resolution at the Large Hadron Collider. We investigated the scenarios where two $CP$-even Higgs bosons are degenerate in mass. To correctly predict the Higgs signatures, quantum interference effects between the two Higgs bosons must be taken into account, which, however, has been often neglected in the literature. We carried out a global analysis including the interference effects for a variety of Higgs searching channels at the Large Hadron Collider, which suggests that the existence of two degenerate Higgs bosons near 125 GeV is highly likely. Prospects of distinguishing the degenerate Higgs case from the single Higgs case are discussed.

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arXiv2016

Letter of Intent: Jinping Neutrino Experiment

Jinping Neutrino Experiment (Jinping) is proposed to significantly improve measurements on solar neutrinos and geoneutrinos in China Jinping Laboratory - a lab with a number of unparalleled features, thickest overburden, lowest reactor neutrino background, etc., which identify it as the world-best low-energy neutrino laboratory. The proposed experiment will have target mass of 4 kilotons of liquid scintillator or water-based liquid scintillator, with a fiducial mass of 2 kilotons for neutrino-electron scattering events and 3 kilotons for inverse-beta interaction events. A number of initial sensitivities studies have been carried out, including on the transition phase for the solar neutrinos oscillation from the vacuum to the matter effect, the discovery of solar neutrinos from the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) cycle, the resolution of the high and low metallicity hypotheses, and the unambiguous separation on U and Th cascade decays from the dominant crustal anti-electron neutrinos in China.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2016

ATLAS Diboson Excess from Stueckelberg Mechanism

We discuss the diboson excess seen by the ATLAS detector around 2 TeV in the LHC run I at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV. We explore the possibility that such an excess can arise from a $Z'$ boson which acquires mass through a $U(1)_X$ Stueckelberg extension. The corresponding $Z'$ gauge boson is leptophobic with a mass of around 2 TeV and has interactions with $SU(2)_L$ Yang-Mills fields and gauge fields of the hypercharge. The analysis predicts $Z'$ decays into $WW$ and $ZZ$ as well as into $Zγ$. Further three-body as well as four-body decays of the $Z'$ such as $WWZ, WWγ, WWZZ$ etc are predicted. In the analysis we use the helicity formalism which allows us to exhibit the helicity structure of the $Z'$ decay processes in an transparent manner. In particular, we are able to show the set of vanishing helicity amplitudes in the decay of the massive $Z'$ into two vector bosons due to angular momentum conservation with a special choice of the reference momenta. The residual set of non-vanishing helicity amplitudes are identified. The parameter space of the model compatible with the diboson excess seen by the ATLAS experiment at $\sqrt s=8$ TeV is exhibited. Estimate of the diboson excess expected at $\sqrt s= 13$ TeV with 20 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity at LHC run II is also given. It is shown that the $WW$, $ZZ$ and $Zγ$ modes are predicted to be in the approximate ratio $1:\cos^2θ_W (1+ α\tan^2θ_W)^2/2: (1-α)^2\sin^2θ_W/2$ where $α$ is the relative strength of the couplings of hypercharge gauge fields to the couplings of the Yang-Mills gauge fields. Thus observation of the $Zγ$ mode as well as three-body and four-body decay modes of the $Z'$ will provide a definite test of the model and of a possible new source of interaction beyond the standard model.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

LHC diphotons from electroweakly pair-produced composite pseudoscalars

Motivated by excess diphoton events reported by ATLAS and CMS, we show that composite pseudoscalars, bound states of heavy fermions under a new confining gauge theory, can be pair-produced by Drell-Yan production if the constituent particles are electrically charged. The decays of these pion-like bound states into two photons can explain the observed events near 750 GeV. The model predicts that there should be significant numbers of 4-photon events from decays of the pseudoscalar pairs, as well as same-sign dilepton pairs at a somewhat lower invariant mass, or multijet signals, coming from decays of charge-2 pseudoscalars. These states and their decays are necessary for avoiding stable charged baryon-like relics in the new confining sector. A neutral baryon-like dark matter candidate of mass $\sim N_c\times 375$ GeV is a further prediction of the model, for SU($N_c$) confining gauge group.

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