Alexandra Carvalho, Stefano Moretti, Dermot O'Brien, Luca Panizzi, Hugo Prager
Vector-Like Quarks (VLQs) are predicted by several theoretical scenarios of new physics and, having colour quantum numbers, can copiously be produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), so long that their mass is in the testable kinematic regime of such a machine. While it would be convenient to assume that such objects are narrow and can be treated in the so-called Narrow Width Approximation (NWA), this is not always possible, owing to the fact that couplings and particle content of such new physics scenarios are not generally constrained, so that a large value of the former and/or a large variety of VLQ decay channels into the latter can contribute to generate a large decay width for such extra quarks. We have addressed here the issue of how best to tackle in LHC analysis the presence of large (and model-dependent) interference effects between different VLQ production and decay channels as well as between these and the corresponding irreducible background. We have confined ourselves to the case of single production of VLQs, which is rapidly becoming a channel of choice in experimental searches owing to the ever increasing limits on their mass, in turn depleting the yield of the historically well-established double production channel. Indeed, this poses a further challenge, as the former is model-dependent while the latter is essentially not. Despite these conditions, we show here that an efficient approach is possible, which retains to a large extent a degree of model independence in phenomenological studies of such VLQ dynamics at the LHC.
Giacomo Cacciapaglia, Alexandra Carvalho, Aldo Deandrea, Thomas Flacke, Benjamin Fuks, Devdatta Majumder, Luca Panizzi, Hua-Sheng Shao
We propose simulation strategies for single production of third generation vector-like quarks at the LHC, implementing next-to-leading-order corrections in QCD and studying in detail their effect on cross sections and differential distributions. We also investigate the differences and the relative incertitudes induced by the use of the Four-Flavour Number Scheme ${\it versus}$ the Five-Flavour Number Scheme. As a phenomenological illustration, we concentrate on the production of vector-like quarks coupling to the third generation of the Standard Model in association with a jet and assuming standard couplings to gauge and Higgs bosons.
Alexander Belyaev, Aldo Deandrea, Stefano Moretti, Luca Panizzi, Douglas A. Ross, Nakorn Thongyoi
We present a new class of Dark Matter (DM) models wherein the Standard Model (SM) is extended with a new $SU(2)_D$ dark gauge sector. In this framework the stability of DM is provided by the conservation of a $U(1)$ global symmetry, which upon appropriate charge assignments for the $SU(2)_D$ multiplets, effectively leads to a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry subgroup. The origin of the global $U(1)$ symmetry which ensures the stability of DM can be justified in the form of a dark EW sector or through an underlying composite structure. The key ingredient of the model is a Vector-Like (VL) fermion doublet of $SU(2)_D$ , the members of which are singlets of the SM Electro-Weak (EW) gauge group, which mediate the interactions between the dark sector and the SM, via new Yukawa interactions. This class of models, labelled as Fermion Portal Vector DM (FPVDM), allows multiple realisations, depending on the properties of the the VL partner and the scalar potential. After spontaneous breaking of the $SU(2)_D$ symmetry via a new scalar doublet, the ensuing massive vector bosons with non-zero dark-isospin are DM candidates. The new class of FPVDM models suggested here has numerous phenomenological implications for collider and non-collider studies. As a practical example, we discuss here in detail a realisation involving a VL top partner assuming no mixing between the two physical scalars of the theory, the SM Higgs boson and its counterpart in the dark sector. We thus provide bounds on this setup from both collider and astroparticle observables.
Giacomo Cacciapaglia, Aldo Deandrea, Luca Panizzi, Stephane Perries, Viola Sordini
We study the phenomenology at the Large Hadron Collider of an exotic vector-like quark X with charge +5/3. We relax the assumption of a 100% branching into W t and allow for an arbitrary rate into W plus light quarks, thus covering all possible scenarios. Sizeable decays into light quarks can be achieved, for instance, in a model where the X quark is embedded in a doublet with hypercharge 7/6, which also contains a t' quark. We study the bounds on the parameter space of this model, and perform a detailed simulation of the X pair production and decays. We show that the final state with W t W q, where q=u or c, contributes to the same sign dilepton searches, and that the reach can be improved with alternative cuts optimised on such final state.
Giacomo Cacciapaglia, Aldo Deandrea, Naveen Gaur, Daisuke Harada, Yasuhiro Okada, Luca Panizzi
The ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the LHC have performed analyses on the existing data sets, studying the case of one vector-like fermion or multiplet coupling to the standard model Yukawa sector. In the near future, with more data available, these experimental collaborations will start to investigate more realistic cases. The presence of more than one extra vector-like multiplet is indeed a common situation in many extensions of the standard model. The interplay of these vector-like multiplet between precision electroweak bounds, flavour and collider phenomenology is a important question in view of establishing bounds or for the discovery of physics beyond the standard model. In this work we study the phenomenological consequences of the presence of two vector-like multiplets. We analyse the constraints on such scenarios from tree-level data and oblique corrections for the case of mixing to each of the SM generations. In the present work, we limit to scenarios with two top-like partners and no mixing in the down-sector.
Stefano Moretti, Dermot O'Brien, Luca Panizzi, Hugo Prager
This paper explores the effects of both finite width and interference (with background) in the pair production and decay of extra heavy quarks with charge 2/3 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This dynamics is normally ignored in standard experimental searches and we assess herein the regions of validity of current approaches, also evaluating the performances of a set of current experimental analyses at 8 and 13 TeV for the deterimination of the excluded regions in the $(M_{\rm VLQ},Γ_{\rm VLQ})$ plane, $M_{\rm VLQ}$ being the mass of the VLQ and $Γ_{\rm VLQ}$ its width. Further, we discuss the configurations of masses, widths and couplings where the latter breaks down.
Chiara Arina, Benjamin Fuks, Jan Heisig, Michael Krämer, Luca Mantani, Luca Panizzi
We analyse six classes of t-channel dark matter simplified models in which the Standard Model field content is extended by a coloured mediator and a dark matter state. The two new states are enforced to be odd under a new parity, while all Standard Model fields are taken even so that dark matter stability is guaranteed. We study several possibilities for the spin of the new particles and the self-conjugate property of the dark matter, and we focus on model configurations in which the dark matter couples to the right-handed up quark for simplicity. We investigate how the parameter spaces of the six models can be constrained by current and future cosmological, astrophysical and collider searches, and we highlight the strong complementary between those probes. Our results demonstrate that scenarios featuring a complex (non self-conjugate) dark matter field are excluded by cosmology and astrophysics alone, the only possibility to avoid these bounds being to invoke very weak couplings and mechanisms such as conversion-driven freeze-out. For models with self-conjugate dark matter, mediator and dark matter masses are pushed deep into the TeV regime, with the lower limits on the mediator mass reaching 3 to 4 TeV and those on the dark matter mass 1 to 2 TeV. In large parts of the parameter space these strong bounds are driven by same-sign mediator pair production, a channel so far not considered in the experimental analyses embedding t-channel dark matter model interpretations.
Stefano Moretti, Luca Panizzi, Jörgen Sjölin, Harri Waltari
We study resonant production of pairs of Standard Model (SM)-like Higgs bosons, in the presence of new neutral Higgs states together with new coloured scalars (stops or sbottoms) in loops within the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric SM (NMSSM). This is used as a test case to prove that the Large Hadron Collider has sensitivity to a variety of effects stemming from interferences between resonant (heavy) Higgs diagrams and/or among these and non-resonant topologies involving loops of both tops and stops. These effects can alter significantly the naive description of individual $s$-channel Breit-Wigner resonances, leading to distortions of the latter which, on the one hand, may mask their presence but, on the other hand, could enable one to extract features of the underlying new physics scenario. This last aspect is made possible through a decomposition of the $gg\to hh$ signal process into all its amplitude components, each of which has a well-defined coupling structure. Ultimately, such effects can be traced back to the relevant Feynman diagrams and can enable a detailed interpretation of this process. To illustrate this, we introduce various Benchmark Points that exhibit potentially observable features during the current and/or upcoming runs of the LHC in one or more of the three customary di-Higgs decay channels: $b\bar bb\bar b$, $b\bar b τ^+τ^-$ and $b\bar bγγ$.
Stefano Moretti, Luca Panizzi, Jörgen Sjölin, Harri Waltari
We present a novel approach to the study of di-Higgs production via gluon-gluon fusion at the LHC. The relevant Feynman diagrams involving two Standard Model-like Higgs bosons $hh$ are computed within a simplified model approach that enables one to interpret possible signals of new physics in a model-independent way as well as to map these onto specific theories. This is possible thanks to a decomposition of such a signal process into all its squared amplitudes and their relative interferences, each of which has a well-defined coupling structure. We illustrate the power of this procedure for the case of both a minimal and next-to-minimal representation of Supersymmetry, for which the new physics effects are due to top squarks entering the loops of $gg\to hh$. The squarks yield both a change of the integrated cross section and peculiar kinematic features in its differential distributions with respect to the Standard Model. These effects can in turn be traced back to the relevant diagrammatic and coupling structures and allow for a detailed analysis of the process. In order to do so, we perform systematic scans of the parameter spaces of such new physics scenarios and identify benchmark points which exhibit potentially observable features during the current and upcoming runs of the LHC.
Daniele Barducci, Alexander Belyaev, Jacob Blamey, Stefano Moretti, Luca Panizzi, Hugo Prager
We propose a model independent approach for the analysis of interference effects in the process of QCD pair production of new heavy quarks of different species that decay into Standard Model particles, including decays via flavour changing neutral currents. By adopting as ansatz a simple analytical formula we show that one can accurately describe the interference between two different such particles pairs leading to the same final state using information about masses, total widths and couplings. A study of the effects on differential distributions is also performed showing that, when interference plays a relevant role, the distributions of the full process can be obtained by a simple rescaling of the distributions of either quark contributing to the interference term. We also present the range of validity of the analytical expression that we have found.
Alexander Belyaev, Luca Panizzi, Alexander Pukhov, Marc Thomas
We have studied the complete set of dimension 5 and dimension 6 effective operators involving the interaction of scalar, fermion and vector Dark Matter (DM) with SM quarks and gluons, to explore the possibility to distinguish these operators and characterise the spin of DM at the LHC. We have found that three factors - the effective dimension of the operator, the structure of the SM part of the operator and the parton densities of the SM particles connected to the operator - uniquely define the shape of the (unobservable) invariant mass distribution of the DM pair and, consequently, the shape of the (observable) MET distribution related to it. Using $χ^2$ analysis, we found that at the LHC, with a luminosity of 300 fb$^{-1}$, certain classes of EFT operators can be distinguished from each other. Hence, since DM spin is partly correlated with the factors defining the shape of MET, the LHC can potentially shed a light also on DM spin. We have also observed a drastic difference in the efficiencies (up to two orders of magnitude) for large MET cuts scenarios with different DM spin, thus indicating that the DM discovery potential strongly depends on it. The study we perform here can be applied more generally than within the EFT paradigm, where the DM mediator is not produced on-the-mass-shell, such as the case of t-channel mediator or mediator with mass below $2M_{DM}$, where the invariant mass of the DM pair is not fixed.
Samarth Jain, Fabrizio Margaroli, Stefano Moretti, Luca Panizzi
We show how an excess in the diphoton channel can be the effect of neither a resonance nor an end-point in a cascade decay, but rather of a threshold for virtual production of a pair of extra quarks, each with half of peak invariant mass, onsetting in both the $gg$-initiated production and the $γγ$-induced decay of an off-shell $Z$ boson. For our analysis we consider as paradigmatic example the 750 GeV excess previously seen at the end of 2015 with the Run 2 data of the LHC but not confirmed with 2016 data.
Stefano Moretti, Dermot O'Brien, Luca Panizzi, Hugo Prager
This paper explores the effects of finite width in processes of pair production of an extra heavy quark with charge 2/3 (top partner) and its subsequent decay into a bosonic Dark Matter (DM) candidate -- either scalar or vector -- and SM up-type quarks at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This dynamics has been ignored so far in standard experimental searches of heavy quarks decaying to DM and we assess herein the regions of validity of current approaches, based on the assumption that the extra quarks have a narrow width. Further, we discuss the configurations of masses, widths and couplings where the latter breaks down.
Tanja Geib, Stephen F. King, Alexander Merle, Jose Miguel No, Luca Panizzi
We discuss how the intensity and the energy frontiers provide complementary constraints within a minimal model of neutrino mass involving just one new field beyond the Standard Model at accessible energy, namely a doubly charged scalar $S^{++}$ and its antiparticle $S^{--}$. In particular we focus on the complementarity between high-energy LHC searches and low-energy probes such as lepton flavor violation. Our setting is a prime example of how high- and low-energy physics can cross-fertilize each other.
Yasuhiro Okada, Luca Panizzi
This work provides an overview on the current status of phenomenology and searches for heavy vector-like quarks, which are predicted in many models of new physics beyond the Standard Model. Searches at Tevatron and at the LHC, here listed and shortly described, have not found any evidence for new heavy fermionic states (either chiral or vector-like), and have therefore posed strong bounds on their masses: depending on specific assumptions on the interactions and on the observed final state, vector-like quarks with masses up to roughly 400-600 GeV have been excluded by all experiments. In order to be as simple and model-independent as possible, the chosen framework for the phenomenological analysis is an effective model with the addition of a vector-like quark representation (singlet, doublet or triplet under SU(2)) which couples through Yukawa interactions with all SM families. The relevance of different observables for the determination of bounds on mixing parameters is then discussed and a complete overview of possible two-body final states for every vector-like quark is provided, including their subsequent decay into SM particles. A list and short description of phenomenological analyses present in literature is also provided for reference purposes.
Andreas Crivellin, Fiona Kirk, Claudio Andrea Manzari, Luca Panizzi
In recent years, evidence for lepton flavour universality violation beyond the Standard Model has been accumulated. In this context, a singly charged $SU(2)_L$ singlet scalar ($φ^\pm$) is very interesting, as it can only have flavour off-diagonal couplings to neutrinos and charged leptons, therefore necessarily violating lepton flavour (universality). In fact, it gives a (necessarily constructive) tree-level effect in $\ell\to\ell^\primeνν$ processes, while contributing to charged lepton flavour violating only at the loop-level. Therefore, it can provide a common explanation of the hints for new physics in $τ\toμνν/τ(μ)\to eνν$ and of the Cabibbo Angle Anomaly. Such an explanation predicts ${\rm Br }[τ\to eγ]$ to be of the order of a few times $10^{-11}$ while ${ \rm Br}[τ\to eμμ]$ can be of the order of $10^{-9}$ for order one couplings and therefore in the reach of forthcoming experiments. Furthermore, we derive a {novel} coupling-independent lower limit on the scalar mass of $\approx 200\,$GeV by recasting LHC slepton searches. In the scenario preferred by low energy precision data, the lower limit is even strengthened to $\approx300\,$GeV, showing the complementary between LHC searches and flavour observables. Furthermore, we point out that this model can be tested by reinterpreting DM mono-photon searches at future $e^+e^-$ colliders.
Nico Benincasa, Luigi Delle Rose, Luca Panizzi, Maimoona Razzaq, Savio Urzetta
This study explores the parameter space of a minimal extension of the Standard Model with a non-abelian $SU(2)$ group, in which the gauge bosons are stable and acquire mass through a mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking involving a new scalar doublet which interacts with the Higgs boson through a quartic coupling. The exploration aims to assess whether it is possible to obtain a first-order phase transition while ensuring that the gauge bosons are viable dark matter candidates. Theoretical, astrophysical and collider bounds are considered. The results are then tested against the sensitivity of future experiments for the detection of gravitational wave signals.
Avik Banerjee, Elin Bergeaas Kuutmann, Venugopal Ellajosyula, Rikard Enberg, Gabriele Ferretti, Luca Panizzi
Experimental searches for vector-like quarks have until now only considered their decays into Standard Model particles. However, various new physics scenarios predict additional scalars, so that these vector-like quarks can decay to new channels. These new channels reduce the branching ratios into Standard Model final states, significantly affecting current mass bounds. In this article, we quantitatively assess the relevance and observability of single and pair production processes of vector-like quarks, followed by decays into both standard and exotic final states. We highlight the importance of large widths and the relative interaction strengths with Standard Model particles and new scalars. Then, we review the post-Moriond 2024 status of these models in light of available LHC data and discuss potential future strategies to enhance the scope of vector-like quark searches.
Alexander Belyaev, Luca Panizzi, Nakorn Thongyoi, Franz Wilhelm
We present a comprehensive study of the Muonic Portal to Vector Dark Matter (MPVDM), a minimal yet phenomenologically rich extension of the Standard Model featuring a new SU(2)_D gauge symmetry and vector-like muons. In this framework the dark sector interacts with the Standard Model only through these heavy leptons, linking dark matter and the muon sector. The MPVDM can simultaneously explain the observed relic abundance and the muon anomalous magnetic moment a_mu under both the "tension" and "compatibility" scenarios motivated by recent (g-2)_mu results. A key finding is a generic off-resonance velocity suppression mechanism that allows light (<1 GeV) vector dark matter to evade CMB limits near 2*m_DM ~ m_H_D. Unlike scenarios based on ultra narrow Breit-Wigner resonances and early kinetic decoupling, the suppression follows from the temperature evolution of the annihilation cross section in a moderately detuned near resonant regime, where being 10-20 percent below resonance gives the required CMB era suppression without fine tuning. A five dimensional parameter scan shows that the tension scenario requires sub GeV dark matter with g_D ~ 1e-3 and TeV scale vector like muons, while the compatibility scenario admits a broad mass range up to multi TeV. Recasting ATLAS and CMS searches for mu+ mu- + E_T^miss sets a lower bound of about 850 GeV on vector like muons. The MPVDM thus offers a unified, predictive, and experimentally accessible framework linking dark matter and muon physics across cosmological and collider frontiers.
Giacomo Cacciapaglia, Aldo Deandrea, Naveen Gaur, Daisuke Harada, Yasuhiro Okada, Luca Panizzi
We consider the phenomenology at the Large Hadron Collider of new heavy vector-like quarks which couple mainly to the third generation quarks via Yukawa interactions, with special emphasis on non-standard doublet representations which are less constrained from present data. We also discuss in detail the flavour limits at tree level and loop level and implications of a generalised CKM mixing matrix to these cases.