Physics at the linear collider

The physics at the plannede ⁺ e ^- colliders is discussed around three main topics corresponding to different manifestations of symmetry breaking:W physics in the no Higgs scenario, studies of the properties of the Higgs and precision tests of SUSY. A comparison with the LHC is made for all these cases. The γγ mode of the linear collider will also be reviewed.     

Probing anomalous Higgs couplings at an <Emphasis Type="Italic">eγ</Emphasis> collider using unpolarised beams

We examine the sensitivity of eγ colliders (based on e ⁺ e ⁻ linear colliders of c.m. energy 500 GeV) to the anomalous couplings of the Higgs to W-boson via the process e ⁻ γ → νWH. This has the advantage over e ⁺ e ⁻ collider in being able to dissociate WWH vertex from ZZH. We are able to construct several dynamical variables which may be used to constrain the various couplings in the WWH vertex.      

Search for Higgs bosons decaying to WW in e+e- collisions at LEP

A search for Higgs bosons produced in association with a fermion pair, and decaying to WW, is performed with the data collected by the ALEPH detector at centre-of-mass energies ranging from 191 to 209 GeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 453.2 pb^-1. Thirteen exclusive selections are developed according to the different final state topologies. No statistically significant evidence for a Higgs boson decaying into a WW pair has been found. An upper limit is derived, as a function of the Higgs boson mass, on the product of the e⁺e^-→Hff̄ cross section and the H→WW branching ratio. The data on the search for H→WW are combined with previously published ALEPH results on the search for H→γγ, to significantly extend the limits on the mass of a fermiophobic Higgs boson.     

Two-Photon Channel in <Emphasis Type="Italic">B</Emphasis>−<Emphasis Type="Italic">L</Emphasis> Models

In this paper we examine the possibility of having an exception to the recent observation by L. Randall amd M. Wise, which states that “a significant branching ratios to both e ⁺ e ⁻ and γ γ is possible only if new physics beyond that in the SM couples directly to electrons”. We consider resonances decaying into diphotons and dielectrons final states predicted in U(1) _B−L extensions of the SM. We find that these new resonances can’t decay into e ⁺ e ⁻ and γ γ final states with comparably measurable branching ratios although such resonances are directly coupled to electrons.     

Charged Higgs boson in the economical 3-3-1 model

The SU(3) _C ⊗ SU(3) _L ⊗ U(1) _X gauge model with two Higgs triplets (the economical 3-3-1 model) is presented. The minimal Higgs potential is considered in detail, and new Higgs bosons with the mass proportional to the bilepton mass are predicted. In the effective approximation, the charged Higgs bosons H ₂ ^± are scalar bileptons, while the neutral scalar bosons H ⁰ and H ₁ ⁰ do not carry a lepton number. The couplings of the charged Higgs bosons to leptons and quarks are given. We show that Yukawa couplings of H ₂ ^± to ordinary leptons and quarks are lepton-number violating. The pair production of H ₂ ^± at high-energy e ⁺ e ⁻ colliders with the polarization of the e ⁺, e ⁻ beams is studied in detail. A numerical evaluation shows that, if the Higgs mass is not too heavy, then the reaction can give an observable cross section in future colliders at a high degree of polarization. The reaction e ⁺ e ⁻ → H ₂ ^± W ^∓ is also examined. We show that the production cross sections of H ₂ ^± W ^∓ are very small, much below the pair production of H ₂ ^± , and, therefore, the associated production of H ₂ ^± and W ^∓ is, in general, not expected to lead to easily observable signals in the e ⁺ e ⁻ annihilation. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

The Higgs sector of the minimal <Emphasis Type="Italic">B</Emphasis>−<Emphasis Type="Italic">L</Emphasis> model at future Linear Colliders

We investigate the phenomenology of the Higgs sector of the minimal B−L extension of the Standard Model at a future e ⁺ e ⁻ Linear Collider. We consider the discovery potential of both a sub-TeV and a multi-TeV machine. We show that, within such a theoretical scenario, several novel production and decay channels involving the two physical Higgs states, precluded at the LHC, could experimentally be accessed at such machines. Amongst these, several Higgs signatures have very distinctive features with respect to those of other models with enlarged Higgs sector, as they involve interactions of Higgs bosons between themselves, with Z′ bosons as well as with heavy neutrinos. In particular, we present the scope of the Z′ strahlung process for single and double Higgs production, the only suitable mechanism enabling one to access an almost decoupled heavy scalar state (therefore outside the LHC range).     

Resolved photon processes

We review high-energy scattering processes that are sensitive to the hadronic structure of the photon, describing theoretical predictions as well as recent experimental results. These processes include deep-inelastic electron-photon scattering ate ⁺ e ⁻ colliders; and the production of jets, heavy quarks and isolated photons in the collision of real photons ate ⁺ e ⁻ colliders, as well as in photon-photon collisions atep colliders. We also comment on minijet based calculations of totalγp andγγ cross-sections, and discuss the possibility that future lineare ⁺ e ⁻ colliders might produce very large photon fluxes due to the beamstrahlung phenomenon; in the most extreme cases, we predict more than one hadronicγγ event to occur at every bunch crossing.     

Study of charged and neutral minimal supersymmetric standard model Higgs boson decays and measurement of tan <Emphasis Type="Italic">β</Emphasis> at the compact linear collider

The minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model (MSSM) predicts the existence of new charged and neutral Higgs bosons. The pair creation of these new particles at the multi-TeV e ⁺ e ⁻ compact linear collider (CLIC), followed by decays into standard model particles, were simulated along with the corresponding background. High-energy beam-beam effects such as ISR, beamstrahlung and hadronic background were included. We have investigated the possibility of using the ratio between the number of events found in various decay channels to determine the MSSM parameter tan β and we have derived the corresponding statistical error from the uncertainties on the measured cross-sections and Higgs boson masses.      

Charged and neutral minimal supersymmetric standard model Higgs boson decays and measurement of tan <Emphasis Type="Italic">β</Emphasis> at the compact linear collider

The minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model (MSSM) predicts the existence of new charged and neutral Higgs bosons. The pair creation of these new particles at the multi-TeV e ⁺ e ⁻ compact linear collider (CLIC), followed by decays into standard model particles, were simulated along with the corresponding background. High-energy beam-beam effects such as ISR, beamstrahlung and hadronic background were included. We have investigated the possibility of using the ratio between the number of events found in various decay channels to determine the MSSM parameter tan β and we have derived the corresponding statistical error from the uncertainties on the measured cross-sections and Higgs boson masses.      

LHC prospects in searches for neutral scalars in pp → γγ + jet

At hadron colliders, the γγ + jet channel provides a larger signal-to-background ratio in comparison with the inclusive γγ channel in hunting for scalars uncharged under the SM gauge group. By using NLO results for the SM Higgs boson production and corresponding background, we estimate LHC prospects in searches for the radion and sgoldstino in the γγ + jet channel. Three-body final-state kinematics allows for refined cuts. We have found that this channel could be comparable with the γγ channel in searches for new physics. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Identifying new physics contributions in the Higgs sector at linear <Emphasis Type="Italic">e</Emphasis><Superscript>+</Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">e</Emphasis><Superscript>−</Superscript> colliders

Loop-driven decay modes of the Higgs are sensitive to new physics contributions because of new particles in the loops. To highlight this we look at the dilepton-dijet signal in the dominant Higgs production channel at a linear e ⁺ e ⁻ collider. We show that by taking a simple ratio between cross-sections of two different final states such contributions can be very easily identified.      

New physics contribution to neutral trilinear gauge boson couplings

We study the one-loop new physics effects to the CP even triple neutral gauge boson vertices γ ^⋆ γ Z, γ ^⋆ Z Z, Z ^⋆ Z γ and Z ^⋆ ZZ in the context of Little Higgs models. We compute the contribution of the additional fermions in Little Higgs models in the framework of direct product groups where [SU(2)×U(1)]² gauge symmetry is embedded in SU(5) global symmetry and also in the framework of the simple group where SU(N)×U(1) gauge symmetry breaks down to SU(2) _L ×U(1). We calculate the contribution of the fermions to these couplings when T parity is invoked. In addition, we re-examine the MSSM contribution at the chosen point of SPS1a′ and compare with the SM and Little Higgs models.     

Ultimate parameters of the photon collider at the international linear collider

At linear colliders, the e ⁺ e ⁻ luminosity is limited by beam-collision effects, which determine the required emittances of beams in damping rings (DRs). In γγ collisions at the photon collider, these effects are absent, and so smaller emittances are desirable. In the present damping ring designs, nominal DR parameters correspond to those required for e ⁺ e ⁻ collisions. In this note, I would like to stress once again that as soon as we plan the photon collider mode of ILC operation, the damping ring emittances are dictated by the photon collider requirements — namely, they should be as small as possible. This can be achieved by adding more wigglers to the DRs; the incremental cost is easily justified by a considerable potential improvement of the γγ luminosity. No expert analysis exists as of now, but it seems realistic to obtain a factor five increase of the γγ luminosity compared to the ‘nominal’ DR design.      

The effect of the Gaussian profile of the new Higgs doublet on the radiative lepton flavor violating decay

We study the branching ratios of the lepton flavor violating processes μ→eγ, τ→eγ and τ→μγ by considering that the new Higgs scalars localize with Gaussian profile in the extra dimension. We see that the BRs of the LFV decays μ→eγ, τ→eγ and τ→μγ are at the order of magnitude of 10^-12, 10^-16 and 10^-12 in the considered range of the free parameters. These numerical values are slightly suppressed in the case that the localization points of new Higgs scalars are different from the origin.     

LEP Higgs boson searches beyond the standard model and minimum supersymmetric standard model

Ever since the center-of-mass energy was increased in 1995 above the Zℴ resonance, the four LEP experiments (ALEPH, DELPHI, OPAL and L3) have renewed their effort to search for the Higgs boson. Data taking ended in the year 2000 with about 130 pb⁻¹ of data collected per experiment above 206 GeV ine ⁺ e ⁻¹ collisions but the data analysis is still very active. Most recently, the wealth of theoretical models and predictions has stimulated new analyses and model interpretations which go beyond the standard model and minimal supersymmetric standard model. These include the searches for charged Higgs bosons, models with two Higgs field doublets, searches for ‘fermiophobic’ Higgs decay, invisible Higgs boson decays, decay-mode independent searches, and limits on Yukawa and anomalous Higgs couplings. I review the searches done by the four LEP experiments and present the LEP combined results when they exist.     

Two-particle kinematic distributions from new physics at an electron–positron collider with polarized beams

The kinematic distributions in two-particle inclusive processes at an e⁺e^- collider arising from standard-model s-channel exchange of a virtual γ or Z and the interference of the standard-model contribution with contributions from physics beyond the standard model involving s-channel exchanges are derived entirely in terms of the space-time signature of such new physics. Transverse as well as longitudinal polarizations of the electron and positron beams are taken into account. We show how these model-independent distributions can be used to deduce some general properties of the nature of the interaction. We then specialize to two specific two-particle final states, viz., ZH, where H is one of the Higgs bosons in a model with an extended Higgs sector, and ff̄, where f, f̄ are a pair of conjugate charged fermions, wherein distributions of two (of the possibly several) decay products are measured. We show how some of the properties of the distributions have been realized in the analysis of physics beyond the standard model in earlier work which made use of two-particle angular distributions.     

Learning about flavour structure from τ→eβγ and μ→eγ?

Current and upcoming experiments should improve the sensitivity to e _α →e _β γ decays by an order of magnitude. This paper assumes that one of the τ→e _β γ decays is observed, and explores the structure and consequences of the required new flavoured couplings. In simple models (a low-scale seesaw, leptoquarks) it is shown that the dipole vertex function is proportional to a product of flavoured matrices from the Lagrangian (a “Jarlskog-like” invariant), provided that the loop particles are weakly coupled to the Higgs. Secondly, if the dipole vertex function has a hierarchical structure, this might imply that only some of the τ→e _β γ modes can be observed, due to the “approximate zero” implied by the bound on μ→eγ. The assumptions underlying this potential test of a hierarchical structure are discussed.     

Neutral Higgs bosons in the standard model and in the minimal supersymmetric model: Searches at LEP

During the twelve years of operation of thee ⁺ e ⁻ collider LEP, the associated collaborations, ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL, have extensively searched for Higgs bosons over a broad range of masses. We present the final results from LEP for the standard model Higgs boson which are obtained from a statistical combination of the data from the four experiments. We also present preliminary combined results for neutral Higgs bosons in the minimal supersymmetric model (MSSM) where the Higgs sector is assumed to be CP invariant. Finally, we discuss an alternative MSSM scenario including CP violation in the Higgs sector.     

Recent results from LEP

Recent results from the LEP collider at CERN are presented: on the identification of e ⁺ e ⁻ → W ⁺ W ⁻ and the determination of the W mass and width and limits on its anomalous couplings; the search for the Standard Model and non-minimal Higgs; search for SUSY and other new particles. Fits to all electroweak data leading to predictions of the Higgs mass within the Standard Model are presented.     

Charged lepton electric dipole moments with localized leptons and new Higgs doublet in the two Higgs doublet model

We study the electric dipole moments of the leptons in the split fermion scenario, in the two Higgs doublet model, where the new Higgs scalars are localized around the origin in the extra dimension, with the help of the localizer field. We observe that the numerical value of the electric dipole moment of the electron (muon, tau) is of the order of the magnitude of 10^-31 (10^-24, 10^-22) (e cm), and this quantity is sensitive to the new Higgs localization in the extra dimension.