Higgs sector radiative corrections and s-channel production

Higgs boson mass sum rules of supersymmetric models offer attractive targets for precision tests at future muon colliders. These sum rules involve the gauge boson masses as well as the masses of the Higgs boson states which can be precisely measured in the s-channel production process at a muon collider. These measurements can sensitively probe radiative corrections to the Higgs boson masses as well as test for CP violation and nonminimality of the Higgs sector.     

Probing the Majorana nature of TeV-scale radiative seesaw models at collider experiments

A general feature of TeV-scale radiative seesaw models, in which tiny neutrino masses are generated via loop corrections, is an extended scalar (Higgs) sector. Another feature is the Majorana nature; e.g., introducing right-handed neutrinos with TeV-scale Majorana masses under the discrete symmetry, or otherwise introducing some lepton number violating interactions in the scalar sector. We study phenomenological aspects of these models at collider experiments. We find that, while properties of the extended Higgs sector of these models can be explored to some extent, the Majorana nature of the models can also be tested directly at the International Linear Collider via the electron–positron and electron–electron collision experiments.     

Black hole evaporation with separated fermions

In models with a low quantum gravity scale, fast proton decay can be avoided by localizing quarks and leptons to separated positions in an extra 1/TeV sized dimension with gauge and Higgs fields living throughout. Black holes with masses of the order of the quantum gravity scale are therefore expected to evaporate nonuniversally, preferentially radiating directly into quarks or leptons but not both. Should black holes be copiously produced at a future hadron collider, we find the ratio of final state jets to charged leptons to photons is 113:8:1, which differs from previous analyses that assumed all standard model fields live at the same point in the extra dimensional space.     

Sneutrino-antisneutrino mixing and neutrino mass in anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking scenario

In supersymmetric models with nonzero Majorana neutrino mass, the sneutrino and antisneutrino mix, which may lead to same-sign dilepton signals in future collider experiments. We point out that the anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking scenario has a good potential to provide an observable rate of such signals for the neutrino masses suggested by the atmospheric and solar neutrino oscillations. It is noted also that the sneutrino-antisneutrino mixing can provide much stronger information on some combinations of the neutrino masses and mixing angles than the neutrino experiments.     

Neutralinos in E_{6} inspired supersymmetric U(1)' models

The neutralino sector in inspired supersymmetric models with extra neutral gauge bosons and singlet Higgs fields contains additional gaugino and singlino states compared to the MSSM. We discuss the neutralino mixing in rank-5 and rank-6 models and analyze the supersymmetric parameter space where the light neutralinos have mainly singlino or MSSM character. The neutralino character, resonance effects of the new gauge bosons and, assuming mSUGRA-type RGEs, different selectron masses lead to significant differences between the MSSM and the extended models in neutralino production at an linear collider. Beam polarization may improve the signatures to distinguish between the models. In an appendix, we present the mass terms of the gauge bosons, charginos and sfermions which show a significant different mass spectrum than in the MSSM and give all relevant neutralino couplings. Received: 17 July 2001 / Revised version: 21 November 2001 / Published online: 25 January 2002     

ϒ production at large transverse momentum as a probe of axigluons

Large-p_T production of J/Ψ and ϒ particles is suggested as a sensitive probe of axigluons of mass less than 40 GeV at the CERN collider and 80 GeV at the Tevatron. It is shown that existing CERN collider data on large-p_T ϒ production exclude axigluon masses less than around 20 GeV. At the projected SSC, ϒ and vector toponium production at large p_T through axigluon exchange by far outweighs the QCD contribution over a vast range of axigluon and toponium masses.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis>/A Higgs mixing in <Emphasis Type="Italic">CP</Emphasis>-noninvariant supersymmetric theories

For large masses, the two heavy neutral Higgs bosons are nearly degenerate in many 2-Higgs doublet models, and particularly in supersymmetric models. In such a scenario the mixing between the states can be very large if the theory is CP-noninvariant. We analyze the formalism describing this configuration, and we point to some interesting experimental consequences.Received: 1 October 2004, Revised: 10 January 2005, Published online: 9 March 2005     

Phenomenology of non-universal gaugino masses and implications for the Higgs boson decay

Grand unified theories (GUTs) can lead to non-universal gaugino masses at the unification scale. We study the implications of such non-universal gaugino masses for the composition of the lightest neutralino in supersymmetric (SUSY) theories based on SU(5) gauge group. We also consider the phenomenological implications of non-universal gaugino masses for the phenomenology of Higgs bosons in the context of large hadron collider.      

Proposed Post-LEP benchmarks for supersymmetry

We propose a new set of supersymmetric benchmark scenarios, taking into account the constraints from LEP, and cosmology. We work in the specific context of the constrained MSSM (CMSSM) with universal soft supersymetry-breaking masses and vanishing trilinear terms, assuming that R parity is conserved. We propose benchmark points that exemplify the different generic possibilities in this context, including focus-point models, points where coannihilation effects on the relic density are important, and points with rapid relic annihilation via direct-channel Higgs poles. We discuss the principal decays and signatures of the different classes of benchmark scenarios, and make initial estimates of the physics reaches of different accelerators, including the Tevatron collider, the LHC, and colliders in the sub- and multi-TeV ranges. We stress the complementarity of hadron and lepton colliders, with the latter favoured for non-strongly-interacting particles and precision measurements. We mention features that could usefully be included in future versions of supersymmetric event generators. Received: 28 June 2001 / Revised version: 12 September 2001 / Published online: 23 November 2001     

Cross sections for multi-particle final states at a linear collider

In this paper total cross sections for signals and backgrounds of top- and Higgs-production channels in e ⁺ e^- collisions at a future linear collider are presented. All channels considered are characterized by the emergence of six-particle final states. The calculation takes into account the full set of tree-level amplitudes in each process. Two multi-purpose parton level generators, HELAC/PHEGAS and AMEGIC + + , are used, and their results are found to be in perfect agreement.Received: 26 November 2003, Revised: 15 January 2004, Published online: 3 March 2004     

Are scalar leptoquarks testable at the present CERN collider?

We study the single production of all possible scalar leptoquarks at the present Spp̄S collider. Results on cross sections as a function of the leptoquark masses and couplings are presented. Clear evidence for leptoquarks would be narrow peaks in the M_1-jet-distribution of jet + ℓ⁺+ℓ^- events. The production mechanism here studied provides an efficient way of searching for leptoquarks and allows to probe the couplings and the masses together.     

Recent results from large electron positron collider

We summarize here the recent results from the four experiments at the large electron positron collider (LEP). These experiments provide precise measurements of theW and Z boson properties and their couplings to leptons and quarks. These measurements, together with measurements of the top quark andW boson masses in the Tevatron collider provide a stringent test of the standard electroweak theory. Searches for Higgs boson and supersymmetric particles have yielded null results so far giving rise to lower bounds in the parameter space.     

Testing the equivalent photon approximation of the proton in the process $ep \rightarrow \nu W X$

The accuracy of the equivalent photon approximation of the proton in describing the inelastic process is investigated. In particular, the scale dependence of the corresponding inelastic photon distribution is discussed. Furthermore, an estimate of the total number of events, including the ones coming from the elastic and quasi-elastic channels of the reaction, is given for the HERA collider.Received: 10 August 2004, Published online: 3 November 2004     

Heavy charged Higgs boson production at next generation e^\pm\gamma colliders

We assess the potential of future electron-positron linear colliders operating in the mode in detecting charged Higgs bosons with mass around and larger than the top quark mass, using Compton back-scattered photons from laser light. We compare the pair production mode, , to a variety of channels involving only one charged Higgs scalar in the final state, such as the tree-level processes ( and ) and ( and ) as well as the loop-induced channel . We show that, when the charged Higgs boson mass is smaller than or comparable to half the collider energy, , single production cross sections are of the same size as the pair production rate, whereas, for charged Higgs boson masses larger than , all processes are heavily suppressed. In general, production cross sections of charged Higgs bosons via scatterings are smaller than those induced at an collider and the latter represents a better option to produce and analyse such particles. Received: 29 August 2001 / Published online: 23 November 2001     

Results for all reactions e^+ e^- \rightarrow 4{\rm f}, 4{\rm f}\gamma with nonzero fermion masses

We accomplish our efforts to obtain predictions for all four–fermion final states of –annihilation and the corresponding bremsstrahlung reactions which are possible in the framework of the Standard Model. For this purpose we have developed a program ee4 . Our predictions are valid for fermions of arbitrary masses and we can obtain results for total cross sections without any collinear cut. Keeping exact fermion masses is of course required for top quark production. We give a detailed phenomenological analysis of fermion mass effects and real photon radiation for all channels of four–fermion production at LEP-II and next linear collider energies. Received: 2 October 2001 / Revised version: 2 January 2002 / Published online: 1 March 2002     

Realistic neutrino masses from multi-brane extensions of the Randall-Sundrum model?

Scenarios based on the existence of large or warped (Randall-Sundrum model) extra dimensions have been proposed for addressing the long standing puzzle of the gauge hierarchy problem. Within the contexts of both those scenarios, a novel and original type of mechanism generating small (Dirac) neutrino masses, which relies on the presence of additional right-handed neutrinos that propagate in the bulk, has arisen. The main objective of the present study is to determine whether this geometrical mechanism can produce reasonable neutrino masses also in the interesting multi-brane extensions of the Randall-Sundrum model. We demonstrate that, in some multi-brane extensions, neutrino masses in agreement with all relevant experimental bounds can indeed be generated but at the price of a constraint (stronger than the existing ones) on the bulk geometry, and that the other multi-brane models even conflict with those experimental bounds.Received: 16 December 2004, Published online: 9 March 2005PACS: 14.60.Pq, 14.60.St, 11.10.Kk     

Confronting models of cosmic ray interactions with particle physics at LHC energies

Inelastic pp collisions are dominated by soft (low momentum transfer) physics, to which perturbative QCD cannot be fully applied. A deep understanding of both soft and semi-hard processes is crucial for predictions of minimum bias and underlying events of the pp large hadron collider (LHC) now coming on line. Moreover, the interaction of cosmic ray particles entering in the atmosphere is extremely sensitive to these soft processes and consequently cannot be formulated from first principles. Because of this, air shower analyses strongly rely on hadronic interaction models, which extrapolate collider data by several orders of magnitude. A comparative study of Monte Carlo simulations of pp collisions (at the LHC center-of-mass energy ≃14 TeV) using the most popular hadronic interaction models for ultrahigh energy cosmic ray (SIBYLL and QGSJET) and for collider physics (the PYTHIA multiparton model) is presented. The most relevant distributions are studied including the observables from diffractive events with the aim of discriminating between the different models. PACS 13.85.-t; 96.40.-z     

Supersymmetric benchmarks with non-universal scalar masses or gravitino dark matter

We motivate, propose and examine a new set of benchmark supersymmetric scenarios, some of which have non-universal Higgs scalar masses (NUHM) and others have gravitino dark matter (GDM). The scalar masses in these proposed models are either considerably larger or smaller than the narrow range allowed for the same gaugino mass m_1/2 in the constrained MSSM (CMSSM) with universal scalar masses m₀ and neutralino dark matter. Unlike the CMSSM, the proposed NUHM and GDM models with larger m₀ may have large branching ratios for Higgs and/or Z production in the cascade decays of heavier sparticles, whose detection we discuss. The novel phenomenology of the GDM models depends on the nature of the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP), which has a lifetime exceeding 10⁴ s in the proposed benchmark scenarios. In one GDM scenario the NLSP is the lightest neutralino χ, and the supersymmetric collider signatures are similar to those in previous CMSSM benchmarks, but with a distinctive spectrum that would be challenging for the LHC and ILC. In the other GDM scenarios based on minimal supergravity (mSUGRA), the NLSP is the lighter stau slepton , with a lifetime between ∼10⁴ and 3×10⁶ s. Every supersymmetric cascade would end in a , which would have a distinctive time-of-flight signature. Slow-moving ’s might be trapped in a collider detector or outside it, and the preferred detection strategy would depend on the lifetime. We discuss the extent to which these mSUGRA GDM scenarios could be distinguished from gauge-mediated models.     

Empirical coefficients models for x‐ray fluorescence analysis of intermediate‐thickness samples

Empirical coefficients models for correction of matrix effects in intermediate‐thickness samples are presented. Two proposed mathematical models correct simultaneously matrix effects and various masses per unit area of the samples. In the first model, it is necessary to know the masses per unit area of the samples and in the second model masses are predicted from the scattered radiation. To calculate coefficients of the models, a series of multi‐element intermediate‐thickness standards with various compositions and various masses per unit area are required. The models were tested experimentally using synthetic samples pressed into pellets and geological certificate reference materials collected on a membrane filter. The calculated concentrations were in good agreement with the certificate values. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Particle physics models of inflation and curvaton scenarios

We review the particle theory origin of inflation and curvaton mechanisms for generating large scale structures and the observed temperature anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. Since inflaton or curvaton energy density creates all matter, it is important to understand the process of reheating and preheating into the relevant degrees of freedom required for the success of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We discuss two distinct classes of models, one where inflaton and curvaton belong to the hidden sector, which are coupled to the Standard Model gauge sector very weakly. There is another class of models of inflaton and curvaton, which are embedded within Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) gauge group and beyond, and whose origins lie within gauge invariant combinations of supersymmetric quarks and leptons. Their masses and couplings are all well motivated from low energy physics, therefore such models provide us with a unique opportunity that they can be verified/falsified by the CMB data and also by the future collider and non-collider based experiments. We then briefly discuss the stringy origin of inflation, alternative cosmological scenarios, and bouncing universes.