Ezequiel Alvarez, Estefania Coluccio Leskow, José Zurita
We study the constraints on the Lee-Wick Higgs sector arising from direct collider searches. We work in an effective-field theory framework, where all of the Lee-Wick partners are integrated out, with the sole exception of the Lee-Wick Higgs bosons. The resulting theory is a two-Higgs doublet model where the second doublet has wrong-sign kinetic and mass terms. We include the bounds coming from direct Higgs searches at both LEP and Tevatron using the code HiggsBounds, and show the currently excluded parameter space. We also analyze the prospects of LHC Run-I, finding that with a total integrated luminosity of 5 fb $^{-1}$ and a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, most of the parameter space for the SM-like CP-even Higgs will be probed.
Marcela Carena, Eduardo Ponton, Jose Zurita
We study extensions of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) with new degrees of freedom that couple sizably to the MSSM Higgs sector and lie in the TeV range. After integrating out the physics at the TeV scale, the resulting Higgs spectrum can significantly differ from typical supersymmetric scenarios, thereby providing a window Beyond the MSSM (BMSSM). Taking into account current LEP and Tevatron constraints, we perform an in-depth analysis of the Higgs collider phenomenology and explore distinctive characteristics of our scenario with respect to both the Standard Model and the MSSM. We propose benchmark scenarios to illustrate specific features of BMSSM Higgs searches at the Tevatron and the LHC.
David Curtin, Kaustubh Deshpande, Oliver Fischer, Jose Zurita
In this talk I will illustrate with two examples (Higgsino dark matter and Exotic Higgs decays) how electron-proton colliders present unique opportunities to probe BSM scenarios where proton-proton colliders fall short due to the experimental difficulties in reconstructing the signal due to the large hadronic backgrounds. The leit-motiv of these examples are long-lived particles (LLPs), which have received recently a lot of attention from both the experimental and theoretical communities. We find that the proposed $e^-p$ colliders can be competitive against their more energetic $pp$ incarnations for lifetimes between a millimeter and a micron, depending on the physics scenario under consideration.
Xabier Cid Vidal, Yuhsin Tsai, Jose Zurita
The LHCb detector provides accurate vertex reconstruction and hadronic particle identification, which make the experiment an ideal place to look for light long-lived particles (LLP) decaying into Standard Model (SM) hadrons. In contrast with the typical search strategy relying on energetic jets and a high multiplicity of tracks from the LLP decay, LHCb can identify LLPs in exclusive, specific hadronic final states. To illustrate the idea, we study the sensitivity of LHCb to an exotic Higgs decay $h\to SS$, followed by the displaced decay of GeV-scale scalars into charged kaons $S\to K^+K^-$. We show that the reconstruction of kaon vertices in narrow invariant mass windows can efficiently eliminate the combinatorial backgrounds from $B$-meson decays. While the same signal is extremely difficult to probe in the existing displaced jet searches at ATLAS/CMS, the LHCb search we propose can probe the branching ratio BR$(h\to SS)$ down to $0.1\%$ ($0.02\%$) level with $15$ ($300$) fb$^{-1}$ of data. We also apply this projected bound to two scenarios with Higgs portal couplings, where the scalar mediator $S$ either couples to a) the SM quarks only, or b) to both quarks and leptons in the minimal flavor violation paradigm. In both scenarios we compare the reach of our proposed search with the expected constraints from ATLAS and CMS on the invisible Higgs width and with the constraints from rare B-decays studies at LHCb. We find that for 1 GeV $< m_S < $ 2 GeV and $0.5~{\rm mm} \lesssim c τ\lesssim 10$ mm our proposed search will be competitive with the ATLAS and CMS projections, while at the same time providing crucial information of the hadronic interactions of $S$, which can not be obtained from the {\it indirect} measurement of the Higgs invisible width.
Pedro Schwaller, Jose Zurita
In this work, we examine the sensitivity of monojet searches at the LHC to directly produced charginos and neutralinos (electroweakinos) in the limit of small mass splitting, where the traditional multilepton plus missing energy searches loose their sensitivity. We first recast the existing 8 TeV monojet search at CMS in terms of a SUSY simplified model with only light gauginos (winos and binos) or only light higgsinos. The current searches are not sensitive to MSSM like production cross sections, but would be sensitive to models with 2-20 times enhanced production cross section, for particle masses between 100 GeV and 250 GeV. Then we explore the sensitivity in the 14 TeV run of the LHC. Here we emphasise that in addition to the pure monojet search, soft leptons present in the samples can be used to increase the sensitivity. Exclusion of electroweakino masses up to 200 GeV is possible with 300 fb$^{-1}$ at the LHC, if the systematic error can be reduced to the 1% level. Discovery is possible with 3000 fb$^{-1}$ in some regions of parameter space.
Marcela Carena, Eduardo Pontón, José Zurita
We consider extensions of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) where the extra degrees of freedom interact weakly with the Higgs sector. These models allow to relax the tension between the lower bound on the lightest CP even Higgs mass from direct LEP searches and the theoretical upper bound of the MSSM. We study the beyond MSSM (BMSSM) effects via an effective field-theory approach, assuming that the MSSM is valid up to a heavy physics scale M. We compute the masses, couplings and branching fractions of the Higgs sector, including all the relevant corrections up to order 1/M^2. We find that the collider phenomenology can be greatly different with respect to both the SM and the MSSM.
Alexander Belyaev, Stefan Prestel, Felipe Rojas-Abbate, Jose Zurita
Models where dark matter is a part of an electroweak multiplet feature charged particles with macroscopic lifetimes due to the charged-neutral mass split of the order of pion mass. At the Large Hadron Collider, the ATLAS and CMS experiments will identify these charged particles as disappearing tracks, since they decay into a massive invisible dark matter candidate and a very soft charged Standard-Model particle which fails to pass the reconstruction requirements. While ATLAS and CMS have focused on the supersymmetric versions of these scenarios, we have performed here the reinterpretation of the latest ATLAS disappearing track search for a suite of dark matter multiplets with different spins and electroweak quantum numbers. More concretely, we consider the cases of the inert Two Higgs Doublet model (i2HDM), of Minimal Fermion Dark Matter (MFDM) and of Vector Triplet Dark Matter (VTDM). Our procedure is validated by using the same wino and higgsino benchmark models employed by the ATLAS collaboration. We have found that with the disappearing track signature one can probe a vast portion of the parameter space, well beyond the reach of prompt missing energy searches (notably mono-jets). We provide tables with the upper-limits on the cross-section upper limits, and efficiencies in the lifetime - dark matter mass plane for all the models under consideration. Moreover we make the recasting code employed here publicly available, as part of the LLP Recasting Repository.
Jose Zurita
In this talk I discuss the status and future prospects of testing the Higgs self-couplings at the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) as well as several Beyond Standard Model (BSM) scenarios that could be probed via Higgs pair production in the coming years.
Florian Goertz, Andreas Papaefstathiou, Li Lin Yang, José Zurita
We consider the ratio between the double and single Higgs production cross sections and examine the prospect of measuring the trilinear Higgs self-coupling using this observable. Such a ratio has a reduced theoretical (scale) uncertainty than the double Higgs cross section. We find that with 600/fb, the 14 TeV LHC can constraint the trilinear Higgs self coupling to be positive, and with 3000/fb one could measure it with a +30 % {-20 %}) accuracy.
Rodolfo Capdevilla, Federico Meloni, Jose Zurita
Minimal Dark Matter models feature one neutral particle that serves as a thermal relic dark matter candidate, as well as quasi-degenerate charged states with TeV masses. When the charged states are produced at colliders, they can decay into dark matter and a low-momentum (soft) charged particle, which is challenging to reconstruct at hadron colliders. We demonstrate that a 3 TeV Muon Collider is capable of detecting these soft tracks, enabling the discovery of thermal Higgsinos and similar dark matter candidates which constitute highly motivated scenarios for future collider searches.
Oliver Fischer, Baibhab Pattnaik, José Zurita
In this work, we discuss the possibility to test Heavy Neutral Leptons (HNLs) using $``$Cosmic Ray Beam Dump$"$ experiments. In analogy with terrestrial beam dump experiments, where a beam first hits a target and is then absorbed by a shield, we consider high-energy incident cosmic rays impinging on the Earth's atmosphere and then the Earth's surface. We focus here on HNL production from atmospherically produced kaon, pion and $D$-meson decays, and discuss the possible explanation of the appearing Cherenkov showers observed by the SHALON Cherenkov telescope and the ultra-high energy events detected by the neutrino experiment ANITA. We show that these observations can not be explained with a long-lived HNL, as the relevant parameter space is excluded by existing constraints. Then we propose two new experimental setups that are inspired by these experiments, namely a Cherenkov telescope pointing at the horizon and shielded by the mountain cliff at Mount Thor, and a geostationary satellite that observes part of the Sahara desert. We show that the Cherenkov telescope at Mount Thor can probe currently untested HNL parameter space for masses below the kaon mass. We also show that the geostationary satellite experiment can significantly increase the HNL parameter space coverage in the whole mass range from 10 MeV up to 2 GeV and test neutrino mixing $|U_{\alpha4}|^2$ down to $10^{-11}$ for masses around 300 MeV.
Geneviève Belanger, Aoife Bharucha, Benjamin Fuks, Andreas Goudelis, Jan Heisig, Adil Jueid, Andre Lessa, Kirtimaan A. Mohan, Giacomo Polesello, Priscilla Pani, Alexander Pukhov, Dipan Sengupta, José Zurita
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 $t τb ν$ 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.
Victor Martin Lozano, Rosa Maria Sanda Seoane, Jose Zurita
We introduce version 2.0 of $Z'$-explorer, a software tool which provides a simple, fast and user-friendly test of models with an extra $U(1)$ gauge boson ($Z'$) against experimental LHC results. The main novelty of the second version is the inclusion of missing energy searches, as the first version only included final states into SM particles. Hence $Z'$-explorer 2.0 is able to test dark matter models where the $Z'$ acts as an s-channel mediator between the Standard Model and the dark sector, a widespread benchmark employed by the ATLAS and CMS experimental collaborations. To this end, we perform here the first public reinterpretation of the most recent ATLAS mono-jet search with 139 fb$^{-1}$. In addition, the corresponding searches in the visible final states have also been updated. We illustrate the power of our code by re-obtaining public plots, and also showing novel results. In particular, we study the cases where the $Z'$ couples strongly to top quarks (top-philic), where dark matter couples with a mixture of vector and axial-vector couplings, and also perform a scan in the parameter space of a string inspired Stückelberg model. $Z'$-explorer 2.0 is publicly available on GitHub.
Daniel de Florian, José Zurita
We compute the threshold-resummed cross section for pseudo-scalar MSSM Higgs boson production by gluon fusion at hadron colliders. The calculation is performed at next-to-next-to leading logarithmic accuracy. We present results for both the LHC and Tevatron Run II. We analyze the factorization and renormalization scale dependence of the results, finding that after performing the resummation the corresponding cross section can be computed with an accuracy better than 10%.
José Zurita
The current searches at the LHC have set strong bounds on the masses of gluinos and the squarks of the first and second generation. At the same time, the hints of a Higgs boson at 125 GeV imply some degree of fine-tuning from radiative corrections to the lightest Higgs mass. Moreover, the rate into photons seems to be enhanced with respect to the SM, while the ZZ channel is reduced (albeit the SM is still compatible at the 2-sigma level). In this talk I will review how the previous issues can be addressed. If the stop is about a couple-hundred GeV, the SUSY still remains as a natural solution to the hierarchy problem. I will also show how the MSSM can accommodate a 125 GeV Higgs and also how extensions of the MSSM can alleviate the fine-tuning on the Higgs mass. I will also discuss recent literature, showing how both in the MSSM and its extensions one can find suitable ways to accommodate the measured Higgs rates into photons and Z bosons.
Andreas Papaefstathiou, Li Lin Yang, José Zurita
We consider Higgs boson pair production at the LHC in the $b \bar{b} W^+ W^-$ channel, with subsequent decay of the $W^+W^-$ pair into $\ell νj j$. Employing jet substructure and event reconstruction techniques, we show that strong evidence for this channel can be found at the 14 TeV LHC with 600 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity, thus improving the current reach for the production of Higgs boson pairs. This measurement will allow to probe the trilinear Higgs boson coupling $λ$.
Georges Azuelos, Monica D'Onofrio, Oliver Fischer, Jose Zurita
Electron-proton ($e^-p$) colliders are an ideal laboratory to study common features of electron and quarks with production via electroweak bosons, leptoquarks, multi-jet final states and very forward physics, due to their impressive pseudorapidity coverage. In addition to these physics cases, there exist a broad Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) program aimed at exploring the capabilities of the LHeC [1] and FCC-he [2] for several New Physics scenarios. Although their centre-of-mass energy is down with respect to a $pp$ collider by a factor of $\sqrt{E_p/E_e} \sim 10~(30)$ for the LHeC (FCC-he), they can be an invaluable tool to characterize BSM physics hints at $ee$ and $pp$ machines. The aim of this talk is to provide, on behalf of the BSM $e^-p$ Working Group, an overview of the aforementioned BSM program, by briefly summarizing the existing studies and reporting on the most recent progress. We expect that the ample scope in terms of NP models to be tested would enhance the synergies between the BSM and $e^-p$ communities
Marcela Carena, Eduardo Ponton, Jose Zurita
We consider the Higgs sector in extensions of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model by higher-dimension operators in the superpotential and the Kähler potential, in the context of Higgs searches at the LHC 7 TeV run. Such an effective field theory (EFT) approach, also referred to as BMSSM, allows for a model-independent description that may correspond to the combined effects of additional supersymmetric sectors, such as heavy singlets, triplets or gauge bosons, in which the supersymmetry breaking mass splittings can be treated as a perturbation. We consider the current LHC dataset, based on about $1-2 {\rm fb}^{-1}$ of data to set exclusion limits on a large class of BMSSM models. We also present projections for integrated luminosities of 5 and 15 fb$^{-1}$, assuming that the ATLAS and CMS collaborations will combine their results in each channel. Our study shows that the majority of the parameter space will be probed at the $2σ$ level with 15 fb$^{-1}$ of data. A non-observation of a Higgs boson with about 10 fb$^{-1}$ of data will point towards a Higgs SUSY spectrum with intermediate $\tan β$ ($\approx$ a few to 10) and a light SM-like Higgs with somewhat enhanced couplings to bottom and tau pairs. We define a number of BMSSM benchmark scenarios and analyze the possible exclusion/discovery channels and the projected required luminosity to probe them. We also discuss the results of the EFT framework for two specific models, one with a singlet superfield and one with SU(2)$_L$ triplets.
Rebeca Gonzalez Suarez, Baibhab Pattnaik, José Zurita
We examine the possibility to detect new SM-neutral vector bosons ($Z'$) that couple exclusively to leptons in the electron-positron mode of the Future Circular Collider (FCC-ee). Focusing on the $Z'$ production with a radiated photon search channel, we show that the FCC-ee can significantly extend the unprobed parameter space by increasing the exclusion in the coupling by one to two orders of magnitude in the kinematically allowed mass range (from 10 GeV to 365 GeV), with the leading sensitivity being driven by the muon channel. In doing so, it outperforms other proposed lepton collider options such as CLIC and ILC in this range of masses. Further, we discuss the possibility of improving the sensitivity of the FCC-ee to this model through the modification of the dilepton invariant mass resolution and the photon energy resolution. The impact of systematic uncertainties on the expected sensitivities is also studied.
Jordan Bernigaud, Monika Blanke, Ivo de Medeiros Varzielas, Jim Talbert, José Zurita
We consider the phenomenological signatures of Simplified Models of Flavourful Leptoquarks, whose Beyond-the-Standard Model (SM) couplings to fermion generations occur via textures that are well motivated from a broad class of ultraviolet flavour models (which we briefly review). We place particular emphasis on the study of the vector leptoquark $Δ_μ$ with assignments $\left({\bf{3}}, {\bf{1}}, 2/3 \right)$ under the SM's gauge symmetry, $SU(3)_C \times SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y$, which has the tantalising possibility of explaining both $\mathcal{R}_{K^{(\star)}}$ and $\mathcal{R}_{D^{(\star)}}$ anomalies. Upon performing global likelihood scans of the leptoquark's coupling parameter space, focusing in particular on models with tree-level couplings to a single charged lepton species, we then provide confidence intervals and benchmark points preferred by low(er)-energy flavour data. Finally, we use these constraints to further evaluate the (promising) Large Hadron Collider (LHC) detection prospects of pairs of $τ$-flavoured $Δ_μ$, through their distinct (a)symmetric decay channels. Namely, we consider direct third-generation leptoquark and jets plus missing-energy searches at the LHC, which we find to be complementary. Depending on the simplified model under consideration, the direct searches constrain the $Δ_μ$ mass up to 1500-1770 GeV when the branching fraction of $Δ_μ$ is entirely to third-generation quarks (but are significantly reduced with decreased branching ratios to the third generation), whereas the missing-energy searches constrain the mass up to 1150-1700 GeV while being largely insensitive to the third-generation branching fraction.