Search

We propose a focus point gauge mediation model based on the product group unification (PGU), which solves the doublet-triplet splitting problem of the Higgs multiplets. In the focus point gauge mediation, the electroweak symmetry breaking scale can be naturally explained even for multi-TeV stops. It is known that the focus point behavior appears if a ratio of the number of SU(2) doublet messengers to that of SU(3) triplet messengers is close to 5/2. Importantly, this ratio (effectively) appears in our scenario based on the PGU, if the messenger field is an adjoint representation of the SU(5) gauge group. Therefore, our focus point scenario is very predictive. It is also pointed out that the gravitino can be dark matter without spoiling the success of the thermal leptogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the general theory of the Higgs mechanism without assuming Lorentz invariance. In the presence of a finite expectation value of non-Abelian matter charges, gauging those symmetries always results in spontaneous breaking of spatial rotation. If we impose the charge neutrality by assuming a background with the opposite charges, the dynamics of the background cannot be decoupled and has to be fully taken into account. In either case, the spectrum is continuous as the gauge coupling is switched off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze dynamics of chiral gauge theories based on the SU(N) gauge group with one antisymmetric tensor A and (N-4) antifundamentals Fi when N is odd. Based on the continuity to the supersymmetric gauge theories with anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking, we claim that the global SU(N-4) symmetry is spontaneously broken to Sp(N-5). There are N-5 massless fermions as a fundamental representation of Sp(N-5), and another massless fermion, together saturating the anomaly matching conditions. When N is even, the unbroken flavor symmetry is Sp(N-4) while there are no massless fermions. Our result is different from the dynamics suggested by tumbling where the full SU(N-4) symmetry is unbroken, but the tumbling picture can be modified via the addition of a second condensate to produce the symmetry breaking pattern predicted from our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing searches for cosmic axions relics have relied heavily on the axion being nonrelativistic and making up dark matter. However, light axions can be copiously produced in the early Universe and remain relativistic today, thereby constituting a Cosmic axion Background (CaB). As prototypical examples of axion sources, we consider thermal production, dark-matter decay, parametric resonance, and topological defect decay. Each of these has a characteristic frequency spectrum that can be searched for in axion direct detection experiments. We focus on the axion-photon coupling and study the sensitivity of current and future versions of ADMX, HAYSTAC, DMRadio, and ABRACADABRA to a CaB, finding that the data collected in search of dark matter can be repurposed to detect axion energy densities well below limits set by measurements of the energy budget of the Universe. In this way, direct detection of relativistic relics offers a powerful new opportunity to learn about the early Universe and, potentially, discover the axion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the IR phases of nonsupersymmetric (non-SUSY) SO(Nc) gauge theories with NF fermions in the vector representation obtained by perturbing the SUSY theory with anomaly mediated SUSY breaking (AMSB). We find that of the wide variety of phases appearing in the SUSY theory only two survive: for NF≤3/2(Nc-2) the theory confines, breaking the SU(NF) global symmetry to SO(NF), while for 32(Nc-2)

We discuss the relations between swampland conjectures and observational constraints on both inflation and dark energy. Using the requirement |∇V|≥cV, with c as a universal constant whose value can be derived from inflation, there may be no observable distinction between constant and nonconstant models of dark energy. However, the latest modification of the above conjecture, which utilizes the second derivative of the potential, opens up the opportunity for observations to determine if the dark energy equation of state deviates from that of a cosmological constant. We also comment on the observability of tensor fluctuations despite the conjecture that field excursions are smaller than the Planck scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent cosmological bound on the gravitino mass, m3/2<4.7  eV, together with LHC results on the Higgs mass and direct searches, excludes minimal gauge mediation with high reheating temperatures. We discuss a minimal, vector-mediated model which incorporates the seesaw mechanism for neutrino masses, allows for thermal leptogenesis, ameliorates the μ problem, and achieves the observed Higgs mass and a gravitino as light as 1-2 eV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rich and complex dark sectors are abundant in particle physics theories. Here, we propose performing spectroscopy of the mass structure of dark sectors via mono-photon searches at lepton colliders. The energy of the mono-photon tracks the invariant mass of the invisible system it recoils against, which enables studying the resonance structure of the dark sector. We demonstrate this idea with several well-motivated models of dark sectors. Such spectroscopy measurements could potentially be performed at Belle II, BES-III and future low-energy lepton colliders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dark matter could be a thermal relic comprised of strongly interacting massive particles (SIMPs), where 3→2 interactions set the relic abundance. Such interactions generically arise in theories of chiral symmetry breaking via the Wess-Zumino-Witten term. In this work, we show that an axionlike particle can successfully maintain kinetic equilibrium between the dark matter and the visible sector, allowing the requisite entropy transfer that is crucial for SIMPs to be a cold dark matter candidate. Constraints on this scenario arise from beam dump and collider experiments, from the cosmic microwave background, and from supernovae. We find a viable parameter space when the axionlike particle is close in mass to the SIMP dark matter, with strong-scale masses of order a few hundred MeV. Many planned experiments are set to probe the parameter space in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]