Search for heavy quasistable leptons

Negative results of a search for heavy quasistable charged leptons at the IHEP accelerator are reported. For the selection of heavy leptons a system of scintillation and gas ?erenkov counters was used. The upper limit estimations of the differential cross sections for heavy lepton production in pN collisions at E_p = 70 GeV are, for example, d²σ/dpω (p = 30 GeV/c, θ = 2 mrad, 1 ? M_λ ? 4.8 GeV) = 4.10^?38 cm²/sr · GeV. The results of the present work, together with the data on muon pair production in nucleon-nucleon interactions, show that there are no heavy charged leptons with masses from 0.55 GeV (τ_λ > 7 · 10^?10 sec) up to 4.5 GeV (τ_λ > 3 · 10^?8 sec).     

Search for charged Higgs bosons at LEP 2

A search for pair produced charged Higgs bosons has been performed in the high energy data collected by DELPHI at LEP with , 172 and 183 GeV. The analysis uses the τντν, and final states and a combination of event shape variables, di-jet masses and jet flavour tagging for the separation of a possible signal from the dominant W⁺W⁻ and QCD backgrounds. The number of selected events has been found to be compatible with the expected background. The lower excluded value of the H^± mass obtained by varying the H^±→ hadrons decay branching ratio has been found to be 56.3 GeV/c².     

Search for composite and exotic fermions at LEP 2

A search for unstable heavy fermions with the DELPHI detector at LEP is reported. Sequential and non-canonical leptons, as well as excited leptons and quarks, are considered. The data analysed correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 48 pb at an centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV and about 20 pb equally shared between the centre-of-mass energies of 172 GeV and 161 GeV. The search for pair-produced new leptons establishes 95% confidence level mass limits in the region between 70 GeV/ and 90 GeV/, depending on the channel. The search for singly produced excited leptons and quarks establishes upper limits on the ratio of the coupling of the excited fermion to its mass () as a function of the mass. Received: 30 October 1998 / Published online: 1 March 1999     

Search for neutral heavy leptons produced in Z decays

Weak isosinglet Neutral Heavy Leptons (v _m) have been searched for using data collected by the DELPHI detector corresponding to 3.3 × 10⁶ hadronic Z⁰ decays at LEP1. Four separate searches have been performed, for short-lived v _m production giving monojet or acollinear jet topologies, and for long-lived v _m giving detectable secondary vertices or calorimeter clusters. No indication of the existence of these particles has been found, leading to an upper limit for the branching ratio BR(Z⁰ → v _m ?) of about 1.3 × 10^?6 at 95% confidence level for v _m masses between 3.5 and 50 GeV/c². Outside this range the limit weakens rapidly with the v _m mass. The results are also interpreted in terms of limits for the single production of excited neutrinos.     

Search for Higgs Bosons at LEP2 and Hadron Colliders

The search for the Higgs boson was one of the most relevant issues of the final years of LEP running at high energies. An excess of 3σ beyond the background expectation has been found, consistent with the production of the Higgs boson with a mass near 115 GeV/c². At the upgraded TeVatron and at LHC the search for the Higgs boson will continue. At TeVatron Higgs bosons can be detected with masses up to 180 GeV with an assumed total integrated luminosity of 20 fb^—1. LHC has the potential to discover the Higgs boson in many different decay channels for Higgs masses up to 1 TeV. It will be possible to measure Higgs boson parameters, such as mass, width, and couplings to fermions and bosons. The results from Higgs searches at LEP2 and the possibilities for searches at hadron colliders will be reviewed.     

Looking for the LEP at LEP. The excited neutrino scenario

It is suggested to use LEP for a systematic search of excited neutrinos. These are expected to be the lightest excited particles (LEPs) in models of substructure and therefore could be the first direct signal of compositeness in the fermionic sector. Their signatures and production are presented. It is shown how one can extract their masses and couplings or else set limits on these parameters in case of a negative search. A comparison with heavy sequential neutrinos and heavy neutrals emanating from theories of grand unification and supersymmetry is briefly made.     

Search for heavy neutral leptons in e+e− annihilations at 29 GeV

A search was made in 29 GeV e⁺e^? annihilations for heavy, neutral leptons decaying to e^±X^?(ν), where X is a muon or charged meson. Six events with isolated e^±X^? pairs were found for an intergrated luminosity of 106 pb^?1. The expected background is 5.5 ± 2.2 events. Limits on $\text{σ}\text{s}\text{?}\text{B}$ depend on mass and range from 8 to 20 × 10^?5 nb.     

Search for nearly mass-degenerate charginos and neutralinos at LEP

A search was performed for charginos with masses close to the mass of the lightest neutralino in collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 189-209 GeV recorded by the OPAL detector at LEP. Events were selected if they had an observed high-energy photon from initial state radiation, reducing the dominant background from two-photon scattering to a negligible level. No significant excess over Standard Model expectations has been observed in the analysed data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 570 pb^-1. Upper limits were derived on the chargino pair-production cross-section, and lower limits on the chargino mass were derived in the context of the Minimal Supersymmetric Extension of the Standard Model for the gravity- and anomaly-mediated Supersymmetry breaking scenarios.Received: 26 July 2002, Published online: 11 July 2003     

Search for neutral MSSM Higgs bosons at LEP

The four LEP collaborations, ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL, have searched for the neutral Higgs bosons which are predicted by the Minimal Supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). The data of the four collaborations are statistically combined and examined for their consistency with the background hypothesis and with a possible Higgs boson signal. The combined LEP data show no significant excess of events which would indicate the production of Higgs bosons. The search results are used to set upper bounds on the cross-sections of various Higgs-like event topologies. The results are interpreted within the MSSM in a number of “benchmark” models, including CP-conserving and CP-violating scenarios. These interpretations lead in all cases to large exclusions in the MSSM parameter space. Absolute limits are set on the parameter cosβ and, in some scenarios, on the masses of neutral Higgs bosons.     

Search for evidence of compositeness at LEP I

Extensive searches for evidence of compositeness of quarks and leptons have been made in the complete set of ALEPH data from LEP running at the Z peak. These include searches for radiative and weak decays of excited fermions, produced either in pairs or singly, and a scalar partner of the Z. Coupling and branching ratio limits deduced from these searches are presented. Received: 6 February 1998 / Published online: 2 July 1998     

Search for R-parity violating decays of sfermions at LEP

A search for pair-produced sfermions, the scalar supersymmetric partners of the Standard Model fermions, under the assumption that R-parity is not conserved has been performed using data collected with the OPAL detector at LEP. The data samples analysed correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 610 pb^-1 collected at centre-of-mass energies of GeV. An important consequence of R-parity violation is that the lightest supersymmetric particle is expected to be unstable. Searches for R-parity violating decays of charged sleptons, sneutrinos and squarks have been performed under the assumptions that the lightest supersymmetric particle decays promptly and that only one of the R-parity violating couplings is dominant for each of the decay modes considered. Such processes would yield final states consisting of leptons, jets, or both, with or without missing energy. No significant signal-like excess of events has been observed with respect to the Standard Model expectations. Limits on the production cross-sections of sfermions in R-parity violating scenarios are obtained. Constraints on the supersymmetric particle masses are also presented in an R-parity violating framework analogous to the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.Received: 25 June 2003, Published online: 13 February 2004     

Search for excited leptons in e+e- collisions at \sqrt{s}=189–209 GeV

A search for excited lepton production in e⁺e^- collisions was performed using the data collected by the DELPHI detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies ranging from 189 GeV to 209 GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 600 pb^-1. No evidence for excited lepton production was found. In searches for pair-produced excited leptons, lower mass limits were established in the range 94–103 GeV/c², depending on the channel and model assumptions. In searches for singly-produced excited leptons, upper limits on the parameter f/Λ were established as a function of the mass.     

Search for the standard model Higgs boson at the LEP2 collider near

During 1997 the ALEPH experiment at LEP gathered 57 pb⁻¹ of data at centre-of-mass energies near 183 GeV. These data are used to look for possible signals from the production of the Standard Model Higgs boson in the reaction e⁺e⁻→HZ. No evidence of a signal is found in the data; seven events are selected, in agreement with the expectation of 7.2 events from background processes. This observation results in an improved lower limit on the mass of the Higgs boson: m_H>87.9 GeV/c² at 95% confidence level.     

Search for fermiophobic Higgs bosons in final states with photons at LEP 2

Higgs boson production with subsequent decay to photons was searched for in the data collected by the DELPHI detector at centre-of-mass energies between 183 GeV and 209 GeV, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of nearly 650 pb^-1. No evidence for a signal was found, and limits were set on h ⁰ Z ⁰ and h ⁰ A ⁰ production with h ⁰ decay to photons. These results were used to exclude regions in the parameter space of fermiophobic scenarios of Two Higgs Doublet Models.