R-parity Violation Research Articles

Neutrinos and collider physics

We review the collider phenomenology of neutrino physics and the synergetic aspects at energy, intensity and cosmic frontiers to test the new physics behind the neutrino mass mechanism. In particular, we focus on seesaw models within the minimal setup as well as with extended gauge and/or Higgs sectors, and on supersymmetric neutrino mass models with seesaw mechanism and with R-parity violation. In the simplest type-I seesaw scenario with sterile neutrinos, we summarize and update the current experimental constraints on the sterile neutrino mass and its mixing with the active neutrinos. We also discuss the future experimental prospects of testing the seesaw mechanism at colliders and in related low-energy searches for rare processes, such as lepton flavor violation and neutrinoless double beta decay. The implications of the discovery of lepton number violation at the Large Hadron Collider for leptogenesis are also studied.

Antideuterons from decaying gravitino dark matter

We study the possibility of improving the constraints on the lifetime of gravitino dark matter in scenarios with bilinear R-parity violation by estimating the amount of cosmic-ray antideuterons that can be produced in gravitino decays. Taking into account all different sources of theoretical uncertainties, we find that the margin of improvement beyond the limits already set by cosmic-ray antiproton data are quite narrow and unachievable for the next generation of experiments. However, we also identify more promising energy ranges for future experiments.

AMS-02 antiprotons from annihilating or decaying dark matter

Recently the AMS-02 experiment reported an excess of cosmic ray antiprotons over the expected astrophysical background. We interpret the excess as a signal from annihilating or decaying dark matter and find that the observed spectrum is well fitted by adding contributions from the annihilation or decay of dark matter with mass of O(TeV) or larger. Interestingly, Wino dark matter with mass of around 3 TeV, whose thermal relic abundance is consistent with present dark matter abundance, can explain the antiproton excess. We also discuss the implications for the decaying gravitino dark matter with R-parity violation.

Models of dynamical R-parity violation

The presence of R-parity violating interactions may relieve the tension between existing LHC constraints and natural supersymmetry. In this paper we lay down the theoretical framework and explore models of dynamical R-parity violation in which the breaking of R-parity is communicated to the visible sector by heavy messenger fields. We find that R-parity violation is often dominated by non-holomorphic operators that have so far been largely ignored, and might require a modification of the existing searches at the LHC. The dynamical origin implies that the effects of such operators are suppressed by the ratio of either the light fermion masses or the supersymmetry breaking scale to the mediation scale, thereby providing a natural explanation for the smallness of R-parity violation. We consider various scenarios, classified by whether R-parity violation, flavor breaking and/or supersymmetry breaking are mediated by the same messenger fields. The most compact case, corresponding to a deformation of the so called flavor mediation scenario, allows for the mediation of supersymmetry breaking, R-parity breaking, and flavor symmetry breaking in a unified manner.

Simultaneous B and L violation: new signatures from RPV-SUSY

Studies of R-parity violating (RPV) supersymmetry typically assume that nucleon stability is protected by approximate baryon number (B) or lepton number (L) conservation. We present a new class of RPV models that violate B and L simultaneously (BLRPV), without inducing rapid nucleon decay. These models feature an approximate Z 2×Z 2×Z 2 flavorsymmetry,whichforbids2-bodynucleondecayandensuresthatflavor antisymmetric LLE c couplings are the only non-negligible L-violating operators. Nucleons are predicted to decay through N → Keμν and n → eμν; the resulting bounds on RPV couplings are rather mild. Novel collider phenomenology arises because the superpartners can decay through both L-violating and B-violating couplings. This can lead to, for example, final states with high jet multiplicity and multiple leptons of different flavor, or a spectrum in which depending on the superpartner, either B or L violating decays dominate. BLRPV can also provide a natural setting for displaced ν → μe decays, which evade many existing collider searches for RPV supersymmetry.

The fate of long-lived superparticles with hadronic decays after LHC Run 1

Supersymmetry searches at the LHC are both highly varied and highly constraining, but the vast majority are focused on cases where the final-stage visible decays are prompt. Scenarios featuring superparticles with detector-scale lifetimes have therefore remained a tantalizing possibility for sub-TeV SUSY, since explicit limits are relatively sparse. Nonetheless, the extremely low backgrounds of the few existing searches for collider-stable and displaced new particles facilitates recastings into powerful long-lived superparticle searches, even for models for which those searches are highly non-optimized. In this paper, we assess the status of such models in the context of baryonic R-parity violation, gauge mediation, and mini-split SUSY. We explore a number of common simplified spectra where hadronic decays can be important, employing recasts of LHC searches that utilize different detector systems and final-state objects. The LSP/NLSP possibilities considered here include generic colored superparticles such as the gluino and light-flavor squarks, as well as the lighter stop and the quasi-degenerate Higgsino multiplet motivated by naturalness. We find that complementary coverage over large swaths of mass and lifetime is achievable by superimposing limits, particularly from CMS's tracker-based displaced dijet search and heavy stable charged particle searches. Adding in prompt searches, we find many cases where a range of sparticle masses is now excluded from zero lifetime to infinite lifetime with no gaps. In other cases, the displaced searches furnish the only extant limits at any lifetime.

Emerging jets

In this work, we propose a novel search strategy for new physics at the LHC that utilizes calorimeter jets that (i) are composed dominantly of displaced tracks and (ii) have many different vertices within the jet cone. Such emerging jet signatures are smoking guns for models with a composite dark sector where a parton shower in the dark sector is followed by displaced decays of dark pions back to SM jets. No current LHC searches are sensitive to this type of phenomenology. We perform a detailed simulation for a benchmark signal with two regular and two emerging jets, and present and implement strategies to suppress QCD backgrounds by up to six orders of magnitude. At the 14 TeV LHC, this signature can be probed with mediator masses as large as 1.5 TeV for a range of dark pion lifetimes, and the reach is increased further at the high-luminosity LHC. The emerging jet search is also sensitive to a broad class of long-lived phenomena, and we show this for a supersymmetric model with R-parity violation. Possibilities for discovery at LHCb are also discussed.

Axino LSP baryogenesis and dark matter

We discuss a new mechanism for baryogenesis, in which the baryon asymmetry is generated by the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) decay via baryonic R-parity-violating interactions. As a specific example, we use a supersymmetric axion model with an axino LSP. This scenario predicts large R-parity violation for the stop, and an upper limit on the squark masses between 15 and 130 TeV, for different choices of the Peccei-Quinn scale and the soft Xt terms. We discuss the implications for the nature of dark matter in light of the axino baryogenesis mechanism, and find that both the axion and a metastable gravitino can provide the correct dark matter density. In the axion dark matter scenario, the initial misalignment angle is restricted to be \U0001d4aa(1). On the other hand, the reheating temperature is linked to the PQ scale and should be higher than 104–105 GeV in the gravitino dark matter scenario.

Constraints on decaying dark matter from the extragalactic gamma-ray background

If dark matter is unstable and the mass is within GeV–TeV regime, its decays produce high-energy photons that give contribution to the extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGRB). We constrain dark matter decay by analyzing the 50-month EGRB data measured with Fermi satellite, for different decay channels motivated with several supersymmetric scenarios featuring R-parity violation. We adopt the latest astrophysical models for various source classes such as active galactic nuclei and star-forming galaxies, and take associated uncertainties properly into account. The lower limits for the lifetime are very stringent for a wide range of dark matter mass, excluding the lifetime shorter than 1028 s for mass between a few hundred GeV and ∼1 TeV, e.g., for bb̄ decay channel. Furthermore, most dark matter models that explain the anomalous positron excess are also excluded. These constraints are robust, being little dependent on astrophysical uncertainties, unlike other probes such as Galactic positrons or anti-protons.

Way to crosscheckμ−econversion in the case of no signals ofμ→eγandμ→3e

We consider the case that the $\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{-}e$ conversion signal is discovered but other charged lepton flavor violating (cLFV) processes will never be found. In such a case, we need other approaches to confirm the $\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{-}e$ conversion and its underlying physics without conventional cLFV searches. We study R-parity violating (RPV) SUSY models as a benchmark. We briefly review that our interesting case is realized in RPV SUSY models with reasonable settings in light of current theoretical and experimental status. We focus on the exotic collider signatures at the LHC ($pp\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\mu}}^{\ensuremath{-}}{e}^{+}$ and $pp\ensuremath{\rightarrow}jj$) as the other approaches. We show the correlations between the branching ratio of the $\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{-}e$ conversion process and cross sections of these processes. It is the first time that these correlations have been graphically shown. We exhibit the RPV parameter dependence of the branching ratio and the cross sections and discuss the feasibility of determining the parameters.

Supersymmetry with a sister Higgs boson

Within the context of supersymmetric theories, explaining a 125 GeV Higgs motivates a consideration of a broader range of models. We consider a simple addition to the MSSM of a "Sister Higgs" ($\Sigma_d$), a Higgs field that participates in electroweak symmetry breaking but does not give any direct masses to Standard Model matter fields. While a relatively minor addition, the phenomenological implications can be important. Such a field can be naturally charged under an additional symmetry group $G_s$. If gauged, the Higgs mass is naturally much larger than in the MSSM through an NMSSM-type interaction, but with $\Sigma_d$ playing the role of $H_d$. The addition of the sister Higgs allows new R-parity violating operators $\Sigma_d H_d E$, which are less constrained than conventional leptonic R-parity violation. Considerations of unification motivates the presence of colored $G_s$-charged fields. Production of these G-quarks can lead to new b-rich final states and modifications to decays of gluinos, as well as new opportunities for R-parity violation. Unlike a conventional fourth generation, G-quarks dominantly decay into a light jet and a scalar (potentially the Higgs), which then generally decays to b-jets. The presence of additional sister charges allows the possibilities that lightest sister-charged particle (LSiP) could be stable. We consider the possibility of an LSiP dark matter candidate and find it is generally very constrained.

On the two-loop corrections to the Higgs mass in trilinear R-parity violation

We study the impact of large trilinear R-parity violating couplings on the lightest CP-even Higgs boson mass in supersymmetric models. We use the publicly available computer codes SARAH and SPheno to compute the leading two-loop corrections. We use the effective potential approach. For not too heavy third generation squarks (m˜≲1 TeV) and couplings close to the unitarity bound we find positive corrections up to a few GeV in the Higgs mass.

Natural X-ray lines from the low scale supersymmetry breaking

In the supersymmetric models with low scale supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking where the gravitino mass is around keV, we show that the 3.5 keV X-ray lines can be explained naturally through several different mechanisms: (I) a keV scale dark gaugino plays the role of sterile neutrino in the presence of bilinear R-parity violation. Because the light dark gaugino obtains Majorana mass only via gravity mediation, it is a decaying warm dark matter (DM) candidate; (II) the compressed cold DM states, whose mass degeneracy is broken by gravity mediated SUSY breaking, emit such a line via the heavier one decay into the lighter one plus photon(s). A highly supersymmetric dark sector may readily provide such kind of system; (III) the light axino, whose mass again is around the gravitino mass, decays to neutrino plus gamma in the R-parity violating SUSY. Moreover, we comment on dark radiation from dark gaugino.

Antiproton Limits on Decaying Gravitino Dark Matter

We report on constraints on the lifetime of decaying gravitino dark matter in models with bilinear R-parity violation derived from observations of cosmic-ray antiprotons with the PAMELA experiment. Performing a scan over a viable set of cosmic-ray propagation parameters we find lower limits ranging from 8 × 1028 s to 6 × 1028 s for gravitino masses from roughly 100GeV to 10 TeV. Comparing these limits to constraints derived from gamma-ray and neutrino observations we conclude that the presented antiproton limits are currently the strongest and most robust limits on the gravitino lifetime in the considered mass range. These constraints correspond to upper limits on the size of the bilinear R-parity breaking parameter in the range of 10−8 to 8 × 10−13.

R parity violation from discrete R symmetries

We consider supersymmetric extensions of the standard model in which the usual R or matter parity gets replaced by another R or non-R discrete symmetry that explains the observed longevity of the nucleon and solves the μ problem of MSSM. In order to identify suitable symmetries, we develop a novel method of deriving the maximal ZN(R) symmetry that satisfies a given set of constraints. We identify R parity violating (RPV) and conserving models that are consistent with precision gauge unification and also comment on their compatibility with a unified gauge symmetry such as the Pati–Salam group. Finally, we provide a counter-example to the statement found in the recent literature that the lepton number violating RPV scenarios must have μ term and the bilinear κLHu operator of comparable magnitude.

R-parity violating chargino decays at the LHC

Supersymmetric models with R-parity violation (RPV) have become more popular following the lack of any excess of missing energy events at the 8 TeV LHC. To identify such models, the suggested searches generally rely on the decay products of the (effectively) lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), with signals that depend on the identity of the LSP and the relevant RPV operators. Here we look at the prospects for detecting RPV chargino decays at the LHC and find substantial patches of parameter space in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with possibly spectacular signatures, such as three charged-lepton resonances.

Linear programming analysis of the R-parity violation within EDM-constraints

The constraint on the $R$-parity violating supersymmetric interactions is discussed in the light of current experimental data of the electric dipole moment of neutron, $^{129}$Xe , $^{205}$Tl, and $^{199}$Hg atoms, and YbF and ThO molecules. To investigate the constraints without relying upon the assumption of the dominance of a particular combination of couplings over all the rest, an extensive use is made of the linear programming method in the scan of the parameter space. We give maximally possible values for the EDMs of the proton, deuteron, $^3$He nucleus, $^{211}$Rn, $^{225}$Ra, $^{210}$Fr, and the $R$-correlation of the neutron beta decay within the constraints from the current experimental data of the EDMs of neutron, $^{129}$Xe, $^{205}$Tl, and $^{199}$Hg atoms, and YbF and ThO molecules using the linear programming method. It is found that the $R$-correlation of the neutron beta decay and hadronic EDMs are very useful observables to constrain definite regions of the parameter space of the $R$-parity violating supersymmetry.

Higgs sector in NMSSM with right-handed neutrinos and spontaneous R-parity violation

R-parity violation modifies the phenomenology of supersymmetric models considerably. We study a version of NMSSM, which contains right-handed neutrinos and in which spontaneous R-parity violation is possible. We study the ensuing effects of spontaneous breaking to the Higgs decay modes, taking into account the measured mass of the Higgs boson and experimental constraints, including rare decays. We find that a possible light scalar, dominantly a sneutrino, helps to increase the Standard Model (SM) Higgs-like scalar mass to the measured value. At the same time, a lighter stop than in the MSSM is allowed. The Higgs decay rates in the studied model can somewhat differ from the SM expectations, although the most prominent difference is a universal suppression in the couplings due to the mixing of doublet scalars with singlets. The charged, pseudoscalar, and other than the two lightest scalar Higgses are typically heavier than 1 TeV in the parameter region where R-parity is spontaneously broken.

Gravitino dark matter in split supersymmetry with bilinear R-parity violation

In Split-SUSY with BRpV we show that the Gravitino DM solution is consistent with experimental evidence as regards its relic density and life time. We arrive at this conclusion by performing a complete numerical and algebraic study of the parameter space, including constraints from the recently determined Higgs mass, updated neutrino physics, and BBN constraints on NLSP decays. The Higgs mass requires a relatively low Split-SUSY mass scale, which is naturally smaller than usual values for reheating temperature, allowing the use of the standard expression for the relic density. We include restrictions from neutrino physics with three generations, and we notice that the gravitino decay width depends on the atmospheric neutrino mass scale. We calculate the neutralino decay rate and find it consistent with BBN. We mention some implications on indirect DM searches.

Probing the μνSSM with light scalars, pseudoscalars and neutralinos from the decay of a SM-like Higgs boson at the LHC

The "$\mu$ from $\nu$" supersymmetric standard model ($\mu\nu$SSM) can accommodate the newly discovered Higgs-like scalar boson with a mass around 125 GeV. This model provides a solution to the $\mu$-problem and simultaneously reproduces correct neutrino physics by the simple use of right-handed neutrino superfields. These new superfields together with the introduced $R$-parity violation can produce novel and characteristic signatures of the $\mu\nu$SSM at the LHC. We explore the signatures produced through two-body Higgs decays into the new states, provided that these states lie below in the mass spectrum. For example, a pair produced light neutralinos depending on the associated decay length can give rise to displaced multi-leptons/taus/jets/photons with small/moderate missing transverse energy. In the same spirit, a Higgs-like scalar decaying to a pair of scalars/pseudoscalars can produce final states with prompt multi-leptons/taus/jets/photons.