Search

With the discovery of the Higgs boson the Standard Model has become a complete and comprehensive theory, which has been verified with unparalleled precision and in principle might be valid at all scales. However, several reasons remain why we firmly believe that there should be physics beyond the Standard Model. Experiments such as the LHC, new $B$ factories, and earth- and space-based astro-particle experiments provide us with unique opportunities to discover a coherent framework for many of the long-standing puzzles of our field. Here we explore several significant interconnections between the physics of the Higgs boson, the physics of flavour, and the experimental clues we have about dark matter., Comment: 38 pages

This document is the final report of the ATLAS-CMS Dark Matter Forum, a forum organized by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations with the participation of experts on theories of Dark Matter, to select a minimal basis set of dark matter simplified models that should support the design of the early LHC Run-2 searches. A prioritized, compact set of benchmark models is proposed, accompanied by studies of the parameter space of these models and a repository of generator implementations. This report also addresses how to apply the Effective Field Theory formalism for collider searches and present the results of such interpretations.

This document outlines a set of simplified models for dark matter and its interactions with Standard Model particles. It is intended to summarize the main characteristics that these simplified models have when applied to dark matter searches at the LHC, and to provide a number of useful expressions for reference. The list of models includes both s-channel and t-channel scenarios. For s-channel, spin-0 and spin-1 mediation is discussed, and also realizations where the Higgs particle provides a portal between the dark and visible sectors. The guiding principles underpinning the proposed simplified models are spelled out, and some suggestions for implementation are presented., Comment: v3: Fixed typo in eqns 14 & 15

We explore the implications of monojet searches at hadron colliders in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM). To quantify the impact of monojet searches, we consider simplified MSSM scenarios with neutralino dark matter. The monojet results of the LHC Run 1 are reinterpreted in the context of several MSSM simplified scenarios, and the complementarity with direct supersymmetry search results is highlighted. We also investigate the reach of monojet searches for the Run 2, as well as for future higher energy hadron colliders., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures

Gravitino Dark Matter represents a compelling scenario in Supersymmetry, which brings together a variety of data from cosmology and collider physics. We discuss the constraints obtained from the LHC on supersymmetric models with gravitino dark matter and neutralino NLSP, which is the case most difficult to disentangle at colliders from a neutralino LSP forming DM. The phenomenological SUSY model with 19+1 free parameters is adopted. Results are obtained from broad scans of the phase space of these uncorrelated parameters. The relation between gravitino mass, gluino mass and reheating temperature as well as the derived constraints on these parameters are discussed in detail. This relation offers a unique opportunity to place stringent bounds on the cosmological model, within the gravitino dark matter scenario, from the results of the LHC searches in Run-2 and the planned High-Luminosity upgrade., Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures, to appear on Phys. Rev. D

The discovery of a light Higgs boson at the LHC opens a broad program of studies and measurements to understand the role of this particle in connection with New Physics and Cosmology. Supersymmetry is the best motivated and most thoroughly formulated and investigated model of New Physics which predicts a light Higgs boson and can explain dark matter. This paper discusses how the study of the Higgs boson connects with the search for supersymmetry and for dark matter at the LHC and at a future $e^+e^-$ collider and with dedicated underground dark matter experiments., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures

A comprehensive review of physics at an e+e- Linear Collider in the energy range of sqrt{s}=92 GeV--3 TeV is presented in view of recent and expected LHC results, experiments from low energy as well as astroparticle physics.The report focuses in particular on Higgs boson, Top quark and electroweak precision physics, but also discusses several models of beyond the Standard Model physics such as Supersymmetry, little Higgs models and extra gauge bosons. The connection to cosmology has been analyzed as well., Comment: 179 pages, plots and references updated, version to be published at EPJC

We determine the current status of the fundamental composite electroweak dynamics paradigm after the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider experiments. Our analysis serves as universal and minimal template for a wide class of models with the two limits in parameter space being composite Goldstone Higgs models and Technicolor. This is possible because of the existence of a unified description, both at the effective and fundamental Lagrangian levels, of models of composite Higgs dynamics where the Higgs boson itself can emerge, depending on the way the electroweak symmetry is embedded, either as a pseudo-Goldstone boson or as a massive excitation of the condensate. We constrain the available parameter space at the effective Lagrangian level. We show that a wide class of models of fundamental composite electroweak dynamics, including Technicolor, are compatible with experiments. The results are relevant for future searches of a fundamental composite nature of the Higgs mechanism at the Large Hadron Collider., Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures

We explore the pMSSM parameter space in view of the constraints from SUSY and monojet searches at the LHC, from Higgs data and flavour physics observables, as well as from dark matter searches. We show that whilst the simplest SUSY scenarios are already ruled out, there are still many possibilities left over in the pMSSM. We discuss the complementarity between different searches and consistency checks which are essential in probing the pMSSM and will be even more important in the near future with the next round of data becoming available., Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of the Fifth Capri Workshop on the interplay of flavour physics with electroweak symmetry breaking and dark matter, Capri, May 2014

We explore the prospects for observing CP violation in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM) with six CP-violating parameters, three gaugino mass phases and three phases in trilinear soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters, using the CPsuperH code combined with a geometric approach to maximize CP-violating observables subject to the experimental upper bounds on electric dipole moments. We also implement CP-conserving constraints from Higgs physics, flavour physics and the upper limits on the cosmological dark matter density and spin-independent scattering. We study possible values of observables within the constrained MSSM (CMSSM), the non-universal Higgs model (NUHM), the CPX scenario and a variant of the phenomenological MSSM (pMSSM). We find values of the CP-violating asymmetry A_CP in b -> s gamma decay that may be as large as 3%, so future measurements of A_CP may provide independent information about CP violation in the MSSM. We find that CP-violating MSSM contributions to the B_s meson mass mixing term Delta M_Bs are in general below the present upper limit, which is dominated by theoretical uncertainties. If these could be reduced, Delta M_Bs could also provide an interesting and complementary constraint on the six CP-violating MSSM phases, enabling them all to be determined experimentally, in principle. We also find that CP violation in the h_{2,3} tau+ tau- and h_{2,3} tbar t couplings can be quite large, and so may offer interesting prospects for future pp, e+ e-, mu+ mu- and gamma gamma colliders., Comment: 36 pages, 32 figures

We present the activities of the "New Physics" working group for the "Physics at TeV Colliders" workshop (Les Houches, France, 3--21 June, 2013). Our report includes new computational tool developments, studies of the implications of the Higgs boson discovery on new physics, important signatures for searches for natural new physics at the LHC, new studies of flavour aspects of new physics, and assessments of the interplay between direct dark matter searches and the LHC., Comment: Proceedings of the New Physics Working Group of the 2013 Les Houches Workshop, Physics at TeV Colliders, Les Houches 3-21 June 2013. 201 pages

This letter presents new results on the combined sensitivity of the LHC and underground dark matter search experiments to the lightest neutralino as WIMP candidate in the minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model. We show that monojet searches significantly extend the sensitivity to the neutralino mass in scenarios where scalar quarks are nearly degenerate in mass with it. The inclusion of the latest bound by the LUX experiment on the neutralino-nucleon spin-independent scattering cross section expands this sensitivity further, highlighting the remarkable complementarity of jets/$\ell$s+MET and monojet at LHC and dark matter searches in probing models of new physics with a dark matter candidate. The qualitative results of our study remain valid after accounting for theoretical uncertainties., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

We revisit MSSM scenarios with light neutralino as a dark matter candidate in view of the latest LHC and dark matter direct and indirect detection experiments. We show that scenarios with a very light neutralino (~ 10 GeV) and a scalar bottom quark close in mass, can satisfy all the available constraints from LEP, Tevatron, LHC, flavour and low energy experiments and provide solutions in agreement with the bulk of dark matter direct detection experiments, and in particular with the recent CDMS results., Comment: v2: 11 pages, 9 figures; extended study of mono-jet constraints, revised references. Two benchmark SLHA files provided

Anomaly mediation models are well motivated supersymmetry breaking scenarios which appear as alternatives to the mSUGRA paradigm. These models are quite compelling from the theoretical point of view and it is therefore important to test if they are also viable models for phenomenology. We perform a study of these models in the light of all standard flavour, collider and dark matter constraints, including also the recent Higgs boson measurements for the mass and signal strengths in the different decay channels. The minimal AMSB scenario can satisfy in part of its parameter space the dark matter requirement but is only marginally consistent with the current Higgs boson mass value. The HyperCharge-AMSB and Mixed Moduli-AMSB scenarios can better describe present data from dark matter, flavour, low energy physics and are consistent with the measured mass of the Higgs boson. The inclusion of the preferred signal strengths for the Higgs boson decay channels shows that for tan(beta) > 5 the HC-AMSB and MM-AMSB models can be consistent with the present Higgs boson data. In contrast the minimal AMSB has a narrower allowed range in tan(beta). These different AMSB scenarios, while consistent with present Higgs boson measurements, can be further tested by future more precise data in the Higgs sector., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, minor modifications, colors changed in the figures for better printout and reading

The search for heavy Higgs bosons is an essential step in the exploration of the Higgs sector and in probing the Supersymmetric parameter space. This paper discusses the constraints on the M(A) and tan beta parameters derived from the bounds on the different decay channels of the neutral H and A bosons accessible at the LHC, in the framework of the phenomenological MSSM. The implications from the present LHC results and the expected sensitivity of the 14 TeV data are discussed in terms of the coverage of the [M(A) - tan beta] plane. New channels becoming important at 13 and 14 TeV for low values of tan beta are characterised in terms of their kinematics and the reconstruction strategies. The effect of QCD systematics, SUSY loop effects and decays into pairs of SUSY particles on these constraints are discussed in details., Comment: 12 pages, 18 figures

The search for the production of weakly-interacting SUSY particles at the LHC is crucial for testing supersymmetry in relation to dark matter. Decays of neutralinos into Higgs bosons occur over some significant part of the SUSY parameter space and represent the most important source of $h$ boson production in SUSY decay chains in the MSSM. We study h production in neutralino decays using scans of the phenomenological MSSM. Whilst in constrained MSSM scenarios the decay chi^0_2 -> h chi^0_1 is the dominant channel, this does not hold in more general MSSM scenarios. On the other hand, the chi^0_2,3 -> h chi^0_1 decays remain important and are highly complementary to multi-lepton final states in the LHC searches. The perspectives for the LHC analyses at 8 and 14 TeV as well as the reach of an e+e- collider at 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 3 TeV are discussed., Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures

The purely leptonic rare decay Bs -> mu+mu- is very sensitive to supersymmetric contributions which are free from the helicity suppression of its Standard Model diagrams. The recent observation of the decay by the LHCb experiment and the first determination of its branching fraction motivate a review of their impact on the viable parameter space of supersymmetry. In this paper we discuss the implications of the present and expected future accuracy on BR(Bs -> mu+mu-) for constrained and unconstrained MSSM scenarios, in relation to the results from direct SUSY searches and the Higgs data at the LHC. While the constraints from BR(Bs -> mu+mu-) can be very important in specific SUSY regions, we show that the current result, and even foreseen future improvements in its accuracy, will leave a major fraction of the SUSY parameter space, compatible with the results of direct searches, unconstrained. We also highlight the complementarity of the Bs -> mu+mu- decay with direct SUSY searches., Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables. v2: references added