Search

Astrophysical and cosmological observations strongly suggest the existence of Dark Matter. However, it's fundamental nature is still elusive. Collider experiments at Large Hadron Collider (LHC) offer a promising way to reveal the particle nature of the dark matter. In such an endeavour, we investigate the potential of the mono-Higgs plus missing $E_T$ signature at the LHC to search for dark matter. Without going in a particular Ultra-Violet complete model of dark matter, we have used the framework of Effective Field Theory to describe the dynamics of a relatively light fermionic dark matter candidate, which interacts with the Standard Model via dimension-6 and dimension-7 operators involving the Higgs and the gauge bosons. Both cut-based and Boosted Decision Tree (BDT) algorithms have been used to extract the signal for dark matter production over the Standard Model backgrounds, assuming an integrated luminosity of $3000~fb^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}~=~14$ TeV at the High Luminosity phase of the LHC (HL-LHC). The BDT is seen to separate the dark matter signal at $5\sigma$ significance, for masses below 200 GeV, showcasing the prospects of this search at the HL-LHC., Comment: 19 Pages, 8 Figures, 8 Tables

We investigate a Left-Right symmetric model respecting $SU(3)_C \otimes SU(2)_L \otimes U(1)_L \otimes SU(2)_R \otimes U(1)_R$ local gauge symmetry. We study the interactions of the heavy neutral and charged scalars of this model along with their production at the hadron collider and their subsequent decays. We analyze the collider searches of two heavy scalars, one of them is charge neutral and another one is singly charged. In both the cases we consider their associated production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and finally concentrate only on the leptonic final states. We perform both cut-based and multivariate analysis using Boosted Decision Tree algorithm for 14 TeV as well as as 27 TeV LHC run with 3000 fb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity. As expected, the multivariate analysis shows a better signal-background discrimination compared to the cut-based analysis. In this article, we show that a charged Higgs of mass 750 GeV and 1.2 TeV can be probed with $2.77 \sigma$ ($4.58 \sigma$) and $1.38 \sigma$ ($3.66 \sigma$) significance at 14 (27) TeV run of LHC., Comment: 25 pages, 9 tables, 12 figures, Accepted in Phys. Rev. D

We consider an incarnation of left-right symmetric model with a local gauge symmetry of $SU(3)_C \otimes SU(2)_L \otimes U(1)_L \otimes SU(2)_R \otimes U(1)_R$. Heavy scalars and fermions present in the {\bf 27} of $E_6$ are included in the matter sector along with the Standard Model fermions. Two such colour singlet fermions, $N$ and $l_S$, transforming as bi-doublet and singlet under $SU(2)$s respectively, can be potential candidates for Dark Matter (DM). Assignment of $U(1)$ charges for the matter fields restricts some of the exotic fermions to interact with the SM fermions. We study in some details the prospect of such fermionic dark matters by calculating relic densities and direct detection cross-sections by treating these particles as stand alone relic particles in turn. $N$, when treated as relic particle, would produce a direct-detection cross-section very high compared to the experimental upper limits. However, the interaction rate of $N$ can be controlled by introducing a dimension-6 operator involving two $N$ fields and two SM fermions and appropriately choosing the coupling constant. This in turn, makes the interaction rate of $N$ very high and yields a small relic density. On the other hand, $l_S$ for some chosen mass window, can give us right amount of relic, but its direct detection cross-section is too small. Keeping these in mind, we propose two-component model of DM, where both $N$ and $l_S$ contribute to the relic density, albeit with unequal proportion while the direct detection cross-section limits can be satisfied mainly by $N$ in presence of an extra dimension-6 interaction. We derive limits on such an interaction from XENON experiment., Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, to be appeared on NPB

We investigate a variant of Left-Right symmetric model based on $E_6$ inspired $SU(3)_C \otimes SU(2)_L \otimes U(1)_L \otimes SU(2)_R \otimes U(1)_R$ gauge group $(32121)$. Spontaneous breaking of $32121$ down to the Standard Model (SM) gauge group, requires a bi-doublet under $SU(2)_L \otimes SU(2)_R$, a right-handed doublet scalar under $SU(2)_R$ along with a $SU(2)$ singlet scalar boson. Symmetry breaking leads to several neutral and charged massive gauge bosons apart from the SM $W$ and $Z$. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) results for the search of heavy gauge bosons can be used to constrain the vacuum expectation values responsible for giving masses to these extra heavy gauge bosons. Physical spectrum of the scalar bosons contains several neutral CP-even and CP-odd states and a couple of charged scalars apart from the SM-like Higgs boson. We have put constraints on the masses of some of these scalars from the existing LHC data. The possible decay rates and production cross-sections of these scalars have been investigated in some details. Production cross-sections for some of the scalars look promising at 14 TeV and 27 TeV run of the LHC with high luminosity option. As the model stems from Grand Unified group $E_6$, we keep all the fermions present in the $27$-dimensional fundamental representation of $E_6$. Mass limit of one such exotic lepton has also been derived from present LHC data. It is noted that some of these neutral exotic lepton or neutral scalar bosons of this model can serve the purpose of a cold dark matter., Comment: 23 pages, 18 figures, 1 table, Revised version accepted for publication in Physical Review D

Proteins are only moderately stable. It has long been debated whether this narrow range of stabilities is solely a result of neutral drift towards lower stability or purifying selection against excess stability is also at work - for which no experimental evidence was found so far. Here we show that mutations outside the active site in the essential E. coli enzyme adenylate kinase result in stability-dependent increase in substrate inhibition by AMP, thereby impairing overall enzyme activity at high stability. Such inhibition caused substantial fitness defects not only in the presence of excess substrate but also under physiological conditions. In the latter case, substrate inhibition caused differential accumulation of AMP in the stationary phase for the inhibition prone mutants. Further, we show that changes in flux through Adk could accurately describe the variation in fitness effects. Taken together, these data suggest that selection against substrate inhibition and hence excess stability may have resulted in a narrow range of optimal stability observed for modern proteins., Comment: 30 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, Supplementary figures and tables - 6 pages