Higgs Mass Parameter Research Articles

Supersymmetry-breaking parameters from renormalization group invariants at the LHC

We study renormalization group invariant (RGI) quantities in the minimal supersymmetric standard model and show that they are a powerful and simple instrument for testing high-scale models of supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking. For illustration, we analyze the frameworks of minimal and general gauge-mediated (MGM and GGM) SUSY breaking, with additional arbitrary soft Higgs mass parameters at the messenger scale. We show that if a gaugino and two first generation sfermion soft masses are determined at the LHC, the RGIs lead to MGM sum rules that yield accurate predictions for the other gaugino and first generation soft masses. RGIs can also be used to reconstruct the fundamental MGM parameters (including the messenger scale), calculate the hypercharge $D$-term, and find relationships among the third generation and Higgs soft masses. We then study the extent to which measurements of the full first generation spectrum at the LHC may distinguish different SUSY-breaking scenarios. In the case of the MGM model, although most deviations violate the sum rules by more than estimated experimental errors, we find a one-parameter family of GGM models that satisfy the constraints and produce the same first generation spectrum. The GGM-MGM degeneracy is lifted by differences in the third generation masses and the messenger scales.

Electroweak symmetry breaking and cold dark matter from strongly interacting hidden sector

We consider a hidden sector with a vectorlike confining gauge theory like QCD with Nh,c colors and Nh,f light quarks Qh in the hidden sector. Then a scale ΛH would be generated by dimensional transmutation, and chiral symmetry breaking occurs in the hidden sector. This scale ΛH can play a role of the SM Higgs mass parameter, triggering electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB). Furthermore the lightest mesons in the hidden sector is stable by flavor conservation of the hidden sector strong interaction, and could be a good cold dark matter (CDM). We study collider phenomenology, and relic density and direct detection rates of the CDM of this model.

Natural supersymmetry at the LHC

If the minimal supersymmetric standard model is the solution to the hierarchy problem, the scalar top quark (stop) and the Higgsino should weigh around the electroweak scale such as 200 GeV. A low messenger scale, which results in a light gravitino, is also suggested to suppress the quantum corrections to the Higgs mass parameters. Therefore the minimal model for natural supersymmetry is a system with stop/Higgsino/gravitino whereas other superparticles are heavy. We study the LHC signatures of the minimal system and discuss the discovery potential and methods for the mass measurements.

The electroweak sector of the NMSSM at the one-loop level

We present the electroweak spectrum for the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model at the one-loop level, e.g. the masses of Higgs bosons, sleptons, charginos and neutralinos. For the numerical evaluation we present a mSUGRA variant with nonuniversal Higgs mass parameters squared and we compare our results with existing ones in the literature. Moreover, we briey discuss the implications of our results for the calculation of the relic density.

Predicting Supersymmetry

We review the result of SUSY parameter fits based on frequentist analyses of experimental constraints from electroweak precision data, (g-2)_mu, B-physics and cosmological data. We investigate the parameters of the constrained MSSM (CMSSM) with universal soft supersymmetry-breaking mass parameters, and a model with common non-universal Higgs mass parameters in the superpotential (NUHM1). Shown are the results for the SUSY and Higgs spectrum of the models. Many sparticle masses are highly correlated in both the CMSSM and NUHM1, and parts of the regions preferred at the 68% C.L. are accessible to early LHC running. The best-fit points could be tested even with 1/fb at sqrt[s] = 7 Tev.

A finely-predicted Higgs boson mass from a finely-tuned weak scale

If supersymmetry is broken directly to the Standard Model at energies not very far from the unified scale, the Higgs boson mass lies in the range 128-141 GeV. The end points of this range are tightly determined. Theories with the Higgs boson dominantly in a single supermultiplet predict a mass at the upper edge, (141 \pm 2) GeV, with the uncertainty dominated by the experimental errors on the top quark mass and the QCD coupling. This edge prediction is remarkably insensitive to the supersymmetry breaking scale and to supersymmetric threshold corrections so that, in a wide class of theories, the theoretical uncertainties are at the level of \pm 0.4 GeV. A reduction in the uncertainties from the top quark mass and QCD coupling to the level of \pm 0.3 GeV may be possible at future colliders, increasing the accuracy of the confrontation with theory from 1.4% to 0.4%. Verification of this prediction would provide strong evidence for supersymmetry, broken at a very high scale of ~ 10^{14 \pm 2} GeV, and also for a Higgs boson that is elementary up to this high scale, implying fine-tuning of the Higgs mass parameter by ~ 20-28 orders of magnitude. Currently, the only known explanation for such fine-tuning is the multiverse.

Heavy Higgs boson with a light sneutrino next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle in the MSSM with enhancedSU(2)D-terms

The minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model provides a solution to the hierarchy problem and leads to the presence of a light Higgs. A Higgs boson with mass above the present experimental bound may only be obtained for relatively heavy third generation squarks, requiring a precise, somewhat unnatural balance between different contributions to the effective Higgs mass parameter. It was recently noticed that somewhat heavier Higgs bosons, which are naturally beyond the CERN LEP bound, may be obtained by enhanced weak $SU(2)$ D-terms. Such contributions appear in models with an enhanced electroweak gauge symmetry, provided the supersymmetry breaking masses associated with the scalars responsible for the breakdown of the enhanced gauge symmetry group to the standard model one are larger than the enhanced symmetry breaking scale. In this article we emphasize that the enhanced $SU(2)$ D-terms will not only raise the Higgs boson mass but also affect the spectrum of the nonstandard Higgs bosons, sleptons, and squarks, which therefore provide a natural contribution to the $T$ parameter, compensating for the negative one coming from the heavy Higgs boson. The sleptons and nonstandard Higgs bosons of these models, in particular, may act in a way similar to the so-called inert Higgs doublet. The phenomenological properties of these models are emphasized, and possible cosmological implications as well as collider signatures are described.

Supersymmetry without the little hierarchy

We propose a simple gauge extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), where the fine tuning in the Higgs mass parameters is highly reduced. The Higgs boson is insensitive to high energies because of supersymmetry and also because it is a pseudo-Goldstone boson of a global symmetry (referred to as double protection or super-little Higgs mechanism). A large shift in the Higgs quartic self coupling is obtained via a non-decoupling D-term coming from an extra gauge group, resulting in a Higgs that can be as heavy as 135 GeV with a tuning milder than 10%. With an appropriate choice of quantum numbers one can achieve that the additional quartic is generated without a corresponding shift in the Higgs mass, thus preserving the double protection of the Higgs. The model predicts the existence of several top-partner fermions one of which can be as light as 700 GeV, while the ordinary MSSM states could be as light as 400 GeV. In addition to many new particles in the multi-TeV range there would also be an axion-like state very weakly coupled to standard model (SM) matter which could be in the sub-GeV regime, and sterile neutrinos which could be light.

Classically conformal B–L extended Standard Model

Under a hypothesis of classically conformal theories, we investigate the minimal B–L extended Standard Model, which naturally provides the seesaw mechanism for explaining tiny neutrino masses. In this setup, the radiative gauge symmetry breaking is successfully realized in a very simple way: The B–L gauge symmetry is broken through the conformal anomaly induced by quantum corrections in the Coleman–Weinberg potential. Associated with this B–L symmetry breaking, the Higgs mass parameter is dynamically generated, by which the electroweak symmetry breaking is triggered. We find that a wide range of parameter space can satisfy both the theoretical and experimental requirements.

Three-body decays of sleptons in models with non-universal Higgs masses

We compute the three-body decays of charged sleptons and sneutrinos into other sleptons. These decays are of particular interest in SUSY-breaking models with non-universal Higgs mass parameters, where the left-chiral sleptons can be lighter than the right-chiral ones, and lighter than the lightest neutralino. We present the formulas for the three-body decay widths together with a numerical analysis in the context of gaugino-mediated SUSY breaking with a gravitino LSP.

Anthropic tuning of the weak scale and ofmu/mdin two-Higgs-doublet models

It is shown that, in a model in which up-type and down-type fermions acquire mass from different Higgs doublets, the anthropic tuning of the Higgs mass parameters can explain the fact that the observed masses of the $d$ and $u$ quarks are nearly the same with $d$ slightly heavier. If Yukawa couplings are assumed not to scan (vary among domains), this would also help explain why $t$ is much heavier than $b$. It is also pointed out that the existence of dark matter invalidates some earlier anthropic arguments against the viability of domains where the standard model Higgs has positive ${\ensuremath{\mu}}^{2}$, but makes other even stronger arguments possible.

Landscape predictions for the Higgs boson and top quark masses

If the Standard Model is valid up to scales near the Planck mass, and if the cosmological constant and Higgs mass parameters scan on a landscape of vacua, it is well known that the observed orders of magnitude of these quantities can be understood from environmental selection for large-scale structure and atoms. If in addition the Higgs quartic coupling scans, with a probability distribution peaked at low values, environmental selection for a phase having a scale of electroweak symmetry breaking much less than the Planck scale leads to a most probable Higgs mass of 106 GeV. While fluctuations below this are negligible, the upward fluctuation is 25/p GeV, where p measures the strength of the peaking of the a priori distribution of the quartic coupling. If the top Yukawa coupling also scans, the most probable top quark mass is predicted to lie in the range (174--178) GeV, providing the standard model is valid to at least 10^{17} GeV. The downward fluctuation is 35 GeV/ \sqrt{p}, suggesting that p is sufficiently large to give a very precise Higgs mass prediction. While a high reheat temperature after inflation could raise the most probable value of the Higgs mass to 118 GeV, maintaining the successful top prediction suggests that reheating is limited to about 10^8 GeV, and that the most probable value of the Higgs mass remains at 106 GeV. If all Yukawa couplings scan, then the e,u,d and t masses are understood to be outliers having extreme values induced by the pressures of strong environmental selection, while the s, \mu, c, b, \tau Yukawa couplings span only two orders of magnitude, reflecting an a priori distribution peaked around 10^{-3}. Extensions of these ideas allow order of magnitude predictions for neutrino masses, the baryon asymmetry and important parameters of cosmological inflation.

Improved Higgs naturalness with or without supersymmetry

Many models of electroweak symmetry-breaking with an extended Higgs sector exhibit improved naturalness, wherein the new physics scale, at which quadratic divergences of Higgs mass parameters due to top quark loops are cut off, can be pushed beyond the reach of the Large Hadron Collider without unnatural fine tuning. Such models include examples where the new physics is supersymmetry, implying that supersymmetry may still solve the hierarchy problem, even if it eludes detection at the LHC.

Mixed Higgsino Dark Matter from a reduced SU(3) gaugino mass: consequences for dark matter and collider searches

In gravity-mediated SUSY breaking models with non-universal gaugino masses, lowering the SU(3) gaugino mass |M_3| leads to a reduction in the squark and gluino masses. Lower third generation squark masses, in turn, diminish the effect of a large top quark Yukawa coupling in the running of the higgs mass parameter m_{H_u}^2, leading to a reduction in the magnitude of the superpotential mu parameter (relative to M_1 and M_2). A low | mu | parameter gives rise to mixed higgsino dark matter (MHDM), which can efficiently annihilate in the early universe to give a dark matter relic density in accord with WMAP measurements. We explore the phenomenology of the low |M_3| scenario, and find for the case of MHDM increased rates for direct and indirect detection of neutralino dark matter relative to the mSUGRA model. The sparticle mass spectrum is characterized by relatively light gluinos, frequently with m(gl)<<m(sq). If scalar masses are large, then gluinos can be very light, with gl->Z_i+g loop decays dominating the gluino branching fraction. Top squarks can be much lighter than sbottom and first/second generation squarks. The presence of low mass higgsino-like charginos and neutralinos is expected at the CERN LHC. The small m(Z2)-m(Z1) mass gap should give rise to a visible opposite-sign/same flavor dilepton mass edge. At a TeV scale linear e^+e^- collider, the region of MHDM will mean that the entire spectrum of charginos and neutralinos are amongst the lightest sparticles, and are most likely to be produced at observable rates, allowing for a complete reconstruction of the gaugino-higgsino sector.

Current and future limits on general flavour violation inb→stransitions in minimal supersymmetry

We discuss the current and prospective limits that can be placed on supersymmetric contributions to $b\to s$ transitions in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with general flavour mixing amongst the squarks. We consider three processes: $\bar{B}\to X_s\gamma$, $\bar{B}_s\mu^+\mu^-$ and $\bar{B}_s-B_s$ mixing, and pay particular attention to the large $\tan\beta$ regime and beyond leading order contributions where the difference between our analysis and previous analyses is most pronounced. We find that even present limits on BR$(\bar{B}_s\mu^+\mu^-)$ and $\Delta m_{B_s}$ often provide additional constraints on the amount of flavour violation still allowed by BR$(\bar{B}\to X_s\gamma)$. Limits on supersymmetric and Higgs mass parameters can also be strongly dependent on the flavour violation. In particular, the case $\mu<0$ can still be allowed, even for light sparticle masses. We discuss how future measurements at the Tevatron, the LHC and elsewhere can improve present limits but also provide unique signatures for the existence of flavour violation.

Little SUSY hierarchy in mixed modulus-anomaly mediation

Motivated by the KKLT string compactification involving a supersymmetry-breaking uplifting potential, we examine 4D effective supergravity with a generic form of uplifting potential, focusing on the possibility that the resulting mixed modulus-anomaly mediated soft terms realize the little hierarchy between the Higgs boson masses mH and the sparticle masses mSUSY. It is noted that for some type of uplifting potential, the anomaly-mediated contribution to mH2 at MGUT can cancel the subsequent renormalization group evolution of mH2 down to TeV scale, thereby the model can naturally realize the little hierarchy mH2∼mSUSY2/8π2 which is desirable for the lightest Higgs boson mass to satisfy the experimental bound. In such models, the other Higgs mass parameters μ and B can have the desirable size μ∼B∼mH without severe fine-tuning of parameters, although the gravitino is much heavier than the Higgs boson. Those models for the little hierarchy avoid naturally the dangerous SUSY flavor and CP violations, and predict nearly degenerate low energy gaugino masses, pure Higgsino LSP, and also a specific relation between the stop and gaugino masses.

Structure of Split Supersymmetry and Simple Models

We derive in detail a condition on the Higgs mass parameters that is necessary for the recently proposed “split supersymmetry” (split SUSY) scenario to provide a realistic magnitude of tan β. The nature of this condition can be understood by showing how the Higgs sector of the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model reduces to that of the Standard Model in the heavy limit of the soft supersymmetry breaking Higgs mass parameters. Based on this condition, we present some simple supersymmetry breaking models that each provides a realistic split-SUSY mass spectrum, in accordance with the scale of the gravitino mass (m3/2) in relation to those of the soft scalar mass () and the gaugino mass (M1/2) employed in each, namely and M1/2 ≥ m3/2, respectively, with the relation of the split-SUSY mass spectrum.

A little Higgs model of neutrino masses

Little Higgs models are formulated as effective theories with a cut-off of up to 100 times the electroweak scale. Neutrino masses are then a puzzle, since the usual see-saw mechanism involves a much higher scale that would introduce quadratic corrections to the Higgs mass parameter. We propose a model that can naturally accommodate the observed neutrino masses and mixings in little Higgs scenarios. Our framework does not involve any large scale or suppressed Yukawa couplings, and it implies the presence of three extra (Dirac) neutrinos at the TeV scale. The masses of the light neutrinos are induced radiatively, they are proportional to small (≈keV) mass parameters that break lepton number and are suppressed by the little Higgs cut-off.

Effects of the neutrino B-term on the Higgs mass parameters and electroweak symmetry breaking

To embed the seesaw mechanism in the MSSM, two or three right-handed neutrino supermultiplets, $N_i$, have to be added to the model. In the presence of these new superfields, the soft supersymmetry breaking potential includes a lepton number violating mass term which is known as the neutrino $B$-term, $M B_\nu\tilde{N}\tilde{N}/2$. In this paper, we study the effects of $B_\nu$ on the Higgs mass parameters. Using the condition for the electroweak symmetry breaking, we derive an upper bound on $B_\nu$ which is two orders of magnitude stronger than the previous bounds. We also propose a simple model in which it is natural to have large values of $B_\nu$ while the rest of the supersymmetry breaking terms are at the TeV scale or smaller.

Electroweak symmetry breaking in supersymmetric models with heavy scalar superpartners

We propose a novel mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking in supersymmetric models, as the one recently discussed by Birkedal, Chacko and Gaillard, in which the Standard Model Higgs doublet is a pseudo-Goldstone boson of some global symmetry. The Higgs mass parameter is generated at one-loop level by two different, moderately fine-tuned sources of the global symmetry breaking. The mechanism works for scalar superpartner masses of order 10 TeV, but gauginos can be light. The scale at which supersymmetry breaking is mediated to the visible sector has to be low, of order 100 TeV. Fine-tuning in the scalar potential is at least two orders of magnitude smaller than in the MSSM with similar soft scalar masses. The physical Higgs boson mass is (for tanβ≫1) in the range 120–135 GeV.