NLO electroweak corrections to Higgs boson production at hadron colliders

Results for the complete NLO electroweak corrections to Standard Model Higgs production via gluon fusion are included in the total cross section for hadronic collisions. Artificially large threshold effects are avoided working in the complex-mass scheme. The numerical impact at LHC (Tevatron) energies is explored for Higgs mass values up to 500 GeV (200 GeV). Assuming a complete factorization of the electroweak corrections, one finds a +5% shift with respect to the NNLO QCD cross section for a Higgs mass of 120 GeV both at the LHC and the Tevatron. Adopting two different factorization schemes for the electroweak effects, an estimate of the corresponding total theoretical uncertainty is computed.     

Two-loop threshold singularities,unstable particles and complex masses

The effect of threshold singularities induced by unstable particles on two-loop observables is investigated and it is shown how to cure them working in the complex-mass scheme. The impact on radiative corrections around thresholds is thoroughly analyzed and shown to be relevant for two selected LHC and ILC applications: Higgs production via gluon fusion and decay into two photons at two loops in the Standard Model. Concerning Higgs production, it is essential to understand possible sources of large corrections in addition to the well-known QCD effects. It is shown that NLO electroweak corrections can incongruently reach a 10% level around the WW vector-boson threshold without a complete implementation of the complex-mass scheme in the two-loop calculation.     

Experimental Prospects of the B_c Studies of the LHCb Experiment

The experimental prospects of the Bc studies of the LHCb experiment are discussed. Production rates of Bc mesons at different center-of-mass energies are estimated with the dedicated generator BCVEGPY. Theoretical estimates and experimental measurements of the Bc± inclusive production cross section at /s =1.96 TeV are compared. The possibilities of studying Bc production, Bc spectroscopy, Bc decays and CP violation in Bc decays in the LHCb experiment are evaluated.     

Top quark production from black holes at the CERN LHC

LHC is expected to be a top quark factory. If the fundamental Planck scale is near a TeV, then we also expect the top quarks to be produced from black holes via Hawking radiation. In this Letter we calculate the cross sections for top quark production from black holes at the LHC and compare it with the direct top quark cross section via parton fusion processes at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO). We find that the top quark production from black holes can be larger or smaller than the pQCD predictions at NNLO depending upon the Planck mass and black hole mass. Hence the observation of very high rates for massive particle production (top quarks, Higgs or supersymmetry) at the LHC may be an useful signature for black hole production.     

Probing light pseudoscalar particles using synchrotron light

The need for purely laboratory-based light pseudoscalar particles searches has been emphasized many times in the literature, since astrophysical bounds on these particles rely on several assumptions to calculate the flux produced in stellar plasmas. In this Letter we study the use of light from synchrotron accelerators as a source for a photon regeneration experiment also know as “light shining through a wall”. Such an experiment can significantly improve present limits on the pseudoscalar particle mass and the pseudoscalar–photon coupling constant obtained from laser experiments. This is possible even using a small number of powerful magnets (B∼10 T$B\sim 10\text{T}$), due to the large incident photon flux. On the other hand, the use of a broadband incident photon-beam instead of infrared or optical lasers allows a significant improvement in the mass reach of the experiment (it is possible to test masses up to 0.01 eV without a drop in sensitivity). Large, but still feasible, configurations can explore in a quite model-independent way a large part of the parameter space examined by solar searches and HB stars in globular clusters. Additionally, the proposal may be useful for testing string motivated effective theories containing light and weakly interacting particles.     

Identified hadron production at high transverse momenta in p+ p collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV in STAR

We report the transverse momentum (p _T ) distributions for identified charged pions, protons and anti-protons using events triggered by high deposit energy in the Barrel Electro-Magnetic Calorimeter (BEMC) from p+p collisions at  GeV. The spectra are measured around mid-rapidity (|y|<0.5) over the range of 3<p _T <15 GeV/c with particle identification (PID) by the relativistic ionization energy loss (rdE/dx) in the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) of the Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC (STAR). The charged pion, proton and anti-proton spectra at high p _T are compared with published results from minimum bias triggered events and the Next-Leading-Order perturbative quantum chromodynamic (NLO pQCD) calculations (DSS, KKP and AKK 2008). In addition, we present the particle ratios of π ⁻/π ⁺, , p/π ⁺ and in p+p collisions.     

Decay of Z boson into photon and unparticle

We study the decay of the standard model Z boson into unparticle plus a single photon through a one-loop process. As in the anomaly type decay, only the axial-vector part of the Z coupling matching with the vector unparticle and/or the vector part of the Z coupling matching with the axial-vector unparticle can give a nonzero contribution to the decay. We show that the photon spectrum terminates at the end point in accord with Yang's theorem. Existing data on single photon production at LEP I is used to constrain the unparticle sector.     

Direct photons at forward rapidities in high-energy pp collisions

We investigate direct photon production in pp collisions at the energies of RHIC, CDF and LHC, at different rapidities employing various color-dipole models. The cross section peaks at forward rapidities due to the Abelian dynamics of photon radiation. This opens new opportunities for measurement of direct photons at forward rapidities, where the background from radiative hadronic decays is strongly suppressed. Our model calculations show that photon production is sensitive to the gluon saturation effects, and strongly depends on the value of the anomalous dimension.     

The saturation scale and its x-dependence from Λ polarization studies

The transverse polarization of forward Λ   hyperons produced in high-energy p–A$p\text{–}A$ collisions is expected to display an extremum at a transverse momentum around the saturation scale. This was first observed within the context of the McLerran–Venugopalan model which has an x  -independent saturation scale. The extremum arises due to the kt$k_t$-odd nature of the polarization-dependent fragmentation function, which probes approximately the derivative of the dipole scattering amplitude. The amplitude changes most strongly around the saturation scale, resulting in a peak in the polarization. We find that the observation also extends to the more realistic case in which the saturation scale Qs$Q_s$ is x-dependent. Since a range of x   and therefore Qs$Q_s$ values is probed at a given transverse momentum and rapidity, this result is a priori not expected. Moreover, the measurement of Λ   polarization over a range of xF$x_F$ values actually provides a direct probe of the x-dependence of the saturation scale. This novel feature is demonstrated for typical LHC kinematics and for several phenomenological models of the dipole scattering amplitude. We show that although the measurement will be challenging, it may be feasible at LHC. The situation at RHIC is not favorable, because the peak will likely be at too low transverse momentum of the Λ to be a trustworthy measure of the saturation scale.     

Standard Model Higgs boson mass from inflation

We analyse one-loop radiative corrections to the inflationary potential in the theory, where inflation is driven by the Standard Model Higgs field. We show that inflation is possible provided the Higgs mass mH$m_H$ lies in the interval mmin<mH<mmax$m_{\min }<m_H<m_{\max }$, where mmin=[136.7+(mt−171.2)×1.95] GeV$m_{\min }=[136.7+(m_t-171.2)\times 1.95]\text{GeV}$, mmax=[184.5+(mt−171.2)×0.5] GeV$m_{\max }=[184.5+(m_t-171.2)\times 0.5]\text{GeV}$ and mt$m_t$ is the mass of the top quark. In the renormalization scheme associated with the Einstein frame the predictions of the spectral index of scalar fluctuations and of the tensor-to-scalar ratio practically do not depend on the Higgs mass within the admitted region and are equal to ns=0.97$n_s=0.97$ and r=0.0034$r=0.0034$ correspondingly.     

Generalized heat kernel coefficients

In hadronic collisions, the mini-jet cross section is formally divergent in the limit . We argue that this divergence is tamed by some effective colour correlation length scale of the hadron. A toy model of the hadronic structure is introduced, that allows an estimate of the screening effects, and especially their energy dependence.     

Running inflation in the Standard Model

An interacting scalar field with largish coupling to curvature can support a distinctive inflationary universe scenario. Previously this has been discussed for the Standard Model Higgs field, treated classically or in a leading log approximation. Here we investigate the quantum theory using renormalization group methods. In this model the running of both the effective Planck mass and the couplings is important. The cosmological predictions are consistent with existing WMAP5 data, with 0.967?ns?0.98$0.967?n_s?0.98$ (for Ne=60$N_e=60$) and negligible gravity waves. We find a relationship between the spectral index and the Higgs mass that is sharply varying for mh∼120–135 GeV$m_h\sim 120\text{–}135\text{GeV}$ (depending on the top mass); in the future, that relationship could be tested against data from PLANCK and LHC. We also comment briefly on how similar dynamics might arise in more general settings, and discuss our assumptions from the effective field theory point of view.     

The Standard Model Higgs boson as the inflaton

We argue that the Higgs boson of the Standard Model can lead to inflation and produce cosmological perturbations in accordance with observations. An essential requirement is the non-minimal coupling of the Higgs scalar field to gravity; no new particle besides already present in the electroweak theory is required.     

Experimental determination of the effective strong coupling constant

We present a first attempt to experimentally extract an effective strong coupling constant that we define to be a low Q²$Q^2$ extension of a previous definition by S. Brodsky et al. following an initial work of G. Grunberg. Using Jefferson Lab data and sum rules, we establish its Q²$Q^2$-behavior over the complete Q²$Q^2$-range. The result is compared to effective coupling constants inferred from different processes and to calculations based on Schwinger–Dyson equations, hadron spectroscopy or lattice QCD. Although the connection between the experimentally extracted effective coupling constants and the calculations is not established it is interesting to note that their behaviors are similar.     

Multi-jet events in the k T -factorisation scheme

A Markovian Monte Carlo algorithm for multi-parton production in the high-energy limit is proposed and the matching with unintegrated parton densities is discussed.