Search

In particle physics, the modern view is to categorize things in terms of effective field theories (EFTs). Above the weak scale, we have the SMEFT, formed when the heavy new physics (NP) is integrated out, and for which the Standard Model (SM) is the leading part. Below MW, we have the LEFT (low-energy EFT), formed when the heavy SM particles (W±, Z0, H, t) are also integrated out. In order to determine how low-energy measurements depend on the underlying NP, it is necessary to compute the matching conditions of LEFT operators to SMEFT operators. These matching conditions have been worked out for all LEFT operators up to dimension 6 in terms of SMEFT operators up to dimension 6 at the one-loop level. However, this is not sufficient for all low-energy observables. In this paper we present the momentum-independent matching conditions of all such LEFT operators to SMEFT operators up to dimension 8 at tree level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we continue to construct the low-energy effective field theories (EFTs) of the canonical seesaw models, which are natural extensions of the Standard Model (SM) to accommodate tiny but nonzero neutrino masses. Different from three right-handed neutrino singlets in the type-I seesaw model, the Higgs triplet in the type-II seesaw model participates directly in the electroweak gauge interactions, rendering the EFT construction more challenging. By integrating out the heavy Higgs triplet in the functional-integral formalism, we carry out a complete one-loop matching of the type-II seesaw model onto the so-called Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). It turns out that 41 dimension-six operators (barring flavor structures and Hermitian conjugates) in the Warsaw basis of the SMEFT can be obtained, covering all those 31 dimension-six operators in the case of type-I seesaw model. The Wilson coefficients for 41 dimension-six operators are computed up to O M ∆ − 2 with M∆ being the mass scale of the Higgs triplet. Moreover, the branching ratios of rare radiative decays of charged leptons l α − → l β − + γ are calculated in the EFT and compared with that in the full theory in order to demonstrate the practical application and the correctness of our EFT construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in searches for heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) at the LHC has increased considerably in the past few years. In the minimal scenario, HNLs are produced and decay via their mixing with active neutrinos in the Standard Model (SM) spectrum. However, many SM extensions with HNLs have been discussed in the literature, which sometimes change expectations for LHC sensitivities drastically. In the NRSMEFT, one extends the SM effective field theory with operators including SM singlet fermions, which allows to study HNL phenomenology in a "model independent" way. In this paper, we study the sensitivity of ATLAS to HNLs in the NRSMEFT for four-fermion operators with a single HNL. These operators might dominate both production and decay of HNLs, and we find that new physics scales in excess of 20 TeV could be probed at the high-luminosity LHC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we accomplish the complete one-loop matching of the type-I seesaw model onto the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT), by integrating out three heavy Majorana neutrinos with the functional approach. It turns out that only 31 dimension-six operators (barring flavor structures and Hermitian conjugates) in the Warsaw basis of the SMEFT can be obtained, and most of them appear at the one-loop level. The Wilson coefficients of these 31 dimension-six operators are computed up to O (M−2) with M being the mass scale of heavy Majorana neutrinos. As the effects of heavy Majorana neutrinos are encoded in the Wilson coefficients of these higher-dimensional operators, a complete one-loop matching is useful to explore the low-energy phenomenological consequences of the type-I seesaw model. In addition, the threshold corrections to the couplings in the Standard Model and to the coefficient of the dimension-five operator are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-energy effective field theories (EFT) encode information about the physics at high energies — i.e., the high-energy theory (HET). To extract this information the EFT and the HET have to be matched to each other. At the one-loop level, general results for the matching of renormalizable operators have already been obtained in the literature. In the present paper, we take a step towards a better understanding of renormalizable operator matching at the two-loop level: focusing on the diagrammatic method, we discuss in detail the various contributions to two-loop matching conditions and compare different approaches to derive them. Moreover, we discuss which observables are best suited for the derivation of matching conditions. As a concrete application, we calculate the O α t α s and O α t 2 matching conditions of the scalar four-point couplings between the Standard Model (SM) and the Two-Higgs-Doublet Model (THDM) as well as the THDM and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). We use the derived formulas to improve the prediction of the SM-like Higgs mass in the MSSM using the THDM as EFT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The calculation of next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative corrections at fixed operator dimension in Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) has been a topic of much recent interest. In this paper we obtain the NLO corrections from dimension-6 operators to the Higgs boson decays h → f f ¯ , where the fermions f ∈ {μ, τ, c}. This extends previous results for h → b b ¯ to all phenomenologically relevant Higgs boson decays into fermions, and provides the basis for future precision analyses of these decays within effective field theory. We point out the benefits of studying ratios of decay rates into different fermions in SMEFT, the most surprising of which is enhanced sensitivity to anomalous hγγ and hgg couplings induced by flavor-universal SMEFT operators, especially in scenarios where flavor-dependent Wilson coefficients are constrained by Minimal Flavor Violation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neutrino oscillations are precision probes of new physics. Apart from neutrino masses and mixings, they are also sensitive to possible deviations of low-energy interactions between quarks and leptons from the Standard Model predictions. In this paper we develop a systematic description of such non-standard interactions (NSI) in oscillation experiments within the quantum field theory framework. We calculate the event rate and oscillation probability in the presence of general NSI, starting from the effective field theory (EFT) in which new physics modifies the flavor or Lorentz structure of charged-current interactions between leptons and quarks. We also provide the matching between the EFT Wilson coefficients and the widely used simplified quantum-mechanical approach, where new physics is encoded in a set of production and detection NSI parameters. Finally, we discuss the consistency conditions for the standard NSI approach to correctly reproduce the quantum field theory result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a companion paper [1], we show that operator bases for general effective field theories are controlled by the conformal algebra. Equations of motion and integration by parts identities can be systematically treated by organizing operators into irreducible representations of the conformal group. In the present work, we use this result to study the standard model effective field theory (SM EFT), determining the content and number of higher dimension operators up to dimension 12, for an arbitrary number of fermion generations. We find additional operators to those that have appeared in the literature at dimension 7 (specifically in the case of more than one fermion generation) and at dimension 8. (The title sequence is the total number of independent operators in the SM EFT with one fermion generation, including hermitian conjugates, ordered in mass dimension, starting at dimension 5.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the sensitivity of the FASERν detector to new physics in the form of non-standard neutrino interactions. FASERν, which will be installed 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point, will for the first time study interactions of multi-TeV neutrinos from a controlled source. Our formalism — which is applicable to any current and future neutrino experiment — is based on the Standard Model Effective Theory (SMEFT) and its counterpart, Weak Effective Field Theory (WEFT), below the electroweak scale. Starting from the WEFT Lagrangian, we compute the coefficients that modify neutrino production in meson decays and detection via deep-inelastic scattering, and we express the new physics effects in terms of modified flavor transition probabilities. For some coupling structures, we find that FASERν will be able to constrain interactions that are two to three orders of magnitude weaker than Standard Model weak interactions, implying that the experiment will be indirectly probing new physics at the multi-TeV scale. In some cases, FASERν constraints will become comparable to existing limits — some of them derived for the first time in this paper — already with 150 fb−1 of data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low-energy effective field theory (LEFT) provides the appropriate framework to describe particle interactions below the scale of electroweak symmetry breaking, μw ~ v. By matching the Standard Model onto the LEFT, non-zero Wilson coefficients of higher-dimensional operators are generated, suppressed by the corresponding power of 1/v. An axion or axion-like particle (ALP) with mass ma ≪ μw that interacts with the Standard Model via classically shift-invariant dimension-five operators would also contribute to the LEFT Wilson coefficients, since it can appear as a virtual particle in divergent Green's functions and thus has an impact on the renormalization of the LEFT operators. We present the full set of one-loop ALP-induced source terms modifying the renormalization-group evolution equations of the LEFT Wilson coefficients up to dimension-six order. Our framework allows for model-independent ALP searches at low energies from current bounds on LEFT Wilson coefficients. As a concrete application, we present an improved prediction for ALP effects on the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Axions provide a solution to the strong CP problem and are excellent dark matter candidates. The presence of additional sources of CP violation, for example to account for the matter/antimatter asymmetry of the universe, can lead to CP-violating interactions between axions and Standard Model fields. In case axions form a coherent dark matter background, this leads to time-oscillating fundamental constants such as the fine-structure constant and particle masses. In this work we compare the sensitivity of various searches for CP-odd axion interactions. These include fifth-force experiments, searches for time-oscillating constants induced by axion dark matter, and direct limits from electric dipole moment experiments. We show that searches for oscillating constants can outperform fifth-force experiments in the regime of small axion masses, but, in general, do not reach the sensitivity of electric dipole moment experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a novel possibility for Higgs inflation where the perturbative unitarity below the Planck scale is ensured by construction and the successful predictions for inflation are accommodated. The conformal gravity coupling for the Higgs field leads to the proximity of the effective Planck mass to zero in the Jordan frame during inflation, corresponding to a pole in the Higgs kinetic term in the Einstein frame. Requiring the Higgs potential to vanish at the conformal pole in the effective theory in the Jordan frame, we make a robust prediction of the successful Higgs inflation. For a successful Higgs inflation at the pole, we take the running quartic coupling for the Higgs field to be small enough at the inflation scale, being consistent with the low-energy data, but we need a nontrivial extension of the SM with extra scalar or gauge fields in order to keep the running Higgs quartic coupling small during inflation. Performing the perturbative analysis of reheating with the known couplings of the SM particles to the Higgs boson, we show that a concrete realization of the Higgs pole inflation can be pinned down by the reheating processes with a general equation of state for the Higgs inflaton. We illustrate some extensions of the simple Higgs pole inflation to the general pole expansions, the running Higgs quartic coupling in the Standard Model and its extension with a singlet scalar field, a supergravity embedding of the Higgs pole inflation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The translation of experimental limits on the neutron electric dipole moment into constraints on heavy CP-violating physics beyond the Standard Model requires knowledge about non-perturbative matrix elements of effective operators, which ideally should be computed in lattice QCD. However, this necessitates a matching calculation as an interface to the effective field theory framework, which is based on dimensional regularization and renormalization by minimal subtraction. We calculate the one-loop matching between the gradient-flow and minimal-subtraction schemes for the CP-violating four-quark operators contributing to the neutron electric dipole moment. The gradient flow is a modern regularization-independent scheme amenable to lattice computations that promises, e.g., better control over power divergences than traditional momentum-subtraction schemes. Our results extend previous work on dimension-five operators and provide a necessary ingredient for future lattice-QCD computations of the contribution of four-quark operators to the neutron electric dipole moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we consider a class of dark matter (DM) models where the DM does not directly interact with the Standard Model (SM) particles at the tree-level. Therefore, the coannihilation mechanism is crucial in achieving the correct DM relic abundance, which in turn requires the coannihilating partner to be close in mass to the actual DM particle. In our systematisation of the models' class, the mediator and the coannihilation partner are assumed to be charged under QCD interactions. This last feature calls for a scrutiny of non-perturbative effects, namely Sommerfeld factors and bound-state formation, on the annihilations of the colored partner. Such non-perturbative effects are illustrated with an example model comprising a scalar leptoquark mediator, a Dirac vector-like fermion coannihilation partner, and a singlet DM fermion. Phenomenological features of this model, namely DM direct and indirect detection prospects, collider implications, and impact on the muon anomalous magnetic moment, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the positivity bounds for WIMP scalar dark matter with effective Higgs-portal couplings up to dimension-8 operators. Taking the superposed states for Standard Model Higgs and scalar dark matter, we show that the part of the parameter space for the effective couplings, otherwise unconstrained by phenomenological bounds, is ruled out by the positivity bounds on the dimension-8 derivative operators. We find that dark matter relic density, direct and indirect detection and LHC constraints are complementary to the positivity bounds in constraining the effective Higgs-portal couplings. In the effective theory obtained from massive graviton or radion, there appears a correlation between dimension-8 operators and other effective Higgs-portal couplings for which the strong constraint from direct detection can be evaded. Nailing down the parameter space mainly by relic density, direct detection and positivity bounds, we find that there are observable cosmic ray signals coming from the dark matter annihilations into a pair of Higgs bosons, WW or ZZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the renormalisation group running of the bosonic operators of the Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT) by the Lepton Number Violating operators (LNVs) at 1-loop order up to O (v4/Λ4), with v ∼ 246 GeV as the electroweak scale and Λ as the SMEFT cut-off. Using these relations with the positivity bounds on Wilson coefficients of ϕ4D4 class, we derive sign constraints on the Wilson coefficients of LNV operators, for models where ϕ4D4 operators do not appear at tree-level. We inspect these constraints for the LNV Wilson coefficients generated from matching the Type-I and III seesaw models to SMEFT up to dimension seven at tree-level. We also exhibit the unique bounds induced by the T-parameter on LNVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We derive the contact terms contributing to the four-point amplitudes of the standard model particles, keeping terms with up to quartic energy growth. Imposing just the unbroken low-energy symmetry, and treating the electroweak gauge bosons and the Higgs as independent degrees of freedom, we obtain the most general four-point contact-term amplitudes, corresponding to the Higgs Effective Field Theory (HEFT) framework. The contact terms are spanned by a basis of Stripped Contact Terms, which carry the polarization information, multiplied by polynomials in the Mandelstam invariants. For terms with quadratic energy growth, we also derive the low-energy Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) predictions, via on-shell Higgsing of the massless SMEFT contact terms. We discuss several aspects of bottom-up versus top-down on-shell derivations of the HEFT and SMEFT amplitudes, highlighting in particular the simple counting of HEFT dimensions in the on-shell approach and the transparent relation between perturbative unitarity and gauge-invariance in the little-group covariant massive spinor formalism. Our results provide a formulation of Effective Field Theory analyses directly in terms of observable quantities. For terms with quadratic energy growth, we also provide the mapping to the Warsaw basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Besides the three canonical seesaw mechanisms, the hybrid scenario, i.e., the so-called type-(I+II) seesaw mechanism containing both the right-handed neutrinos NR and the triplet Higgs Φ is also an appealing extension of the Standard Model (SM) to account for tiny neutrino masses. Recently, the seesaw effective field theories (SEFTs) of the three canonical seesaw mechanisms have already been completely constructed up to one-loop level. In this work, we carry out the one-loop matching of the type-(I+II) seesaw mechanism onto the corresponding type-(I+II) SEFT, which is by no means the trivial combination of the type-I and type-II SEFTs and contains additional contributions even though the right-handed neutrinos and the triplet Higgs have no direct interactions. Employing the Feynman diagrammatic approach, we calculate all those additional contributions from the entangled effects of NR and Φ, and finally achieve the complete one-loop structure of the type-(I+II) SEFT. In the type-(I+II) SEFT, the number and content of dim-6 operators are exactly the same as those in the type-II SEFT, but the Wilson coefficients of the unique dim-5 and nine dim-6 operators as well as the quartic coupling constant of the SM Higgs gain some additional contributions, which are absent in the type-I and type-II SEFTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We generalize the world line EFT formalism to account for parity violating finite size effects. Results are presented for potentials and radiating moments of a binary inspiral for the parity conserving sector, and agreement is found with, previous calculations. Furthermore, we generate new results in this sector, calculating the current quadrupole moment induced by finite size gravitomagnetic effects. We also present novel results for parity violating sources, which might be due to beyond standard model physics, and show that they generate GW signals with the unique signature that the current-moment appears at 0.5PN order earlier relative to the mass-moment in the PN expansion. Parity violation also induces a new type of potential, which is proportional to the S ∙ r. Finally, we present new results for the dissipative force for parity violating constituents, which leads to the curious signature of a force normal to the orbit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An updated analysis of New Physics violating Lepton Flavour Universality, by using the Standard Model Effective Field Lagrangian with semileptonic dimension six operators at Λ = 1 TeV is presented. We perform a global fit, by discussing the relevance of the mixing in the first generation. We use for the first time in this context a Montecarlo analysis to extract the confidence intervals and correlations between observables. Our results show that machine learning, made jointly with the SHAP values, constitute a suitable strategy to use in this kind of analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Axions are introduced to explain the observed smallness of the θ ¯ term of QCD. Standard Model extensions typically contain new sources of CP violation, for instance to account for the baryon asymmetry of the universe. In the presence of additional CP-violating sources a Peccei-Quinn mechanism does not remove all CP violation, leading to CP-odd interactions among axions and Standard Model fields. In this work, we use effective field theory to parametrize generic sources of beyond-the-Standard-Model CP violation. We systematically compute the resulting CP-odd couplings of axions to leptons and hadrons by using chiral perturbation theory. We discuss in detail the phenomenology of the CP-odd axion couplings and compare limits from axion searches, such as fifth force and monopole-dipole searches and astrophysics, to direct limits on the CP-violating operators from electric dipole moment experiments. While limits from electric dipole moment searches are tight, the proposed ARIADNE experiment can potentially improve the existing constraints in a window of axion masses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ward identities associated with spontaneously broken symmetries can be saturated by Goldstone bosons. However, when space-time symmetries are broken, the number of Goldstone bosons necessary to non-linearly realize the symmetry can be less than the number of broken generators. The loss of Goldstones may be due to a redundancy or the generation of a gap. In either case the associated Goldstone may be removed from the spectrum. This phenomena is called an Inverse Higgs Mechanism (IHM) and its appearance has a well defined mathematical condition. However, there are cases when a Goldstone boson associated with a broken generator does not appear in the low energy theory despite the lack of the existence of an associated IHM. In this paper we will show that in such cases the relevant broken symmetry can be realized, without the aid of an associated Goldstone, if there exists a proper set of operator constraints, which we call a Dynamical Inverse Higgs Mechanism (DIHM). We consider the spontaneous breaking of boosts, rotations and conformal transformations in the context of Fermi liquids, finding three possible paths to symmetry realization: pure Goldstones, no Goldstones and DIHM, or some mixture thereof. We show that in the two dimensional degenerate electron system the DIHM route is the only consistent way to realize spontaneously broken boosts and dilatations, while in three dimensions these symmetries could just as well be realized via the inclusion of non-derivatively coupled Goldstone bosons. We present the action, including the leading order non-linearities, for the rotational Goldstone (angulon), and discuss the constraint associated with the possible DIHM that would need to be imposed to remove it from the spectrum. Finally we discuss the conditions under which Goldstone bosons are non-derivatively coupled, a necessary condition for the existence of a Dynamical Inverse Higgs Constraint (DIHC), generalizing the results for Vishwanath and Wantanabe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the near future, fundamental interactions at high-energy scales may be most efficiently studied via precision measurements at low energies. A universal language to assemble and interpret precision measurements is the so-called SMEFT, which is an effective field theory (EFT) where the Standard Model (SM) Lagrangian is extended by higher-dimensional operators. In this paper we investigate the possible impact of the DUNE neutrino experiment on constraining the SMEFT. The unprecedented neutrino flux offers an opportunity to greatly improve the current limits via precision measurements of the trident production and neutrino scattering off electrons and nuclei in the DUNE near detector. We quantify the DUNE sensitivity to dimension-6 operators in the SMEFT Lagrangian, and find that in some cases operators suppressed by an O30 TeV scale can be probed. We also compare the DUNE reach to that of future experiments involving atomic parity violation and polarization asymmetry in electron scattering, which are sensitive to an overlapping set of SMEFT parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the Higgs potential at large field values corresponding to scales in the range above 1010GeV is important for questions of vacuum stability, particularly in the early universe where survival of the Higgs vacuum can be an issue. In this paper we show that the Higgs potential can be derived in away which is independent of the choice of conformal frame for the spacetime metric. Questions about vacuum stability can therefore be answered unambiguously. We show that frame independence leads to new relations between the beta functions of the theory and we give improved limits on the allowed values of the Higgs curvature coupling for stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recently suggested Festina-Lente (FL) bound provides a lower bound on the masses of U(1) charged particles in terms of the positive vacuum energy. Since the charged particle masses in the Standard Model (SM) are generated by the Higgs mechanism, the FL bound provides a testbed of consistent Higgs potentials in the current dark energy-dominated universe as well as during inflation. We study the implications of the FL bound on the UV behavior of the Higgs potential for a miniscule vacuum energy, as in the current universe. We also present values of the Hubble parameter and the Higgs vacuum expectation value allowed by the FL bound during inflation, which implies that the Higgs cannot stay at the electroweak scale during this epoch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a set of exact formulae for computing Dirac masses, mixings, and CP-violation parameter(s) from 3×3 Yukawa matrices Y valid when YY† → U†YY†U under global U 3 Q L flavour symmetry transformations U. The results apply to the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) and its 'geometric' realization (geoSMEFT). We thereby complete, in the Dirac flavour sector, the catalogue of geoSMEFT parameters derived at all orders in the 2 H † H /Λ expansion. The formalism is basis-independent, and can be applied to models with decoupled ultraviolet flavour dynamics, as well as to models whose infrared dynamics are not minimally flavour violating. We highlight these points with explicit examples and, as a further demonstration of the formalism's utility, we derive expressions for the renormalization group flow of quark masses, mixings, and CP-violation at all mass dimension and perturbative loop orders in the (geo)SM(EFT) and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We obtain the complete and independent bases of effective operators at mass dimension 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 in both standard model effective field theory with light sterile right-handed neutrinos (νSMEFT) and low energy effective field theory with light sterile neutrinos (νLEFT). These theories provide systematical parametrizations on all possible Lorentz-invariant physical effects involving in the Majorana/Dirac neutrinos, with/without the lepton number violations. In the νSMEFT, we find that there are 2 (18), 29 (1614), 80 (4206), 323 (20400), 1358 (243944) independent operators with sterile neutrinos included at the dimension 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 for one (three) generation of fermions, while 24, 5223, 3966, 25425, 789426 independent operators in the νLEFT for two generations of up-type quarks and three generations of all other fermions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New-physics (NP) constraints on first-generation quark-lepton interactions are particularly interesting given the large number of complementary processes and observables that have been measured. Recently, first hints for such NP effects have been observed as an apparent deficit in first-row CKM unitarity, known as the Cabibbo angle anomaly, and the CMS excess in q q ¯ → e+e−. Since the same NP would inevitably enter in searches for low-energy parity violation, such as atomic parity violation, parity-violating electron scattering, and coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering, as well as electroweak precision observables, a combined analysis is required to assess the viability of potential NP interpretations. In this article we investigate the interplay between LHC searches, the Cabibbo angle anomaly, electroweak precision observables, and low-energy parity violation by studying all simplified models that give rise to tree-level effects related to interactions between first-generation quarks and leptons. Matching these models onto Standard Model effective field theory, we derive master formulae in terms of the respective Wilson coefficients, perform a complete phenomenological analysis of all available constraints, point out how parity violation can in the future be used to disentangle different NP scenarios, and project the constraints achievable with forthcoming experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high energy muon collider can provide new and complementary discovery potential to the LHC or future hadron colliders. Leptoquarks are a motivated class of exotic new physics models, with distinct production channels at hadron and lepton machines. We study a vector leptoquark model at a muon collider with s = 3, 14 TeV within a set of both UV and phenomenologically motivated flavor scenarios. We compute which production mechanism has the greatest reach for various values of the leptoquark mass and the coupling between leptoquark and Standard Model fermions. We find that we can probe leptoquark masses up to an order of magnitude beyond s with perturbative couplings. Additionally, we can also probe regions of parameter space unavailable to flavor experiments. In particular, all of the parameter space of interest to explain recent low-energy anomalies in B meson decays would be covered even by a s = 3 TeV collider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study gamma-ray line signatures from electroweakly interacting non-abelian spin-1 dark matter (DM). In this model, Z2-odd spin-1 particles including a DM candidate have the SU(2)L triplet-like features, and the Sommerfeld enhancement is relevant in the annihilation processes. We derive the annihilation cross sections contributing to the photon emission and compare with the SU(2)L triplet fermions, such as Wino DM in the supersymmetric Standard Model. The Sommerfeld enhancement factor is approximately the same in both systems, while our spin-1 DM predicts the larger annihilation cross sections into γγ/Zγ modes than those of the Wino by 38 9 . This is because a spin-1 DM pair forms not only J = 0 but also J = 2 partial wave states where J denotes the total spin angular momentum. Our spin-1 DM also has a new annihilation mode into Z2-even extra heavy vector and photon, Z′γ. For this mode, the photon energy depends on the masses of DM and the heavy vector, and thus we have a chance to probe the mass spectrum. The latest gamma-ray line search in the Galactic Center region gives a strong constraint on our spin-1 DM. We can probe the DM mass for ≲ 25.3 TeV by the Cherenkov Telescope Array experiment even if we assume a conservative DM density profile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We calculate the one-loop correction to the static potential induced by γ, W and Z-exchange at tree-level for arbitrary heavy standard model multiplets. We find that the result obeys a "Casimir-like" scaling, making the NLO correction to the potential a "low-energy" property of the electroweak gauge bosons. Furthermore, we discuss the phenomenology of the NLO potentials, the analytically known asymptotic limits and provide fitting functions in position space for easy use of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the measurement of Higgs boson self-couplings through 2 → 3 vector boson scattering (VBS) processes in the framework of Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT) at both proton and lepton colliders. The SMEFT contribution to the amplitude of the 2 → 3 VBS processes, taking WLWL → WLWLh and WLWL → hhh as examples, exhibits enhancement with the energy A BSM A SM ~ E 2 Λ 2 , which indicates the sensitivity of these processes to the related dimension-six operators in SMEFT. Simulation of the full processes at both hadron and lepton colliders with a variety of collision energies are performed to estimate the allowed region on c6 and c Φ 1 . Especially we find that, with the help of exclusively choosing longitudinal polarizations in the final states and suitable pT cuts, WWh process is as important as the more widely studied triple Higgs production (hhh) in the measurement of Higgs self-couplings. Our analysis indicates that these processes can play important roles in the measurement of Higgs self-couplings at future 100 TeV pp colliders and muon colliders. However, their cross sections are generally tiny at low energy machines, which makes them much more challenging to explore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assess the status of past and future experiments on lepton flavor violating (LFV) muon and tau decays into a light, invisible, axion-like particle (ALP), a. We propose a new experimental setup for MEG II, the MEGII-fwd, with a forward calorimeter placed downstream from the muon stopping target. Searching for μ → ea decays MEGII-fwd is maximally sensitive to LFV ALPs, if these have nonzero couplings to right-handed leptons. The experimental set-up suppresses the (left-handed) Standard Model background in the forward direction by controlling the polarization purity of the muon beam. The reach of MEGII-fwd is compared with the present constraints, the reach of Mu3e and the Belle-II reach from τ → ℓa decays. We show that a dedicated experimental campaign for LFV muon decays into ALPs at MEG II and Mu3e will be able to probe the ALP parameter space in an unexplored region well beyond the existing astrophysical constraints. We study the implications of these searches for representative LFV ALP models, where the presence of a light ALP is motivated by neutrino masses, the strong CP problem and/or the SM flavor puzzle. To this extent we discuss the majoron in low-scale seesaw setups and introduce the LFV QCD axion, the LFV axiflavon and the leptonic familon, paying particular attention to the cases where the LFV ALPs constitute cold dark matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discrepancy between the muon g − 2 measurement and the Standard Model prediction points to new physics around or below the weak scale. It is tantalizing to consider the loop effects of a heavy axion (in the general sense, also known as an axion-like particle) coupling to leptons and photons as an explanation for this discrepancy. We provide an updated analysis of the necessary couplings, including two-loop contributions, and find that the new physics operators point to an axion decay constant on the order of 10s of GeV. This poses major problems for such an explanation, as the axion couplings to leptons and photons must be generated at low scales. We outline some possibilities for how such couplings can arise, and find that these scenarios predict new charged matter at or below the weak scale and new scalars can mix with the Higgs boson, raising numerous phenomenological challenges. These scenarios also all predict additional contributions to the muon g−2 itself, calling the initial application of the axion effective theory into question. We conclude that there is little reason to favor an axion explanation of the muon g – 2 measurement relative to other models postulating new weak-scale matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a framework for the construction of portal effective theory (PETs) that couple effective field theories of the Standard Model (SM) to light hidden messenger fields. Using this framework we construct electroweak and strong scale PETs that couple the SM to messengers carrying spin zero, one half, or one. The electroweak scale PETs encompass all portal operators up to dimension five, while the strong scale PETs additionally contain all portal operators of dimension six and seven that contribute at leading order to quark-flavour violating transitions. Using the strong scale PETs, we define a set of portal currents that couple hidden sectors to QCD, and construct portal chiral perturbation theory (χPTs) that relate these currents to the light pseudoscalar mesons. We estimate the coefficients of the portal χPT Lagrangian that are not fixed by SM observations using non-perturbative matching techniques and give a complete list of the resulting one- and two-meson portal interactions. From those, we compute transition amplitudes for three golden channels that are used in hidden sector searches at fixed target experiments: i) charged kaon decay into a charged pion and a spin zero messenger, ii) charged kaon decay into a charged lepton and a spin one half messenger, and iii) neutral pion decay into a photon and a spin one messenger. Finally, we compare these amplitudes to specific expressions for models featuring light scalar particles, axion-like particles, heavy neutral leptons, and dark photons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) with masses around the electroweak scale are expected to be rather long-lived particles, as a result of the observed smallness of the active neutrino masses. In this work, we study long-lived HNLs in NRSMEFT, a Standard Model (SM) extension with singlet fermions to which we add non-renormalizable operators up to dimension-6. Operators which contain two HNLs can lead to a sizable enhancement of the production cross sections, compared to the minimal case where HNLs are produced only via their mixing with the SM neutrinos. We calculate the expected sensitivities for the ATLAS detector and the future far-detector experiments: AL3X, ANUBIS, CODEX-b, FASER, MATHUSLA, and MoEDAL-MAPP in this setup. The sensitive ranges of the HNL mass and of the active-heavy mixing angle are much larger than those in the minimal case. We study both, Dirac and Majorana, HNLs and discuss how the two cases actually differ phenomenologically, for HNL masses above roughly 100 GeV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study a predictive model for explaining the apparent deviation of the muon anomalous magnetic moment from the Standard Model expectation. There are no new scalars and hence no new hierarchy puzzles beyond those associated with the Higgs; the only new particles at the TeV scale are vector-like singlet and doublet leptons. Interestingly, this simple model provides a calculable example violating the Wilsonian notion of naturalness: despite the absence of any symmetries prohibiting its generation, the coefficient of the naively leading dimension-six operator for (g − 2) vanishes at one-loop. While effective field theorists interpret this either as a surprising UV cancellation of power divergences, or as a delicate cancellation between matching UV and calculable IR corrections to (g − 2) from parametrically separated scales, there is a simple explanation in the full theory: the loop integrand is a total derivative of a function vanishing in both the deep UV and IR. The leading contribution to (g − 2) arises from dimension-eight operators, and thus the required masses of new fermions are lower than naively expected, with a sizeable portion of parameter space already covered by direct searches at the LHC. The viable parameter space free of fine-tuning for the muon mass will be fully covered by future direct LHC searches, and all of the parameter space can be probed by precision measurements at planned future lepton colliders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider general linear Higgs-sigma models as ultra-violet completions of the Higgs inflation. We introduce general higher curvature terms beyond Einstein gravity and recast them into a class of linear Higgs-sigma models in the scalar-dual formulation where conformal symmetry is manifest. Integrating out the sigma field in this class of linear sigma models, we obtain the same Higgs inflation Lagrangian of non-linear sigma model type in the effective theory. We show that the successful inflation for sigma field singles out the sigma-field potential derived from the R2 term and the tracker solution for dark energy at late times can be realized for the Rp+1 term with −1 < p < 0. We also discuss the implications of Higgs-sigma interactions for the inflation and the vacuum stability in the Standard Model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the renormalization group running of axion couplings while taking into account that the Standard Model can be extended to its supersymmetric extension at a certain energy scale below the axion decay constant. We then apply our results to three different classes of axion models, i.e. KSVZ-like, DFSZ-like, and string-theoretic axions, and examine if string-theoretic axions can be distinguished from others by having a different pattern of low energy couplings to the photon, nucleons and electron. We find that the low energy couplings of string-theoretic axions have a similar pattern as those of KSVZ-like axions but yet reveal a sizable difference which might be testable in future axion search experiments. We also note that the coupling of KSVZ-like QCD axions to the electron is dominated by a three-loop contribution involving the exotic heavy quark, gluons, top quark and Higgs field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the forward-backward asymmetry AFB in pp → ℓ+ℓ− at the Z peak within the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). We find that this observable provides per mille level constraints on the vertex corrections of the Z boson to quarks, which close a flat direction in the electroweak precision SMEFT fit. Moreover, we show that current AFB data is precise enough so that its inclusion in the fit improves significantly LEP bounds even in simple New Physics setups. This demonstrates that the LHC can compete with and complement LEP when it comes to precision measurements of the Z boson properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leptonic and semileptonic meson decays that proceed via flavour-changing neutral currents provide excellent probes of physics of the standard model and beyond. We present explicit results for the Wilson coefficients of the weak effective Lagrangian for these decays in any perturbative model in which these processes proceed via one-loop contributions. We explicitly show that our results are finite and gauge independent, and provide Mathematica code that implements our results in an easily usable form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study axion effective field theories (EFTs), with a focus on axion couplings to massive chiral gauge fields. We investigate the EFT interactions that participate in processes with an axion and two gauge bosons, and we show that, when massive chiral gauge fields are present, such interactions do not entirely originate from the usual anomalous EFT terms. We illustrate this both at the EFT level and by matching to UV-complete theories. In order to assess the consistency of the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) anomaly matching, it is useful to introduce an auxiliary, non-dynamical gauge field associated to the PQ symmetry. When applied to the case of the Standard Model (SM) electroweak sector, our results imply that anomaly-based sum rules between EFT interactions are violated when chiral matter is integrated out, which constitutes a smoking gun of the latter. As an illustration, we study a UV-complete chiral extension of the SM, containing an axion arising from an extended Higgs sector and heavy fermionic matter that obtains most of its mass by coupling to the Higgs doublets. We assess the viability of such a SM extension through electroweak precision tests, bounds on Higgs rates and direct searches for heavy charged matter. At energies below the mass of the new chiral fermions, the model matches onto an EFT where the electroweak gauge symmetry is non-linearly realised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sum rules in effective field theories, predicated upon causality, place restrictions on scattering amplitudes mediated by effective contact interactions. Through unitarity of the S-matrix, these imply that the size of higher dimensional corrections to transition amplitudes between different states is bounded by the strength of their contributions to elastic forward scattering processes. This places fundamental limits on the extent to which hypothetical symmetries can be broken by effective interactions. All analysis is for dimension 8 operators in the forward limit. Included is a thorough derivation of all positivity bounds for a chiral fermion in SU(2) and SU(3) global symmetry representations resembling those of the Standard Model, general bounds on flavour violation, new bounds for interactions between particles of different spin, inclusion of loops of dimension 6 operators and illustration of the resulting strengthening of positivity bounds over tree-level expectations, a catalogue of supersymmetric effective interactions up to mass dimension 8 and 4 legs and the demonstration that supersymmetry unifies the positivity theorems as well as the new bounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We perform a model-independent analysis of the magnetic and electric dipole moments of the muon and electron. We give expressions for the dipole moments in terms of operator coefficients of the low-energy effective field theory (LEFT) and the Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT). We use one-loop renormalization group improved perturbation theory, including the one-loop matching from SMEFT onto LEFT, and one-loop lepton matrix elements of the effective-theory operators. Semileptonic four-fermion operators involving light quarks give sizable non-perturbative contributions to the dipole moments, which are included in our analysis. We find that only a very limited set of the SMEFT operators is able to generate the current deviation of the magnetic moment of the muon from its Standard Model expectation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the potential of fully-differential measurements of high-energy dilepton cross-sections at the LHC to probe heavy new physics encapsulated in dimension-6 interaction operators. The assessment is performed in the seven-dimensional parameter space of operators that induce energy-growing corrections to the Standard Model partonic cross-sections at the interference level, and in the two-dimensional subspace associated with the W and Y parameters. A considerable sensitivity improvement is found relative to single-differential measurements, owing to the possibility of probing at the interference level more directions in the seven-dimensional parameter space. The reduction of parton distribution function uncertainties in the fully-differential fit is also found to play a significant role. The results are interpreted in the minimal Z′ new-physics model, providing a concrete illustration of the advantages of the fully-differential analysis. We find that high-energy dilepton measurements can extend the Z′ exclusion and discovery potential well beyond the reach of direct searches in a large region of the parameter space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an effective field theory describing the relevant interactions of the Standard Model with an electrically neutral particle that can account for the dark matter in the Universe. The possible mediators of these interactions are assumed to be heavy. The dark matter candidates that we consider have spin 0, 1/2 or 1, belong to an electroweak multiplet with arbitrary isospin and hypercharge and their stability at cosmological scales is guaranteed by imposing a ℤ2 symmetry. We present the most general framework for describing the interaction of the dark matter with standard particles, and construct a general non-redundant basis of the gauge-invariant operators up to dimension six. The basis includes multiplets with non-vanishing hypercharge, which can also be viable DM candidates. We give two examples illustrating the phenomenological use of such a general effective framework. First, we consider the case of a scalar singlet, provide convenient semi-analytical expressions for the relevant dark matter observables, use present experimental data to set constraints on the Wilson coefficients of the operators, and show how the interplay of different operators can open new allowed windows in the parameter space of the model. Then we study the case of a lepton isodoublet, which involves coannihilation processes, and we discuss the impact of the operators on the particle mass splitting and direct detection cross sections. These examples highlight the importance of the contribution of the various non-renormalizable operators, which can even dominate over the gauge interactions in certain cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study unbinned multivariate analysis techniques, based on Statistical Learning, for indirect new physics searches at the LHC in the Effective Field Theory framework. We focus in particular on high-energy ZW production with fully leptonic decays, modeled at different degrees of refinement up to NLO in QCD. We show that a considerable gain in sensitivity is possible compared with current projections based on binned analyses. As expected, the gain is particularly significant for those operators that display a complex pattern of interference with the Standard Model amplitude. The most effective method is found to be the "Quadratic Classifier" approach, an improvement of the standard Statistical Learning classifier where the quadratic dependence of the differential cross section on the EFT Wilson coefficients is built-in and incorporated in the loss function. We argue that the Quadratic Classifier performances are nearly statistically optimal, based on a rigorous notion of optimality that we can establish for an approximate analytic description of the ZW process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of relativistic species, Neff, has been precisely calculated in the standard model, and would be measured to the percent level by CMB-S4 in future. Neutral-current non-standard interactions would affect neutrino decoupling in the early Universe, thus modifying Neff. We parameterize those operators up to dimension-7 in the effective field theory framework, and then provide a complete, generic and analytical dictionary for the collision term integrals. From precision measurements of Neff, the most stringent constraint is obtained for the dimension-6 vector-type neutrino-electron operator, whose scale is constrained to be above about 195 (331) GeV from Planck (CMB-S4). We find our results complementary to other experiments like neutrino coherent scattering, neutrino oscillation, collider, and neutrino deep inelastic scattering experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Standard Model Neutrino Effective Field Theory (SMNEFT) is the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) augmented with right-handed neutrinos. Building on our previous work, arXiv:2010.12109, we calculate the Yukawa coupling contributions to the one-loop anomalous dimension matrix for the 11 dimension-six four-fermion SMNEFT operators. We also present the new contributions to the anomalous dimension matrix for the 14 four-fermion SMEFT operators that mix with the SMNEFT operators through the Yukawa couplings of the right-handed neutrinos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The search for effective field theory deformations of the Standard Model (SM) is a major goal of particle physics that can benefit from a global approach in the framework of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). For the first time, we include LHC data on top production and differential distributions together with Higgs production and decay rates and Simplified Template Cross-Section (STXS) measurements in a global fit, as well as precision electroweak and diboson measurements from LEP and the LHC, in a global analysis with SMEFT operators of dimension 6 included linearly. We present the constraints on the coefficients of these operators, both individually and when marginalised, in flavour-universal and top-specific scenarios, studying the interplay of these datasets and the correlations they induce in the SMEFT. We then explore the constraints that our linear SMEFT analysis imposes on specific ultra-violet completions of the Standard Model, including those with single additional fields and low-mass stop squarks. We also present a model-independent search for deformations of the SM that contribute to between two and five SMEFT operator coefficients. In no case do we find any significant evidence for physics beyond the SM. Our underlying Fitmaker public code provides a framework for future generalisations of our analysis, including a quadratic treatment of dimension-6 operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]