Search

While CP violation in the Higgs interactions with massive vector boson is already tightly constrained, the CP nature of the Higgs interactions with fermions is far less constrained. In this work, we assess the potential of machine-learning-based inference methods to constrain CP violation in the Higgs top-Yukawa coupling. This approach enables the use of the full available kinematic information. Concentrating on top-associated Higgs production with the Higgs decaying to two photons, we derive expected exclusion bounds for the LHC and the high-luminosity phase of the LHC. We also study the dependence of these bounds on the Higgs interaction with massive vector bosons and their robustness against theoretical uncertainties. In addition to deriving expected exclusion bounds, we discuss at which level a non-zero CP-violating top-Yukawa coupling can be distinguished from the SM. Moreover, we analyze which kinematic distributions are most sensitive to a CP-violating top-Yukawa coupling., Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures; v2: matches JHEP version

This article summarizes the talk given at the LCWS 2021 conference on the status and news of the WHIZARD Monte Carlo event generator. We presented its features relevant for the physics program of future lepton and especially linear colliders as well as recent developments towards including NLO perturbative corrections and a UFO interface to study models beyond the Standard Model. It takes as reference the version 3.0.0$\beta$ released in August 2020 and additionally discusses the developments that will be included in the next major version 3.0.0 to be released in April 2021., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, Talk presented at the International Workshop on Future Linear Colliders (LCWS2021), 15-18 March 2021. C21-03-15.1

This document summarises the talks and discussions happened during the VBSCan Mid-Term Scientific Meeting workshop. The VBSCan COST action is dedicated to the coordinated study of vector boson scattering (VBS) from the phenomenological and experimental point of view, for the best exploitation of the data that will be delivered by existing and future particle colliders., Comment: Editors: I.Brivio, C.Charlot, R.Covarelli, R.L.Delgado, K.Lohwasser, M.Pellen, M.Slawinska, G.Ortona, K.Ozdemir, C.Petridou, I.Puljak, M.Zaro. Proceedings for the VBSCan Mid-Term Scientific Meeting of the VBSCan COST action

This summarizes the talk given at the LCWS 2019 conference in Sendai, Japan, on the progress of the WHIZARD event generator in terms of new physics features and technical improvements relevant for the physics programme of future lepton and especially linear colliders. It takes as a reference the version 2.8.2 released in October 2019, and also takes into account the development until version 2.8.3 to be released in February 2020., Comment: 7 pages, Talk presented at the International Workshop on Future Linear Colliders (LCWS2019), Sendai, Japan, 28 October - 1 November, 2019. C19-10-28

Production of electron-positron pairs from vacuum in strong bichromatic electric fields, oscillating in time with a fundamental frequency and its second harmonic, is studied. Strong-field processes occuring in such field configurations are generally known to be sensitive to the relative phase between the field modes. Phase-of-the-phase spectroscopy has recently been introduced in the context of strong-field photoionization as a systematic means to analyze these coherence effects. We apply this method to field-induced pair production by calculating the phase dependence of the momentum-resolved particle yields. We show that asymmetric checkerboard patterns arise in the phase-of-the-phase spectra, similarly to those found in strong-field photoionization. The physical origin of these characteristic structures, which differ between the created electron and positron, are discussed., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

The Future Circular Collider (FCC) at CERN, a proposed 100-km circular facility with several colliders in succession, culminates with a 100 TeV proton-proton collider. It offers a vast new domain of exploration in particle physics, with orders of magnitude advances in terms of Precision, Sensitivity and Energy. The implementation plan foresees, as a first step, an Electroweak Factory electron-positron collider. This high luminosity facility, operating between 90 and 365 GeV centre-of-mass energy, will study the heavy particles of the Standard Model, Z, W, Higgs, and top with unprecedented accuracy. The Electroweak Factory $e^+e^-$ collider constitutes a real challenge to the theory and to precision calculations, triggering the need for the development of new mathematical methods and software tools. A first workshop in 2018 had focused on the first FCC-ee stage, the Tera-Z, and confronted the theoretical status of precision Standard Model calculations on the Z-boson resonance to the experimental demands. The second workshop in January 2019, which is reported here, extended the scope to the next stages, with the production of W-bosons (FCC-ee-W), the Higgs boson (FCC-ee-H) and top quarks (FCC-ee-tt). In particular, the theoretical precision in the determination of the crucial input parameters, alpha_QED, alpha_QCD, M_W, m_t at the level of FCC-ee requirements is thoroughly discussed. The requirements on Standard Model theory calculations were spelled out, so as to meet the demanding accuracy of the FCC-ee experimental potential. The discussion of innovative methods and tools for multi-loop calculations was deepened. Furthermore, phenomenological analyses beyond the Standard Model were discussed, in particular the effective theory approaches. The reports of 2018 and 2019 serve as white papers of the workshop results and subsequent developments., Comment: Published version

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a mature option for the future of high energy physics. It combines the benefits of the clean environment of $e^+e^-$ colliders with operation at high centre-of-mass energies, allowing to probe scales beyond the reach of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for many scenarios of new physics. This places the CLIC project at a privileged spot in between the precision and energy frontiers, with capabilities that will significantly extend knowledge on both fronts at the end of the LHC era. In this report we review and revisit the potential of CLIC to search, directly and indirectly, for physics beyond the Standard Model., Comment: 282 pages, 128 Figures, 55 Tables and 732 citations. Editors: J. de Blas, R. Franceschini, F. Riva, P. Roloff, U. Schnoor, M. Spannowsky, J. D. Wells, A. Wulzer and J. Zupan. Version published in CERN Yellow Report Monographs

We describe a new parallel approach to the evaluation of phase space for Monte-Carlo event generation, implemented within the framework of the WHIZARD package. The program realizes a twofold self-adaptive multi-channel parameterization of phase space and makes use of the standard OpenMP and MPI protocols for parallelization. The modern MPI3 feature of asynchronous communication is an essential ingredient of the computing model. Parallel numerical evaluation applies both to phase-space integration and to event generation, thus covering the most computing-intensive parts of physics simulation for a realistic collider environment., Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures

Processes where $W$ and $Z$ bosons scatter into pairs of electroweak bosons $W$, $Z$, and Higgs, are sensitive probes of new physics in the electroweak sector. We study simplified models that describe typical scenarios of new physics and parameterize the range of possible LHC results between the Standard-Model prediction and unitarity limits. Extending the study beyond purely longitudinal scattering, we investigate the role of transversally polarized gauge bosons. Unitarity becomes an essential factor, and limits on parameters matched to the naive perturbative low-energy effective theory turn out to be necessarily model-dependent. We discuss the implications of our approach for the interpretation of LHC data on vector-boson scattering and Higgs-pair production.

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a proposed future high-luminosity linear electron-positron collider operating at three energy stages, with nominal centre-of-mass energies: 380 GeV, 1.5 TeV, and 3 TeV. Its aim is to explore the energy frontier, providing sensitivity to physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) and precision measurements of Standard Model processes with an emphasis on Higgs boson and top-quark physics. The opportunities for top-quark physics at CLIC are discussed in this paper. The initial stage of operation focuses on top-quark pair production measurements, as well as the search for rare flavour-changing neutral current (FCNC) top-quark decays. It also includes a top-quark pair production threshold scan around 350 GeV which provides a precise measurement of the top-quark mass in a well-defined theoretical framework. At the higher-energy stages, studies are made of top-quark pairs produced in association with other particles. A study of ttH production including the extraction of the top Yukawa coupling is presented as well as a study of vector boson fusion (VBF) production, which gives direct access to high-energy electroweak interactions. Operation above 1 TeV leads to more highly collimated jet environments where dedicated methods are used to analyse the jet constituents. These techniques enable studies of the top-quark pair production, and hence the sensitivity to BSM physics, to be extended to higher energies. This paper also includes phenomenological interpretations that may be performed using the results from the extensive top-quark physics programme at CLIC., Comment: 86 pages, accepted for publication in JHEP

Vector-boson scattering processes are of great importance for the current run-II and future runs of the Large Hadron Collider. The presence of triple and quartic gauge couplings in the process gives access to the gauge sector of the Standard Model (SM) and possible new-physics contributions there. To test any new-physics hypothesis, sound knowledge of the SM contributions is necessary, with a precision which at least matches the experimental uncertainties of existing and forthcoming measurements. In this article we present a detailed study of the vector-boson scattering process with two positively-charged leptons and missing transverse momentum in the final state. In particular, we first carry out a systematic comparison of the various approximations that are usually performed for this kind of process against the complete calculation, at LO and NLO QCD accuracy. Such a study is performed both in the usual fiducial region used by experimental collaborations and in a more inclusive phase space, where the differences among the various approximations lead to more sizeable effects. Afterwards, we turn to predictions matched to parton showers, at LO and NLO: we show that on the one hand, the inclusion of NLO QCD corrections leads to more stable predictions, but on the other hand the details of the matching and of the parton-shower programs cause differences which are considerably larger than those observed at fixed order, even in the experimental fiducial region. We conclude with recommendations for experimental studies of vector-boson scattering processes., Comment: Data and input files are available at: https://github.com/VBSCanAction/VBSComparison/ . 28 pages including figures and references. Matches the journal version

We describe recent additions to the WHIZARD 2 Monte-Carlo event generator which improve the physics description of lepton-collider event samples and speed up the calculation time required for cross sections and event generation., Comment: Talk presented by W. Kilian at the International Workshop on Future Linear Colliders (LCWS2017), Strasbourg, France, 23-27 October 2017. C17-10-23.2

This document summarises the talks and discussions happened during the VBSCan Split17 workshop, the first general meeting of the VBSCan COST Action network. This collaboration is aiming at a consistent and coordinated study of vector-boson scattering from the phenomenological and experimental point of view, for the best exploitation of the data that will be delivered by existing and future particle colliders., Comment: 41 pages including references, 11 figures, summary of the talks and discussions happened during the first VBSCan workshop: https://indico.cern.ch/event/629638/. Note that in v2 the original title "VBSCan Split 2017 Workshop Summary" has been modified according to the published version

We analyse $B\to K^\ast \ell\ell$ decays in the region of low hadronic recoil, where an operator product expansion (OPE) in $1/m_b$ applies. Using a local model for charm contributions based on $e^+ e^- \to hadrons$ against the OPE provides a data-driven method to access the limitations to the OPE's accuracy related to binnings in the dilepton mass. Model-independent fits to $B\to K^\ast \mu \mu $ low recoil angular observables exhibit presently only small sensitivity to different charm models. They give similar results as the fits based on the OPE, and are in agreement with the standard model, but leave also room for new physics. Measurements with resolution small enough to probe charm resonances would be desirable., Comment: 18 pages, v2: references and clarifications added, conclusions unchanged, matches published version