Physics prospects at the hadron colliders

I start with a brief introduction to the elementary particles and their interactions, Higgs mechanism and supersymmetry. The major physics objectives of the Tevatron and LHC colliders are identified. The status and prospects of the top quark, charged Higgs boson and superparticle searches are discussed in detail, while those of the neutral Higgs boson(s) are covered in a parallel talk by R.J.N. Phillips at this workshop.     

Supersymmetric Higgs boson pair production: Discovery prospects at hadron colliders

We study the potential of hadron colliders in the search for the pair production of neutral Higgs bosons in the framework of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. We perform a detailed signal and background analysis, working out efficient kinematical cuts for the extraction of the signal. The important role of squark loop contributions to the signal is re-emphasized. If the signal is sufficiently enhanced by these contributions, it could even be observable at the next run of the upgraded Tevatron collider in the near future. At the LHC the pair production of light and heavy Higgs bosons might be detectable simultaneously. Received: 23 February 2000 / Revised version: 18 April 2000 / Published online: 31 August 2000     

Quantum chromodynamics at hadron colliders

QCD is an extensively developed and tested gauge theory, which models the strong interactions in the high-energy regime. In this talk, I shall review the considerable progress which has been achieved in the last few years in the most actively studied QCD topics: Monte Carlo models, higher-order corrections, and parton distribution functions. Thanks to that, QCD in the high-energy regime is becoming more and more an essential precision tool kit to analyse Higgs and new physics scenarios at the LHC.     

Singlet-Higgs-Boson signals at hadron colliders

Many extensions of the Standard Model includeSU(2) _L ×U(1) _Y singlet higgs bosons,h ⁰, and also vector-like fermions which couple to it. The production and detection possibilities of such singlet neutral scalars at hadron colliders are considered for different scenarios of vectorlike fermions. We find that for some values of masses and couplings, detection at the CERN large hadron collider (LHC) appears to be a distinct possibility, while at the Fermilab Tevatron upgrade theh ⁰ might be observed only in very favourable circumstances.     

Exotic hadron bound state production at hadron colliders

The non-relativistic wave function framework is applied to study the production and decay of exotic hadrons, which can be effectively described as bound states of other hadrons. Employing the factorized formulation,with the help of event generators, we investigate the production of exotic hadrons in multiproduction processes at high energy hadron colliders. This study provides crucial information for the measurements of the relevant exotic hadrons.     

Odd tracks at hadron colliders

New physics that exhibits irregular tracks such as kinks, intermittent hits, or decay in flight may easily be missed at hadron colliders. We demonstrate this by studying viable models of light, O(10 GeV), colored particles that decay predominantly inside the tracker. Such particles can be produced at staggering rates, and yet, may not be identified or triggered on at the LHC, unless specifically searched for. In addition, the models we study provide an explanation for the original measurement of the anomalous charged track distribution by CDF. The presence of irregular tracks in these models reconcile that measurement with the subsequent reanalysis and the null results of ATLAS and CMS. Our study clearly illustrates the need for a comprehensive study of irregular tracks at the LHC.     

Multiplicity distributions at hadron colliders

We analyse an extended Nambu and Jona-Lasinio model in the context of the conventional RPA treatment and of a variational approximation which corresponds to the discretization of the continuum, allowing to describe mesonic resonances that are treated as compositeq \(\bar q\) systems. We study properties of pseudoscalar, scalar, vector and axial-vector excitations. The discretization technique simulates effects of confinement, replacing the exact continuum eigensolutions by a finite number of approximate normalizable eigensolutions.     

Top quark physics at hadron colliders

The top quark, discovered at the FERMILAB TEVATRON collider in 1995, is the heaviest known elementary particle. Today, ten years later, still relatively little is known about its properties. The strong and weak interactions of the top quark are not nearly as well studied as those of the other quarks and leptons. The strong interaction is most directly measured in top quark pair production. The weak interaction is measured in top quark decay and single top quark production, which remains thus far unobserved. The large top-quark mass of about 175 GeV/c² suggests that it may play a special role in nature. It behaves differently from all other quarks due to its large mass and its correspondingly short lifetime. The top quark decays before it hadronises, passing its spin information on to its decay products. Therefore, it is possible to measure observables that depend on the top quark spin, providing a unique environment for tests of the Standard Model and for searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. This report summarises the latest measurements and studies of top quark properties and rare decays from the TEVATRON in Run II. With more than 1 fb^-1 of luminosity delivered to each experiment, CDF and DO, top quark physics at the TEVATRON is at a turning point from first studies to precision measurements with sensitivity to new physics. An outlook onto top quark physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, planned to begin operation in the year 2007, is also given.     

Bi-Event Subtraction Technique at hadron colliders

We propose the Bi-Event Subtraction Technique (BEST) as a method of modeling and subtracting large portions of the combinatoric background during reconstruction of particle decay chains at hadron colliders. The combinatoric background arises when it is impossible to know experimentally which observed particles come from the decay chain of interest. The background shape can be modeled by combining observed particles from different collision events and be subtracted away, greatly reducing the overall background. This idea has been demonstrated in various experiments in the past. We generalize it by showing how to apply BEST multiple times in a row to fully reconstruct a cascade decay. We show the power of BEST with two simulated examples of its application towards reconstruction of the top quark and a supersymmetric decay chain at the Large Hadron Collider.     

Multi-parton cross sections at hadron colliders

We present an alternative method to calculate cross sections for multi-parton scattering processes in the standard model at leading order. The helicity amplitudes are computed using recursion relations in the number of particles, based on the Dyson–Schwinger equations, whereas the summation over colour and helicity configurations is performed by Monte Carlo methods. The computational cost of our algorithm grows asymptotically as 3ⁿ, where n is the number of particles involved in the process, as opposed to the n!-growth of the Feynman diagram approach. Typical results for the total cross section, the differential distributions of the invariant masses and the transverse momenta of the partons are presented and cross checked by explicit summation over colours.     

Charged Higgs production at hadron colliders

We study the production and decay of charged Higgs bosons,H ^±, at TEVATRON and SSC energies as a function of the top massm _t and theH ^± massm _H . We give the cross sections for events arising from bothH ^±→τν andtb decays, together with those of the competing background processes. In particular, form _t >m _H we studyH ^± W ^? andW ⁺ W ^? production and thet→bτν decay.     

Introduction to quantum chromodynamics at hadron colliders

A basic introduction to the application of QCD at hadron colliders is presented. I briefly review the phenomenological and theoretical origins of QCD, and then discuss factorization and infrared safety, parton distributions, the computation of hard scattering amplitudes and applications of perturbative QCD.     

Signatures for Majorana neutrinos at hadron colliders

The Majorana nature of neutrinos may only be experimentally verified via lepton-number violating processes involving charged leptons. We explore the Delta L = 2 like-sign dilepton production at hadron colliders to search for signals of Majorana neutrinos. We find significant sensitivity for resonant production of a Majorana neutrino in the mass range of 10-80 GeV at the current run of the Tevatron with 2 fb(-1) integrated luminosity and in the range of 10-400 GeV at the CERN LHC with 100 fb(-1).