LHC Signatures Research Articles

Supersymmetric dark matter at the LHC 7-TeV run

We have analysed the early LHC signatures of the minimal supergravity (mSUGRA) model. Our emphasis is on the 7 - $TeV$ run corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $\sim 1.0 ~fb^{-1}$ although we have also discussed briefly the prospects at LHC-10 $TeV$. We focus on the parameter space yielding relatively light squark and gluinos consistent with the darkmatter relic density data and the LEP bounds on the lightest Higgs scalar mass. This parameter space is only allowed for non-vanishing trilinear soft breaking term $A_0$. A significant region of the parameter space with large to moderate negative values of $A_0$ consistent with the stability of the scalar potential and relic density production via neutralino annihilation and/or neutralino - stau coannihilation yields observable signal via the jets + missing transverse energy channel. The one lepton + jets + missing energy signal is also viable over a smaller but non-trivial parameter space. The ratio of the size of the two signals - free from theoretical uncertainties - may distinguish between different relic density generating mechanisms. With efficient $\tau$-tagging facilities at 7 $TeV$ the discriminating power may increase significantly. We also comment on other dark matter relic density allowed mSUGRA scenarios and variants there of in the context of LHC-7 $TeV$.

Astrophysical implications of a visible dark matter sector from a custodially warped GUT

We explore, within the warped extra dimensional framework, the possibility of finding anti-matter signals in cosmic rays (CRs) from dark matter (DM) annihilation. Exchange of order 100 GeV radion, an integral part of our setup, generically results in Sommerfeld enhancement of the annihilation rate for TeV DM mass. No dark sector is required to obtain boosted annihilation cross sections. A mild hierarchy between the radion and DM masses can be natural due to the pseudo-Goldstone boson nature of the radion. Implications of Sommerfeld enhancement in warped grand unified theory (GUT) models, where proton stability implies a DM candidate, are studied. We show, via partially unified Pati-Salam group, how to incorporate a custodial symmetry for Z->b\bar b into the GUT framework such that a few TeV Kaluza-Klein (KK) mass scale is allowed by precision tests. The model with smallest fully unified SO(10) representation allows us to decouple the DM from the electroweak sector. Thus, a correct DM relic density is obtained and direct detection bounds are satisfied. Looking at robust CR observables, a possible future signal in the \bar p / p flux ratio is found. We show how to embed a similar custodial symmetry for the right handed tau, allowing it to be strongly coupled to KK particles. Such a scenario might lead to observed signal in CR positrons; however, the DM candidate in this case can not constitute all of the DM in the universe. Independently of the above, the strong coupling between KK particles and tau's can lead to striking LHC signals.

Probing the GeV dark sector at the LHC

Dark matter can carry GeV −1 scale self-interactions. The GeV force carrier and associated states constitute the so-called dark sector. We outline the LHC signals of such a dark sector.

Mass-matching in Higgsless

Modern extra-dimensional Higgsless scenarios rely on a mass-matching between fermionic and bosonic KK resonances to evade constraints from precision electroweak measurements. After analyzing all of the Tevatron and LEP bounds on these so-called Cured Higgsless scenarios, we study their LHC signatures and explore how to identify the mass-matching mechanism, the key to their viability. We find singly and pair produced fermionic resonances show up as clean signals with 2 or 4 leptons and 2 hard jets, while neutral and charged bosonic resonances are visible in the dilepton and leptonic W ± Z 0 channels, respectively. A measurement of the resonance masses from these channels shows the matching necessary to achieve S ≃ 0. Moreover, a large single production of KKfermion resonances is a clear indication of compositeness of SM quarks. Discovery reach is below 10 fb−1 of luminosity for resonances in the 700 GeV range.

Combining anomaly and Z′ mediation of supersymmetry breaking

We propose a scenario in which the supersymmetry breaking effect mediated by an additional U(1)' is comparable with that of anomaly mediation. We argue that such a scenario can be naturally realized in a large class of models. Combining anomaly with Z' mediation allows us to solve the tachyonic slepton problem of the former and avoid significant fine tuning in the latter. We focus on an NMSSM-like scenario where U(1)' gauge invariance is used to forbid a tree-level mu term, and present concrete models, which admit successful dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking. Gaugino masses are somewhat lighter than the scalar masses, and the third generation squarks are lighter than the first two. In the specific class of models under consideration, the gluino is light since it only receives a contribution from 2-loop anomaly mediation, and it decays dominantly into third generation quarks. Gluino production leads to distinct LHC signals and prospects of early discovery. In addition, there is a relatively light Z', with mass in the range of several TeV. Discovering and studying its properties can reveal important clues about the underlying model.

Six-LeptonZ′Resonance at the Large Hadron Collider

New physics models admit the interesting possibility of a Z' weak boson associated with an extra U(1) gauge symmetry and a Higgs boson that is heavy enough to decay into a pair of Z bosons. Then Z' production and decay via Z' --> ZH --> ZZZ has a distinctive LHC signal that is nearly background-free and reconstructs the H and Z' masses and widths. The Z' decay to 3 pairs of leptons is especially distinctive. The ZH decay mode exists even if the Z' is decoupled from leptons, which motivates an independent 6-lepton resonance search regardless of the dilepton search results.

Neutrino masses and heavy triplet leptons at the LHC: Testability of the type III seesaw mechanism

We study LHC signatures of Type III seesaw in which SU(2)_L triplet leptons are introduced to supply the heavy seesaw masses. To detect the signals of these heavy triplet leptons, one needs to understand their decays to standard model particles which depend on how light and heavy leptons mix with each other. We concentrate on the usual solutions with small light and heavy lepton mixing of order the square root of the ratio of light and heavy masses, (m_\nu/M_{\nu_R})^{1/2}. This class of solutions can lead to a visible displaced vertex detectable at the LHC which can be used to distinguish small mixing and large mixing between light and heavy leptons. We show that, in this case, the couplings of light and heavy triplet leptons to gauge and Higgs bosons, which determine the decay widths and branching ratios, can be expressed in terms of light neutrino masses and their mixing. Using these relations, we study heavy triplet lepton decay patterns and production cross section at the LHC. If these heavy triplet leptons are below a TeV or so, they can be easily produced at the LHC due to their gauge interactions from being non-trivial representations of SU(2)_L. We consider two ideal production channels, 1) E^+E^- \to \ell^+\ell^+ \ell^-\ell^- jj (\ell=e,\mu,\tau) and 2) E^\pm N \to \ell^\pm \ell^\pm jjjj in detail. For case 1), we find that with one or two of the light leptons being \tau it can also be effectively studied. With judicious cuts at the LHC, the discovery of the heavy triplet leptons as high as a TeV can be achieved with 100 fb^{-1} integrated luminosity.

Gaugephobic Higgs signals at the LHC

The Gaugephobic Higgs model provides an interpolation between three different models of electroweak symmetry breaking: Higgsless models, Randall-Sundrum models, and the Standard Model. At parameter points between the extremes, Standard Model Higgs signals are present at reduced rates, and Higgsless Kaluza-Klein excitations are present with shifted masses and couplings, as well as signals from exotic quarks necessary to protect the Zb coupling. Using a new implementation of the model in SHERPA, we show the LHC signals which differentiate the generic Gaugephobic Higgs model from its limiting cases. These are all signals involving a Higgs coupling to a Kaluza-Klein gauge boson or quark. We identify the clean signal pp → W(i) → WH mediated by a Kaluza-Klein W, which can be present at large rates and is enhanced for even Kaluza-Klein numbers. Due to the very hard lepton coming from the W± decay, this signature has little background, and provides a better discovery channel for the Higgs than any of the Standard Model modes, over its entire mass range. A Higgs radiated from new heavy quarks also has large rates, but is much less promising due to very high multiplicity final states.

LHC signals for warped electroweak charged gauge bosons

We study signals at the LHC for the Kaluza-Klein (KK) excitations of electroweak charged gauge bosons in the framework of the standard model (SM) fields propagating in the bulk of a warped extra dimension. Such a scenario can solve both the Planck-weak and flavor hierarchy problems of the SM. There are two such charged states in this scenario with couplings to light quarks and leptons being suppressed relative to those in the SM, whereas the couplings to top/bottom quarks are enhanced, similar to the case of electroweak neutral gauge bosons previously studied. However, unlike the case of electroweak neutral gauge bosons, there is no irreducible QCD background (including pollution from possibly degenerate KK gluons) for decays to top+bottom final states so that this channel is useful for the discovery of the charged states. Moreover, decays of electroweak charged gauge bosons to longitudinal W, Z and Higgs are enhanced just as for the neutral bosons. However, unlike for the neutral gauge bosons, the purely leptonic (and hence clean) decay mode of the WZ is fully reconstructible so that the ratio of the signal to the SM (electroweak) background can potentially be enhanced by restricting to the resonance region more efficiently. Wemore » show that such final states can give sensitivity to 2(3) TeV masses with an integrated luminosity of 100(300) fb{sup -1}. We emphasize that improvements in discriminating a QCD jet from a highly boosted hadronically decaying W, and a highly boosted top jet from a bottom jet will enhance the reach for these KK particles, and that the signals we study for the warped extra dimensional model might actually be applicable also to a wider class of nonsupersymmetric models of electroweak symmetry breaking.« less

Higgs mediated flavor changing neutral currents in warped extra dimensions

In the context of a warped extra dimension with standard model fields in the bulk, we obtain the general flavor structure of the Higgs couplings to fermions. These couplings will be generically misaligned with respect to the fermion mass matrix, producing large and potentially dangerous flavor changing neutral currents. As recently pointed out [K. Agashe and R. Contino, arXiv:0906.1542.], a similar effect is expected from the point of view of a composite Higgs sector, which corresponds to a four-dimensional theory dual to the five-dimensional setup by the AdS/CFT correspondence. We also point out that the effect is independent of the geographical nature of the Higgs (bulk or brane localized), and specifically that it does not go away as the Higgs is pushed towards the IR boundary. The flavor changing neutral currents mediated by a light enough Higgs (especially their contribution to ${ϵ}_{K}$) could become of comparable size as the ones coming from the exchange of Kaluza-Klein gluons. Moreover, both sources of flavor violation are complementary since they have inverse dependence on the five-dimensional Yukawa couplings, such that we cannot decouple the flavor violation effects by increasing or decreasing these couplings. We also find that for Kaluza-Klein scales of a few TeV, the Higgs couplings to third generation fermions could experience suppressions of up to 40% while the rest of diagonal couplings would suffer much milder corrections. Potential LHC signatures like the Higgs flavor violating decays $h\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\tau}$ or $h\ensuremath{\rightarrow}tc$, or the exotic top decay channel $t\ensuremath{\rightarrow}ch$, are finally addressed.

Gluino NLSP, dark matter via gluino coannihilation, and LHC signatures

The possibility that the gluino is the next to the lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) is discussed and it is shown that this situation arises in nonuniversal supergravity models within a significant part of the parameter space compatible with all known experimental bounds. It is then shown that the gluino NLSP (GNLSP) models lead to a compressed sfermion spectrum with the sleptons often heavier than the squarks at least for the first two generations. The relic density here is governed by gluino coannihilation which is responsible for a relatively small mass splitting between the gluino and the neutralino masses. Thus the GNLSP class of models is very predictive first because the supersymmetry (SUSY) production cross sections at the CERN LHC are dominated by gluino production and second because the gluino production itself proceeds dominantly through a single channel which allows for a direct determination of the gluino mass and an indirect determination of the neutralino mass due to a linear relation between these two masses which is highly constrained by coannihilation. A detailed analysis of these models shows that the jet production and tagged $b$ jets from the gluino production can be discriminated from the standard model background with appropriate cuts. It is found that the GNLSP models can be tested with just $10\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fb}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ of integrated luminosity and may therefore be checked with low luminosity runs in the first data at the LHC. Thus if a GNLSP model is realized, the LHC will turn into a gluino factory through a profuse production of gluinos with typically only a small fraction $\ensuremath{\lesssim}5%$ of total SUSY events arising from other production modes over the allowed GNLSP model parameter space.

Can we see strings at the LHC?

AbstractIn this article we will overview possible model independent LHC signatures of intersecting brane models.

The leptonic Higgs as a messenger of dark matter

We propose that the leptonic cosmic ray signals seen by PAMELA and ATIC result from the annihilation or decay of dark matter particles via states of a leptonic Higgs doublet to τ leptons, linking cosmic ray signals of dark matter to LHC signals of the Higgs sector. The states of the leptonic Higgs doublet are lighter than about 200 GeV, yielding large τ and ττ event rates at the LHC. Simple models are given for the dark matter particle and its interactions with the leptonic Higgs, for cosmic ray signals arising from both annihilations and decays in the galactic halo. For the case of annihilations, cosmic photon and neutrino signals are on the verge of discovery.

Seeing through the string landscape—a string hunter's companion in particle physics and cosmology

In this article we will overview several aspects of the string landscape, namely intersecting D-brane models and their statistics, possible model independent LHC signatures of intersecting brane models, flux compactification, moduli stabilization in type II compactifications, domain wall solutions and brane inflation.

Working group report: Dictionary of Large Hadron Collider signatures

We report on a plan to establish a "Dictionary of LHC Signatures", an initiative that started at the WHEPPX workshop in January 2008. This study aims towards the strategy on distinguishing of 3 classes of dark matter motivated scenarios such as R-parity conserved supersymmetry, Little Higgs models with T-parity conservation and Universal Extra Dimensions with KK-parity for generic cases of their realization in wide range of the model space. Discriminating signatures are tabulated and will need a further detailed analysis.

LHC signals for a SuperUnified theory of Dark Matter

A new theory of WIMP Dark Matter has been proposed, motivated directly by striking Data from the PAMELA and ATIC collaborations. The WIMP is taken to be charged under a hidden gauge symmetry G_Dark, broken near the GeV scale; this also provides the necessary ingredients for the "exciting" and "inelastic" Dark Matter interpretations of the INTEGRAL and DAMA signals. In this short note we point out the consequences of the most straightforward embedding of this simple picture within low-energy SUSY, in which G_Dark breaking at the GeV scale arises naturally through radiative corrections, or Planck-suppressed operators. The theory predicts major additions to SUSY signals at the LHC. A completely generic prediction is that G_Dark particles can be produced in cascade decays of MSSM superpartners, since these end with pairs of MSSM LSP's that in turn decay into the true LSP and other particles in the dark sector. In turn, the lightest GeV-scale dark Higgses and gauge bosons eventually decay back into light SM states, and dominantly into leptons. Therefore, a large fraction of all SUSY events will contain at least two ``lepton jets'': collections of n>= 2 leptons, with small angular separations and GeV scale invariant masses. Furthermore, if the Dark Matter sector is directly charged under the Standard Model, the success of gauge coupling unification implies the presence of new long-lived colored particles that can be copiously produced at the LHC.

LHC SIGNATURES FOR Z' MODELS WITH CONTINUOUSLY DISTRIBUTED MASS

We discuss phenomenological consequences of renormalizable Z' models with continuously distributed mass. We point out that one of the possible LHC signatures for such model is the existence of broad resonance in Drell–Yan reaction pp →Z' →l+l-.

MSSM extension with a mirror fourth generation, neutrino magnetic moments, and CERN LHC signatures

Recent analyses have shown that a sequential fourth generation can be consistent with precision electroweak data. We consider the possibility that the new generation could be a mirror generation with $V+A$ rather than $V\ensuremath{-}A$ interactions. Specifically we consider an extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model with a light mirror generation. Implications of this extension are explored. One consequence is an enhancement of the $\ensuremath{\tau}$ neutrino magnetic moment by several orders of magnitude consistent with the current limits on the magnetic moment of the $\ensuremath{\tau}$. The masses of the mirror generation arise due to electroweak symmetry breaking, and if a mirror generation exists its mass spectrum must lie below a TeV, and thus should be discovered at the LHC. Mirror particles and mirror sparticles produce many characteristic signatures which should be detectable at the LHC. Heavy Higgs boson decays into mirror particles and an analysis of the forward-backward asymmetries can distinguish a mirror generation from a sequential fourth generation. The validity of the model can thus be tested at the LHC. A model of the type discussed here could arise from a more unified structure such as grand unification or strings where a mirror generation escapes the survival hypothesis, i.e., a generation and a mirror generation do not tie up to acquire a mass of size ${M}_{\mathrm{GUT}}$ or ${M}_{\mathrm{string}}$ due to a symmetry, and thus remain massless down to the electroweak scale.

Towards establishing the spin of warped gravitons

We study the possibility of experimental verification of the spin=2 nature of the Kaluza-Klein (KK) graviton which is predicted to exist in the extra-dimensional Randal-Sundrum (RS) warped models. The couplings of these gravitons to the particles located on or near the TeV brane is the strongest as the overlap integral of their profiles in the extra-dimension is large. Among them are unphysical Higgses ($W^{\pm}_L$ and $Z_L$) and KK excitations of the Standard Model (SM) gauge bosons. We consider the possibility to confirm the spin-2 nature of the first KK mode of the warped graviton ($G_1$) based on the angular distribution of the Z bozon in the graviton rest frame in the gg$\to G_1 \to W^{KK} (Z^{KK}) W (Z)\to WWZ$, gg$\to G_1\to ZZ$ and gg$\to G_1 \to Z^{KK} Z\to ZZH$ decay channels. Using Wigner D-matrix properties, we derive the relationship between the graviton spin, signal angular distribution peak value, and other theoretically calculable quantities. We then study the LHC signals for these decay modes and find that with 1000 fb$^{-1}$ of data, spin of the RS graviton up to $\sim$ 2 TeV may be confirmed in the $pp \to W^{KK} (Z^{KK}) W (Z) \to WWZ \to$ 3 leptons + jet + $\slashed{E}_T$ and $pp \to ZZ \to$ 4 leptons decay modes.

Exploring compressed supersymmetry with same-sign top quarks at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

In compressed supersymmetry, a light top squark naturally mediates efficient neutralino pair annihilation to govern the thermal relic abundance of dark matter. I study the CERN LHC signal of same-sign leptonic top-quark decays from gluino and squark production, which follows from gluino decays to top plus stop followed by the stop decaying to a charm quark and the LSP in these models. Measurements of the numbers of jets with heavy-flavor tags in the same-sign lepton events can be used to confirm the origin of the signal. Summed transverse momentum observables provide an estimate of an effective superpartner mass, which is correlated with the gluino mass. Measurements of invariant mass endpoints from the visible products of gluino decays do not allow direct determination of superpartner masses, but can place constraints on them, including lower bounds on the gluino mass as a function of the top-squark mass.