Searches for R-parity violating decays of Gauginos at 183 GeV at LEP

Searches for pair-produced charginos and neutralinos with R-parity violating decays have been performed using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 56 pb collected with the OPAL detector at LEP at a centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV. An important consequence of R-parity violation is that the lightest supersymmetric particle becomes unstable. The searches have been performed under the assumptions that the lightest supersymmetric particle promptly decays and that only one R-parity violating coupling is dominant for each of the decay modes considered. Such processes would yield multiple leptons, jets plus leptons, or multiple jets with or without significant missing energy in the final state. No excess of such events above Standard Model backgrounds has been observed. Limits are presented on the production cross-sections of gauginos in R-parity violating scenarios. Limits are also presented in the framework of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Received: 14 December 1998 / Published online: 14 October 1999     

Search for R-parity violating decays of scalar fermions at LEP

A search for pair produced scalar fermions with couplings that violate R-parity has been performed using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 56 pb at a centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV collected with the OPAL detector at LEP. An important consequence of R-parity breaking interactions is that the lightest supersymmetric particle is expected to be unstable. Searches for R-parity violating decays of charged sleptons, sneutrinos and stop quarks 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 multi-leptons, jets plus leptons or multi-jets, with or without missing energy, in the final state. No significant excess of such events has been observed. Limits on the production cross-sections of scalar fermions in R-parity violating scenarios are obtained. Mass exclusion regions are also presented in the framework of the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Received: 16 March 1999 / Published online: 14 October 1999     

The measurement of $\alpha_s$ from event shapes with the DELPHI detector at the highest LEP energies

Searches for pair-production of supersymmetric particles under the assumption of non-conservation of R-parity with a dominant LL or term have been performed using the data collected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP in e ⁺ e^- collisions at centre-of-mass energies from 192 up to 208 GeV. No excess of data above Standard Model expectations was observed. The results were used to constrain the MSSM parameter space and to derive limits on the masses of supersymmetric particles.Received: 4 March 2004, Revised: 5 May 2004, Published online: 23 June 2004An Erratum to this article can be found at     

Testing the mechanism for the LSP stability at the LHC

The lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) is a natural candidate for the cold dark matter of the universe. In this Letter we discuss how to test the mechanism responsible for the LSP stability at the LHC. We note that if R-parity is conserved dynamically one should expect a Higgs boson which decays mainly into two right-handed neutrinos (a “leptonic” Higgs) or into two sfermions. The first case could exhibit spectacular lepton number violating signals with four secondary vertices due to the long-lived nature of right-handed neutrinos. These signals, together with the standard channels for the discovery of SUSY, could help to establish the underlying theory at the TeV scale.     

Search for squark production in R-parity violating supersymmetry at HERA

A search for squarks in R-parity violating supersymmetry is performed in collisions at HERA using the H1 detector. The data were taken at a centre-of-mass energy of 319 GeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 64.3 pb^-1 for e ⁺ p collisions and 13.5 pb^-1 for e ^- p collisions. The resonant production of squarks via a Yukawa coupling is considered, taking into account direct and indirect R-parity violating decay modes. No evidence for squark production is found in the multi-lepton and multi-jet final state topologies investigated. Mass dependent limits on are obtained in the framework of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. In addition, the results are interpreted in terms of constraints on the parameters of the minimal Supergravity model. At the confidence level squarks of all flavours with masses up to 275 GeV are excluded in a large part of the parameter space for a Yukawa coupling of electromagnetic strength. For a coupling strength 100 times smaller, masses up to 220 GeV can be ruled out.Received: 16 March 2004, Revised: 24 May 2004, Published online: 30 July 2004     

Detecting metastable staus and gravitinos at the ILC

A study of various SUSY scenarios is presented in which the lightest supersymmetric particle is the gravitino and the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle is a scalar tau with lifetimes ranging from seconds to years. Gravitinos are interesting dark matter candidates which can be produced in decays of heavier sparticles at the International Linear Collider (ILC), but remain undetected in direct searches of astrophysical experiments. We investigate the detection and measurement of metastable staus, which may be copiously produced at the ILC either directly or via cascade decays. A proper choice of the experimental conditions will allow one to collect large samples of s coming to rest in the calorimeters of the ILC detector and to study the subsequent decays . Detailed simulations show that the properties of the stau and the gravitino, such as mass and lifetime and mass, can be accurately determined at a future ILC and may provide direct access to the gravitational coupling, respectively Planck scale.     

Search for charged Higgs bosons at LEP in general two Higgs doublet models

A search for pair-produced charged Higgs bosons was performed in the data collected by the DELPHI detector at LEP II at centre-of-mass energies from 189 GeV to 209 GeV. Five different final states, , , , and were considered, accounting for the major expected decays in type I and type II Two Higgs Doublet Models. No significant excess of data compared to the expected Standard Model processes was observed. The existence of a charged Higgs boson with mass lower than 76.7 GeV/c² (type I) or 74.4 GeV/c² (type II) is excluded at the 95% confidence level, for a wide range of the model parameters. Model independent cross-section limits have also been calculated.Received: 30 September 2003, Revised: 12 February 2004, Published online: 8 April 2004     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">B</Emphasis> decays into light scalar particles and glueball

The recent observations of f ₀(980) in charmless B decays motivate further studies of scalar particle and glueball production in these processes. Amplitudes for charmless two-body B decays involving the members of the scalar nonet are presented based on the symmetries of the dominant penguin contribution. Different scenarios for the lightest scalar nonet are investigated in view of the presently available data. We describe the evidence from B decays for f ₀(1500) with a flavor octet like mixing and the hints towards the members of the nonet of lowest mass. There is further support for the hypothesis of a broad 0 ^{+ +} glueball acting as coherent background especially in . The estimated B decay rates into gluonic mesons represent a sizable fraction of the theoretically derived decay rate for .Received: 23 April 2004, Revised: 27 October 2004, Published online: 21 December 2004Work supported in part by the Schweizerischer Nationalfonds.     

The rare annihilation decays $\bar{B}^0_{s,d} \to J/\psi\gamma$

We investigate the physics potential of the annihilation decays in the standard model and beyond. In a naive factorization approach, the branching ratios are estimated to be and . In the framework of QCD factorization, we compute the non-factorizable corrections and get , . Future measurements of these decays would be useful for testing the factorization frameworks. The smallness of these decays in the SM makes them sensitive probes of new physics. As an example, we will consider the possible admixture of the (V + A) charge current to the standard (V-A) current. This admixture will give a significant contribution to the decays.Received: 29 August 2003, Revised: 17 January 2004, Published online: 19 March 2004Corresponding author: Y.D. Yang     

Exploring the SUSY Higgs sector ate +e− linear colliders: a synopsis

We discuss the Higgs scenario in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model ate ⁺e^? linear colliders operating in the c.m. energy range between 300 and 500 GeV. Besides decays of the Higgs particles into ordinary fermions and cascade decays, we analyze also decays into gaugino/Higgsinos and in particular, neutral Higgs decays into the lightest supersymmetric particles which are invisible ifR-parity is conserved. The cross sections for the various production channels of SUSY Higgs particles ine ⁺e^? collisions are discussed in detail. The lightest Higgs boson cannot escape detection, and in major parts of the MSSM parameter space all five Higgs particles can be observed.     

Flavor changing neutral currents from lepton and <Emphasis Type="Italic">B</Emphasis> decays in the two Higgs doublet model

Constraints on the whole spectrum of lepton flavor violating vertices are shown in the context of the standard two Higgs doublet model. The vertex involving the e- mixing is much more constrained than the others, and the decays proportional to such a vertex are usually very suppressed. On the other hand, bounds on the quark sector are obtained from leptonic decays of the B_d,s⁰ mesons and from . We emphasize that although the B_d⁰- mixing restricts severely the d-b mixing vertex, the upper bound for this vertex could still give a sizable contribution to the decay with respect to the standard model contribution, from which we see that such a vertex could still play a role in the phenomenology.Received: 16 September 2004, Published online: 26 April 2005PACS: 12.60.Fr, 12.15.Mm, 12.15.Ff, 11.30.Hv     

Test of lepton flavour violation at the LHC

We study lepton flavour violating decays of neutralinos and sleptons within the minimal supersymmetric standard model, assuming two and three generation mixings in the slepton sector. We take into account the most recent bounds on flavour violating rare lepton decays. Taking the SPS1a’ scenario as an example, we show that some of the lepton flavour violating branching ratios of neutralinos and sleptons can be sizable (∼5–10%). We study the impact of the lepton flavour violating neutralino and slepton decays on the di-lepton mass distributions measured at the LHC. We find that they can result in novel and characteristic edge structures in the distributions. In particular, double-edge structures can appear in the eτ and μτ mass spectra if is the lightest slepton. The appearance of these remarkable structures provides a powerful test of supersymmetric lepton flavour violation at the LHC.     

Determining resonance parameters of heavy Higgs bosonsat a future linear collider

This study investigates the potential of an Electron-Positron Linear Collider for measuring resonance parameters of Higgs bosons beyond the mass range studied so far. The analysis is based on the reconstruction of events from the Higgs-strahlung process . It is shown that the total width , the mass m_H and the event rate N can be measured from the mass spectrum in a model independent way. Also, the branching ratios BR ^H_WW and BR ^H_ZZ can be measured, assuming these are the only relevant Higgs decay modes. The simulation includes realistic detector effects and all relevant Standard Model background processes. Results are given for m_H = 200-320 GeV assuming fb^-1 integrated luminosity at a collision energy GeV.Received: 13 February 2004, Revised: 14 April 2004, Published online: 18 May 2004     

On cascade decays of squarks at the LHC in NLO QCD

In this paper we present an analysis at NLO QCD of the contribution from squark-squark production to the experimental signature $2j+l^{+}l^{-}+ \displaystyle{\not}E_T (+X)$ with opposite-sign same flavor leptons, taking into account decays and experimental cuts. We consider the case in which one squark decays directly into the lightest neutralino $\tilde{\chi}^{0} _{1}$ and the other one into the second lightest neutralino and subsequently into $l^{+}l^{-} \tilde{\chi}^{0} _{1}$ via an intermediate slepton. On the one hand we study the effects of the NLO corrections on invariant mass distributions which can be used for future parameter determination. On the other hand we analyze the impact on predictions for cut-and-count searches using the given experimental signature.     

Measurement of CP violation in stop cascade decays at the LHC

We study the potential observation at the LHC of CP-violating effects in stop production and subsequent cascade decays, , , , within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. We study T-odd asymmetries based on triple products between the different decay products. There may be a large CP asymmetry at the parton level, but there is a significant dilution at the hadronic level after integrating over the parton distribution functions. Consequently, even for scenarios where large CP intrinsic asymmetries are expected, the measurable asymmetry is rather small. High luminosity and precise measurements of masses, branching ratios and CP asymmetries may enable measurements of the CP-violating parameters in cascade decays at the LHC.     

New physics effects from B meson decays

In this talk, we point out some of the present and future possible signatures of physics beyond the Standard Model from B-meson decays, taking R-parity conserving and violating supersymmetry as illustrative examples. An expanded version is available on hep-ph archive.     

Isospin constraints from/on $B \to \pi\pi$

The Standard Model constraints on which can be derived from the decays are revisited in some depth. As experimental inputs, the , decays complemented by the decays, the CP parameters and , and/or the value of as determined by the global CKM fit are used. The constraints discussed here are model independent in the sense that they rely only on Isospin symmetry, following the Gronau-London proposal. A new bound on and the function are introduced. While another bound applied to BABAR results is shown to imply that is negative. The Grossman-Quinn bound is rediscussed. A close form expression is given for as a function of the measurements. Various scenarios for the future of the isospin analysis are explored. To probe the Standard Model the plane is introduced.Received: 17 December 2004, Published online: 25 January 2005     

Production of stop,sbottom, and stau at LEP2

We present a comprehensive study of pair production and decay of stops, sbottoms, and staus in e⁺e^? annihilation at LEP2. We give numerical predictions within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model for cross sections and decay rates, and discuss the important signatures. In the case of stau production we also study the polarization of the τ in the decays ${\tilde \tau}_{1}\rightarrow \tau \ {\tilde \chi}_{1,2}^{0}$ .     

NLO contributions to <Emphasis Type="Italic">B</Emphasis>→<Emphasis Type="Italic">KK</Emphasis><Superscript>*</Superscript> decays in the pQCD approach

We calculate the important next-to-leading-order (NLO) contributions to the B→KK ^* decays from the vertex corrections, the quark loops, and the magnetic penguins in the perturbative QCD (pQCD) factorization approach. The pQCD predictions for the CP-averaged branching ratios are , , and Br(B ⁰→K ⁺ K ^*−+K ⁻ K ^*+)≈1.3×10⁻⁷, which agree well with both the experimental upper limits and the predictions based on the QCD factorization approach. Furthermore, the CP violating asymmetries of the considered decay modes are also evaluated. The NLO pQCD predictions for and decays are and .     

Study of spin and decay-plane correlations of W bosons in the e + e$^-\rightarrow$ W + W- process at LEP

Data collected at LEP at centre-of-mass energies GeV are used to study correlations of the spin of W bosons using events. Spin correlations are favoured by data, and found to agree with the Standard Model predictions. In addition, correlations between the W-boson decay planes are studied in and events. Decay-plane correlations are measured to be consistent with the Standard Model predictions.Received: 26 October 2004, Revised: 15 January 2005, Published online: 3 March 2005