Search

The current Large Hadron Collider (LHC) data show no clear indication of new physics and only incremental improvements are anticipated at the energy frontier in the near future. However, while the focus of the LHC has been on constraining TeV scale physics, new particles could still be hiding below the electroweak scale. In order to obtain sensitivity to a new light boson with couplings to SM fermions, a potentially promising decay channel, for resonances with mass $\gtrsim {\cal O}(10)$ GeV, would be the decay to $b\bar b$ pairs. The measurement of such signatures is challenging due to the trigger requirements at the LHC. In this work, we explore the LHC sensitivity to a light pseudoscalar, or axion-like particle (ALP), in the $b\bar{b}$ final state with an associated photon, using jet substructure techniques, in the mass range between 10 GeV and 100 GeV. We obtain projected exclusions on the ALP-fermion coupling in a region of phase space which has not so far been probed by direct searches. We further discuss the impact that lower trigger thresholds may have on the LHC reach., Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables

A host of medical conditions, including amputations, diabetes, stroke, and genetic disease, result in loss of touch sensation. Because most types of sensory loss have no pharmacological treatment or rehabilitative therapy, we propose a haptic sensory prosthesis that provides substitutive feedback. The wrist and forearm are compelling locations for feedback due to available skin area and not occluding the hands, but have reduced mechanoreceptor density compared to the fingertips. Focusing on localized pressure as the feedback modality, we hypothesize that we can improve on prior devices by invoking a wider range of stimulus intensity using multiple points of pressure to evoke spatial summation, which is the cumulative perceptual experience from multiple points of stimuli. We conducted a preliminary perceptual test to investigate this idea and found that just noticeable difference is reduced with two points of pressure compared to one, motivating future work using spatial summation in sensory prostheses., Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, 2024 IEEE Haptics Symposium Work-in-Progress Paper

We consider an axion-like particle (ALP) coupled to Standard Model (SM) fermions as a mediator between the SM and a fermionic dark matter (DM) particle. We explore the case where the ALP-SM and/or the ALP-DM couplings are too small to allow for DM generation via standard freeze-out. DM is therefore thermally decoupled from the visible sector and must be generated through either freeze-in or decoupled freeze-out (DFO). In the DFO regime, we present an improved approach to obtain the relic density by solving a set of three stiff coupled Boltzmann equations, one of which describes the energy transfer from the SM to the dark sector. Having determined the region of parameter space where the correct relic density is obtained, we revisit experimental constraints from electron beam dump experiments, rare $B$ and $K$ decays, exotic Higgs decays at the LHC, astrophysics, dark matter searches and cosmology. In particular, for our specific ALP scenario we (re)calculate and improve beam dump, flavour and supernova constraints. Throughout our calculation we implement state-of-the-art chiral perturbation theory results for the ALP partial decay width to hadrons. We find that while the DFO region, which predicts extremely small ALP-fermion couplings, can probably only be constrained by cosmological observables, the freeze-in region covers a wide area of parameter space that may be accessible to other more direct probes. Some of this parameter space is already excluded, but a significant part should be accessible to future collider experiments., Comment: 59 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables

The measured branching fractions of $B$-mesons into leptonic final states derived by the LHCb collaboration hint towards the breakdown of lepton flavour universality. In this work we take at face value the so-called $R_{D^{(*)}}$ observables that are defined as the ratios of neutral $B$-meson charged-current decays into a charged $D$-meson, a charged lepton and a neutrino final state in the tau and muon channels. A well-studied and simple solution to this charged current anomaly is to introduce a scalar leptoquark $S_1$ that couples to the second and third generation of fermions. We investigate how $S_1$ can also serve as a mediator between the Standard Model and a dark sector. We study this scenario in detail and estimate the constraints arising from collider searches for leptoquarks, collider searches for missing energy signals, direct detection experiments and the dark matter relic abundance. We stress that the production of a pair of leptoquarks that decays into different final states (i.e. the commonly called "mixed" channels) provides critical information for identifying the underlying dynamics, and we exemplify this by studying the $t \tau b \nu$ and the resonant $S_1$ plus missing energy channels. We find that direct detection data provides non-negligible constraints on the leptoquark coupling to the dark sector, which in turn affects the relic abundance. We also show that the correct relic abundance can not only arise via standard freeze-out, but also through conversion-driven freeze-out. We illustrate the rich phenomenology of the model with a few selected benchmark points, providing a broad stroke of the interesting connection between lepton flavour violation and dark matter., Comment: v2: 60 pages, minor changes, added references. Matches the published version

In Standard Model (SM) Higgs Boson pair production initiated by photons ($\gamma \gamma \to h h$) is loop-generated process and thereby very sensitive to any new couplings and particles that may come in loops. The Composite Higgs Models provide an alternate mechanism to address the hierarchy problem of SM where Higgs instead of being an elementary field could be a bound state of a strongly interacting sector. These set of models apart from modifying the SM Higgs couplings could also introduce new effective couplings that can have substantial impact on the loop processes. In this work we have studied the impact of such modifications by Composite Higgs models in $\gamma\gamma \to h h$ production process., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, minor updates, Talk presented at the International Workshop on Future Linear Colliders (LCWS2021), 15-18 March 2021. C21-03-15.1

We consider the decay $B\to\ell\ell\ell^{\prime}\nu$, taking into account the leading $1/m_b$ and $q^2$ corrections calculated in the QCD factorization framework as well as the soft corrections calculated employing dispersion relations and quark-hadron duality. We extend the existing results for the radiative decay $B\to\gamma\ell\nu$ to the case of non-zero (but small) $q^2$, the invariant mass squared of the dilepton pair $\ell^+\ell^-$. This restricts us to the case $\ell\neq\ell'$ as otherwise the same sign $\ell$ and $\ell'$ cannot be distinguished. We further study the sensitivity of the results to the leading moment of the $B$-meson distribution amplitude and discuss the potential to extract this quantity at LHCb and the Belle II experiment., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables

The next generation electron-positron colliders are designed for precision studies of the Standard Model and its extensions, in particular in the Higgs sector. We consider the potential for discovery of composite Higgs models in Higgs pair production through photon collisions. This process is loop-generated, thus it provides access to all Higgs couplings and can show new physics effects in polarized and unpolarized cross-sections starting at relatively low collider energies. It is, therefore, relevant for all electron-positron colliders planned or in preparation. Sizeable deviations from the Standard Model predictions are present in a general class of composite Higgs models, as couplings of one or more Higgs bosons to fermions, or fermionic and scalar resonances, modify the destructive interference present in the Standard Model. In particular, large effects are due to the new quartic coupling of the Higgs to tops and to the presence of a light scalar resonance., Comment: v2: 31 pages, 17 figures, version accepted by JHEP. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2105.11030

In this paper we consider the decay $D^+\to\pi^+\ell^+\ell^-$, addressing in particular the resonance contributions as well as the relatively large contributions from the weak annihilation diagrams. For the weak annihilation diagrams we include known results from QCD factorisation at low $q^2$ and at high $q^2$, adapting the existing calculation for $B$ decays in the Operator Product Expansion. The hadronic resonance contributions are obtained through a dispersion relation, modelling the spectral functions as towers of Regge-like resonances in each channel, as suggested by Shifman, imposing the partonic behaviour in the deep Euclidean. The parameters of the model are extracted using $e^+e^-\to{\rm (hadrons)}$ and $\tau\to {\rm (hadrons)}+\nu_\tau$ data as well as the branching ratios for the resonant decays $D^+\to\pi^+\,R\,(R\to\ell^+\ell^-)$, with $R=\rho$, $\omega$, and $\phi$. We perform a thorough error analysis, and present our results for the Standard Model differential branching ratio as a function of $q^2$. Focusing then on the observables $F_H$ and $A_{\rm FB}$, we consider the sensitivity of this channel to effects of physics beyond the Standard Model, both in a model independent way and for the case of leptoquarks., Comment: 43 pages, 11 figures, 9 Tables; v2: version published in JHEP

Two of the elements of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa quark mixing matrix, $|V_{ub}|$ and $|V_{cb}|$, are extracted from semileptonic B decays. The results of the B factories, analysed in the light of the most recent theoretical calculations, remain puzzling, because for both $|V_{ub}|$ and $|V_{cb}|$ the exclusive and inclusive determinations are in clear tension. Further, measurements in the $\tau$ channels at Belle, Babar, and LHCb show discrepancies with the Standard Model predictions, pointing to a possible violation of lepton flavor universality. LHCb and Belle II have the potential to resolve these issues in the next few years. This article summarizes the discussions and results obtained at the MITP workshop held on April 9--13, 2018, in Mainz, Germany, with the goal to develop a medium-term strategy of analyses and calculations aimed at solving the puzzles. Lattice and continuum theorists working together with experimentalists have discussed how to reshape the semileptonic analyses in view of the much higher luminosity expected at Belle II, searching for ways to systematically validate the theoretical predictions in both exclusive and inclusive B decays, and to exploit the rich possibilities at LHCb., Comment: 77 pages

We report on the status of efforts to improve the reinterpretation of searches and measurements at the LHC in terms of models for new physics, in the context of the LHC Reinterpretation Forum. We detail current experimental offerings in direct searches for new particles, measurements, technical implementations and Open Data, and provide a set of recommendations for further improving the presentation of LHC results in order to better enable reinterpretation in the future. We also provide a brief description of existing software reinterpretation frameworks and recent global analyses of new physics that make use of the current data., Comment: 58 pages, minor revision following comments from SciPost referees