Search

Physical review / D 107(7), L071702 (2023). doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.107.L071702, We propose a novel mechanism to generate sterile neutrinos $\nu_s$ in the early Universe, by converting ordinary neutrinos $\nu_\alpha$ in scattering processes $\nu_s\nu_\alpha\to\nu_s\nu_s$. After initial production by oscillations, this leads to an exponential growth in the $\nu_s$ abundance. We show that such a production regime naturally occurs for self-interacting $\nu_s$, and that this opens up significant new parameter space where $\nu_s$ make up all of the observed dark matter. Our results provide strong motivation to further push the sensitivity of X-ray line searches, and to improve on constraints from structure formation., Published by Inst., Woodbury, NY

Dark sectors provide a compelling theoretical framework for thermally producing sub-GeV dark matter, and motivate an expansive new accelerator and direct-detection experimental program. We demonstrate the power of constraining such dark sectors using the measured effective number of neutrino species, Neff, from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and primordial elemental abundances from big bang nucleosynthesis. As a concrete example, we consider a dark matter particle of arbitrary spin that interacts with the standard model via a massive dark photon, accounting for an arbitrary number of light degrees of freedom in the dark sector. We exclude dark matter masses below ∼4 MeV at 95% confidence for all dark matter spins and dark photon masses. These bounds hold regardless of additional new light, inert degrees of freedom in the dark sector, and for dark matter-electron scattering cross sections many orders of magnitude below current experimental constraints. The strength of these constraints will only continue to improve with future CMB experiments.

The European physical journal / C 81(11), 1015 (2021). doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09703-7, With the establishment and maturation of the experimental programs searching for new physics with sizeable couplings at the LHC, there is an increasing interest in the broader particle and astrophysics community for exploring the physics of light and feebly-interacting particles as a paradigm complementary to a New Physics sector at the TeV scale and beyond. FIPs 2020 has been the first workshop fully dedicated to the physics of feebly-interacting particles and was held virtually from 31 August to 4 September 2020. The workshop has gathered together experts from collider, beam dump, fixed target experiments, as well as from astrophysics, axions/ALPs searches, current/future neutrino experiments, and dark matter direct detection communities to discuss progress in experimental searches and underlying theory models for FIPs physics, and to enhance the cross-fertilisation across different fields. FIPs 2020 has been complemented by the topical workshop ���Physics Beyond Colliders meets theory���, held at CERN from 7 June to 9 June 2020. This document presents the summary of the talks presented at the workshops and the outcome of the subsequent discussions held immediately after. It aims to provide a clear picture of this blooming field and proposes a few recommendations for the next round of experimental results., Published by Springer, Heidelberg

Physical review letters 127(19), 191802 (1-6) (2021). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.191802, We propose a novel mechanism for the production of dark matter (DM) from a thermal bath based on the idea that DM particles $��$ can transform heat bath particles $��: �����������$. For a small initial abundance of $��$, this leads to an exponential growth of the DM number density in close analogy to other familiar exponential growth processes in nature. We demonstrate that this mechanism complements freeze-in and freeze-out production in a generic way, opening new parameter space to explain the observed DM abundance, and we discuss observational prospects for such scenarios., Published by APS, College Park, Md.

A dark photon may kinetically mix with the ordinary photon, inducing oscillations with observable imprints on cosmology. Oscillations are resonantly enhanced if the dark photon mass equals the ordinary photon plasma mass, which tracks the free electron number density. Previous studies have assumed a homogeneous Universe; in this Letter, we introduce for the first time an analytic formalism for treating resonant oscillations in the presence of inhomogeneities of the photon plasma mass. We apply our formalism to determine constraints from Cosmic Microwave Background photons oscillating into dark photons, and from heating of the primordial plasma due to dark photon dark matter converting into low-energy photons. Including the effect of inhomogeneities demonstrates that prior homogeneous constraints are not conservative, and simultaneously extends current experimental limits into a vast new parameter space., 5+8 pages, 3+6 figures; v2, added appendix on energy injection assumptions, minor updates to figures, results and conclusions unchanged; v3, minor changes, similar to version published in PRL

We propose a new thermal freeze-out mechanism that results in dark matter masses exceeding the unitarity bound by many orders of magnitude, without violating perturbative unitarity or modifying the standard cosmology. The process determining the relic abundance is χζ†→ζζ, where χ is the dark matter candidate. For mζ

If dark matter was produced in the early Universe by the decoupling of its annihilations into known particles, there is a sharp experimental target for the size of its coupling. We show that if dark matter was produced by inelastic scattering against a lighter particle from the thermal bath, then its coupling can be exponentially smaller than the coupling required for its production from annihilations. As an application, we demonstrate that dark matter produced by inelastic scattering against electrons provides new thermal relic targets for direct detection and fixed target experiments., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

Journal of high energy physics 21(6), 103 (2020). doi:10.1007/JHEP06(2021)103, We present kinematically forbidden dark matter annihilations into Standard Model leptons. This mechanism precisely selects the dark matter mass that gives the observed relic abundance. This is qualitatively different from existing models of thermal dark matter, where fixing the relic density typically leaves open orders of magnitude of viable dark matter masses. Forbidden annihilations require the dark matter to be close in mass to the particles that dominate its annihilation rate. We show examples where the dark matter mass is close to the muon mass, the tau mass, or the average of the tau and muon masses. We find that most of the relevant parameter space can be covered by the next generation of proposed beam-dump experiments and future high-luminosity electron positron colliders. Forbidden dark matter predicts large couplings to the Standard Model that can explain the observed value of $(g-2)_\mu$., Published by SISSA, [Trieste]

A new $U(1)$ dark gauge group coupled to the Standard Model (SM) via the kinetic mixing portal provides a natural dark matter candidate in the form of the Higgs field, $h_d$, responsible for generating the mass of the dark photon, $\gamma_d$. We show that the condition $m_{h_d}\leq m_{\gamma_d}$, together with smallness of the kinetic mixing parameter, $\epsilon$, and/or dark gauge coupling, $g_d$, leads the dark Higgs to be sufficiently metastable to constitute dark matter. We analyze the Universe's thermal history and show that both freeze-in, ${\rm SM}\to \{\gamma_d, h_d\}$, and freeze-out, $ \{\gamma_d, h_d\} \to {\rm SM}$, processes can lead to viable dark Higgs dark matter with a sub-GeV mass and a kinetic mixing parameter in the range $10^{-13}\lesssim\epsilon\lesssim10^{-6}$. Observable signals in astrophysics and cosmology include modifications to primordial elemental abundances, altered energetics of supernovae explosions, dark Higgs decays in the late Universe, and dark matter self-interactions., Comment: 5 pages, 3 appendices, 7 figures

Physical review letters 127(1), 011102 (1-7) (2021). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.011102, We introduce a novel class of signatures—spectral edges and end points—in 21-cm measurements resulting from interactions between the standard and dark sectors. Within the context of a kinetically mixed dark photon, we demonstrate how resonant dark photon-to-photon conversions can imprint distinctive spectral features in the observed 21-cm brightness temperature, with implications for current, upcoming, and proposed experiments targeting the cosmic dawn and the dark ages. These signatures open up a qualitatively new way to look for physics beyond the Standard Model using 21-cm observations., Published by APS, College Park, Md.

Dark radiation could have injected soft photons into the primordial plasma with energies far below the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature. Measurements of the low energy tail of the CMB spectrum therefore open a new window into the properties of dark radiation. We present an example model where dark radiation, composed of dark photons, resonantly oscillate into ordinary photons during the cosmic dark ages, enhancing the low energy tail of the CMB. Our scenario can explain the stronger than expected 21 cm absorption observed by the EDGES experiment.

Precision measurements of high energy top quarks at the LHC constitute a powerful probe of new physics. We study the effect of four fermion operators involving two tops and two light quarks on the high energy tail of the $t\bar t$ invariant mass distribution. We use existing measurements at a center of mass energy of 13 TeV, and state of the art calculations of the Standard Model contribution, to derive bounds on the coefficients of these operators. We estimate the projected reach of the LHC at higher luminosities and discuss the validity of these limits within the Effective Field Theory description. We find that current measurements constrain the mass scale of these operators to be larger than about 1-2 TeV, while we project that future LHC data will be sensitive to mass scales of about 3-4 TeV. We apply our bounds to constrain composite Higgs models with partial compositeness and models with approximate flavor symmetries. We find our limits to be most relevant to flavor non-universal models with a moderately large coupling of the heavy new physics states to third generation quarks., 13 pages, 2 appendices, 5 figures, references added

Dark matter may be a thermal relic whose abundance is set by mutual annihilations among multiple species. Traditionally, this coannihilation scenario has been applied to weak scale dark matter that is highly degenerate with other states. We show that coannihilation among states with split masses points to dark matter that is exponentially lighter than the weak scale, down to the keV scale. We highlight the regime where dark matter does not participate in the annihilations that dilute its number density. In this "sterile coannihilation" limit, the dark matter relic density is independent of its couplings, implying a broad parameter space of thermal relic targets for future experiments. Light dark matter from coannihilation evades stringent bounds from the cosmic microwave background, but will be tested by future direct detection, fixed target, and long-lived particle experiments., Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures

We show that, despite stringent constraints on the shape of the main part of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectrum, there is considerable room for its modification within its Rayleigh-Jeans (RJ) end, ω≪TCMB. We construct explicit new physics models that give an order one (or larger) increase of photon count in the RJ tail, which can be tested by existing and upcoming experiments aiming to detect the cosmological 21 cm emission or absorption signal. This class of models stipulates the decay of unstable particles to dark photons A′ that have a small mass, mA′∼10-14–10-9 eV, nonvanishing mixing angle ε with electromagnetism, and energies much smaller than TCMB. The nonthermal number density of dark photons can be many orders of magnitude above the number density of CMB photons, and even a small probability of A′→A oscillations, for values as small as ε∼10-9, can significantly increase the number of RJ photons. In particular, we show that resonant oscillations of dark photons into regular photons in the interval of redshifts 20

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is sensitive to new heavy gauge bosons that produce narrow peaks in the dilepton invariant mass spectrum up to about $m_{Z'}\sim 5$ TeV. $Z'$s that are too heavy to produce directly can reveal their presence through interference with Standard Model dilepton production. We show that the LHC can significantly extend the mass reach for such $Z'$s by performing precision measurements of the shape of the dilepton invariant mass spectrum. The high luminosity LHC can exclude, with 95$\%$ confidence, new gauge bosons as heavy as $m_{Z'} \sim 10-20$ TeV that couple with gauge coupling strength of $g_{Z'} \sim 1-2$., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures

We propose that the dark matter abundance is set by the decoupling of inelastic scattering instead of annihilations. This coscattering mechanism is generically realized if dark matter scatters against states of comparable mass from the thermal bath. Coscattering points to dark matter that is exponentially lighter than the weak scale and has a suppressed annihilation rate, avoiding stringent constraints from indirect detection. Dark matter upscatters into states whose late decays can lead to observable distortions to the blackbody spectrum of the cosmic microwave background., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. V3: figure added

We show that high energy measurements of Drell-Yan at the LHC can serve as electroweak precision tests. Dimension-6 operators, from the Standard Model Effective Field Theory, modify the high energy behavior of electroweak gauge boson propagators. Existing measurements of the dilepton invariant mass spectrum, from neutral current Drell-Yan at 8 TeV, have comparable sensitivity to LEP. We propose measuring the transverse mass spectrum of charged current Drell-Yan, which can surpass LEP already with 8 TeV data. The 13 TeV LHC will elevate electroweak tests to a new precision frontier., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. Added: CEPC reach, projected reach on heavy vector triplets

New physics, that is too heavy to be produced directly, can leave measurable imprints on the tails of kinematic distributions at the LHC. We use energetic QCD processes to perform novel measurements of the Standard Model (SM) Effective Field Theory. We show that the dijet invariant mass spectrum, and the inclusive jet transverse momentum spectrum, are sensitive to a dimension 6 operator that modifies the gluon propagator at high energies. The dominant effect is constructive or destructive interference with SM jet production. We compare differential next-to-leading order predictions from POWHEG to public 7 TeV jet data, including scale, PDF, and experimental uncertainties and their respective correlations. We constrain a New Physics (NP) scale of 3.5 TeV with current data. We project the reach of future 13 and 100 TeV measurements, which we estimate to be sensitive to NP scales of 8 and 60 TeV, respectively. As an application, we apply our bounds to constrain heavy vector octet colorons that couple to the QCD current. We project that effective operators will surpass bump hunts, in terms of coloron mass reach, even for sequential couplings., Comment: 40 pages, 13 figures, 8 tables. Minor changes. Accepted on JHEP

A hidden sector with a mass gap undergoes an epoch of cannibalism if number changing interactions are active when the temperature drops below the mass of the lightest hidden particle. During cannibalism, the hidden sector temperature decreases only logarithmically with the scale factor. We consider the possibility that dark matter resides in a hidden sector that underwent cannibalism, and has relic density set by the freeze-out of two-to-two annihilations. We identify three novel phases, depending on the behavior of the hidden sector when dark matter freezes out. During the cannibal phase, dark matter annihilations decouple while the hidden sector is cannibalizing. During the chemical phase, only two-to-two interactions are active and the total number of hidden particles is conserved. During the one way phase, the dark matter annihilation products decay out of equilibrium, suppressing the production of dark matter from inverse annihilations. We map out the distinct phenomenology of each phase, which includes a boosted dark matter annihilation rate, new relativistic degrees of freedom, warm dark matter, and observable distortions to the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background., Comment: 26 pages plus appendix, 11 figures, minor changes to v1

A thermally decoupled hidden sector of particles, with a mass gap, generically enters a phase of cannibalism in the early Universe. The Standard Model sector becomes exponentially colder than the hidden sector. We propose the Cannibal Dark Matter framework, where dark matter resides in a cannibalizing sector with a relic density set by 2-to-2 annihilations. Observable signals of Cannibal Dark Matter include a boosted rate for indirect detection, new relativistic degrees of freedom, and warm dark matter.

It is possible that the electroweak scale is low due to the fine-tuning of microscopic parameters, which can result from selection effects. The experimental discovery of new light fundamental scalars other than the Standard Model Higgs boson would seem to disfavor this possibility, since generically such states imply parametrically worse fine-tuning with no compelling connection to selection effects. We discuss counterexamples where the Higgs boson is light because of fine-tuning, and a second scalar doublet is light because a discrete symmetry relates its mass to the mass of the Standard Model Higgs boson. Our examples require new vectorlike fermions at the electroweak scale, and the models possess a rich electroweak vacuum structure. The mechanism that we discuss does not protect a small CP-odd Higgs mass in split or high-scale supersymmetry-breaking scenarios of the MSSM due to an incompatibility between the discrete symmetries and holomorphy., 31 pages, 4 figures. v2: refs updated, accepted for publication in JHEP

The energy dependence of the electroweak gauge couplings has not been measured above the weak scale. We propose that percent-level measurements of the energy dependence of $\alpha_{1,2}$ can be performed now at the LHC and at future higher energy hadron colliders. These measurements can be used to set limits on new particles with electroweak quantum numbers without relying on any assumptions about their decay properties. The shape of the high invariant mass spectrum of Drell-Yan, $p p \rightarrow Z^*/\gamma^* \rightarrow \ell^+ \ell^-$, constrains $\alpha_{1,2}(Q)$, and the shape of the high transverse mass distribution of $p p \rightarrow W^* \rightarrow \ell \nu$ constrains $\alpha_{2}(Q)$. We use existing data to perform the first fits to $\alpha_{1,2}$ above the weak scale. Percent-level measurements are possible because of high precision in theoretical predictions and existing experimental measurements. We show that the LHC already has the reach to improve upon electroweak precision tests for new particles that dominantly couple through their electroweak charges. The 14 TeV LHC is sensitive to the predicted Standard Model (SM) running of $\alpha_2$, and can show that $\alpha_2$ decreases with energy at $2-3 \sigma$ significance. A future 100 TeV proton-proton collider will have significant reach to measure running weak couplings, with sensitivity to the SM running of $\alpha_2$ at $4-5 \sigma$ and sensitivity to winos with masses up to $\sim$ 1.3 TeV at $2\sigma$., Comment: 34 pages + appendices; v2: references and minor changes to text added, version to appear in JHEP

The ratio of the measured $\overline{B}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{D}^{(*)}\ensuremath{\ell}\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}$ decay rates for $\ensuremath{\ell}=\ensuremath{\tau}$ vs $e,\ensuremath{\mu}$ deviate from the standard model (SM) by about $4\ensuremath{\sigma}$. We show that the data are in tension with the SM, independent of form factor calculations, and we update the SM prediction for $\mathcal{B}(B\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{X}_{c}\ensuremath{\tau}\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}})/\mathcal{B}(B\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{X}_{c}\ensuremath{\ell}\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}})$. We classify the operators that can accommodate the measured central values, as well as their UV completions. We identify models with leptoquark mediators that are minimally flavor violating in the quark sector, and are minimally flavor violating or $\ensuremath{\tau}$-aligned in the lepton sector. We explore experimental signatures of these scenarios, which are observable in the future at ATLAS/CMS, LHCb, or Belle II.

Dark matter (DM) may be a thermal relic that annihilates into heavier states in the early universe. This forbidden DM framework accommodates a wide range of DM masses from keV to weak scales. An exponential hierarchy between the DM mass and the weak scale follows from the exponential suppression of the thermally averaged cross section. Stringent constraints from the cosmic microwave background are evaded because annihilations turn off at late times. We provide an example where DM annihilates into dark photons, which is testable through large DM self-interactions and direct detection.

We study the spatial distribution of a 95% complete sample of 508 X-ray point sources (XPS) detected in the 0.5-2.0 keV band in Chandra ACIS-I observations of 51 massive galaxy clusters found in the MACS survey. Covering the redshift range z=0.3-0.7, our cluster sample is statistically complete and comprises all MACS clusters with X-ray luminosities in excess of 4.5 x 10^44 erg/s (0.1-2.4 keV, h_0=0.7, LCDM). Also studied are 20 control fields that do not contain clusters. We find the XPS surface density, computed in the cluster restframe, to exhibit a pronounced excess within 3.5 Mpc of the cluster centers. The excess, believed to be caused by AGN in the cluster, is significant at the 8.0 sigma confidence level compared to the XPS density observed at the field edges. No significant central excess is found in the control fields. To investigate the physical origin of the AGN excess, we study the radial AGN density profile for a subset of 24 virialized clusters. We find a pronounced central spike (r

If some superpartners were in thermal equilibrium in the early universe, and if the lightest superpartner is a cosmologically stable gravitino, then there is a powerful upper bound on the scale of the superpartner masses. Typically the bound is below tens of TeV, often much lower, and has similar parametrics to the WIMP miracle., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

Light stops are a hallmark of the most natural realizations of weak-scale supersymmetry. While stops have been extensively searched for, there remain open gaps around and below the top mass, due to similarities of stop and top signals with current statistics. We propose a new fast-track avenue to improve light stop searches for R-parity-conserving supersymmetry by comparing top cross section measurements to the theoretical prediction. Stop masses below ∼180 GeV can now be ruled out for a light neutralino. The possibility of a stop signal contaminating the top mass measurement is also briefly addressed.

The Higgs mass implies fine-tuning for minimal theories of weak scale supersymmetry (SUSY). Non-decoupling effects can boost the Higgs mass when new states interact with the Higgs, but new sources of SUSY breaking that accompany such extensions threaten naturalness. We show that two singlets with a Dirac mass can increase the Higgs mass while maintaining naturalness in the presence of large SUSY breaking in the singlet sector. We explore the modified Higgs phenomenology of this scenario, which we call the "Dirac NMSSM.", Comment: Version published in PRL, plus two additional figures. 6 pages, 4 figures

The measured values of the weak scale, $v$, and the first generation masses, $m_{u,d,e}$, are simultaneously explained in the multiverse, with all these parameters scanning independently. At the same time, several remarkable coincidences are understood. Small variations in these parameters away from their measured values lead to the instability of hydrogen, the instability of heavy nuclei, and either a hydrogen or a helium dominated universe from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. In the 4d parameter space of $(m_u,m_d,m_e,v)$, catastrophic boundaries are reached by separately increasing each parameter above its measured value by a factor of $(1.4,1.3,2.5,\sim5)$, respectively. The fine-tuning problem of the weak scale in the Standard Model is solved: as $v$ is increased beyond the observed value, it is impossible to maintain a significant cosmological hydrogen abundance for any values of $m_{u,d,e}$ that yield both hydrogen and heavy nuclei stability. For very large values of $v$ a new regime is entered where weak interactions freeze out before the QCD phase transition. The helium abundance becomes independent of $v$ and is determined by the cosmic baryon and lepton asymmetries. To maintain our explanation of $v$ from the anthropic cost of helium dominance then requires universes with such large $v$ to be rare in the multiverse. Implications of this are explored, including the possibility that new physics below 10 TeV cuts off the fine-tuning in $v$., Comment: 26 pages plus appendix, 13 figures

Supersymmetric theories with an R-parity generally yield a striking missing energy signature, with cascade decays concluding in a neutralino that escapes the detector. In theories where R-parity is broken the missing energy is replaced with additional jets or leptons, often making traditional search strategies ineffective. Such R-parity violation is very constrained, however, by resulting B and L violating signals, requiring couplings so small that LSPs will decay outside the detector in all but a few scenarios. In theories with additional matter fields, R-parity can be broken collectively, such that R-parity is not broken by any single coupling, but only by an ensemble of couplings. Cascade decays can proceed normally, with each step only sensitive to one or two couplings at a time, but B and L violation requires the full set, yielding a highly suppressed constraint. s-channel production of new scalar states, typically small for standard RPV, can be large when RPV is broken collectively. While missing energy is absent, making these models difficult to discover by traditional SUSY searches, they produce complicated many object resonances (MORes), with many different possible numbers of jets and leptons. We outline a simple model and discuss its discoverability at the LHC., Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures

Using a simplified model framework, we assess observational limits and discovery prospects for neutralino dark matter, taken here to be a general admixture of bino, wino, and Higgsino. Experimental constraints can be weakened or even nullified in regions of parameter space near 1) purity limits, where the dark matter is mostly bino, wino, or Higgsino, or 2) blind spots, where the relevant couplings of dark matter to the $Z$ or Higgs bosons vanish identically. We analytically identify all blind spots relevant to spin-independent and spin-dependent scattering and show that they arise for diverse choices of relative signs among $M_1$, $M_2$, and $\mu$. At present, XENON100 and IceCube still permit large swaths of viable parameter space, including the well-tempered neutralino. On the other hand, upcoming experiments should have sufficient reach to discover dark matter in much of the remaining parameter space. Our results are broadly applicable, and account for a variety of thermal and non-thermal cosmological histories, including scenarios in which neutralinos are just a component of the observed dark matter today. Because this analysis is indifferent to the fine-tuning of electroweak symmetry breaking, our findings also hold for many models of neutralino dark matter in the MSSM, NMSSM, and Split Supersymmetry. We have identified parameter regions at low $\tan \beta$ which sit in a double blind spot for both spin-independent and spin-dependent scattering. Interestingly, these low $\tan \beta$ regions are independently favored in the NMSSM and models of Split Supersymmetry which accommodate a Higgs mass near 125 GeV., Comment: 36 pages plus appendices, 20 figures

Naturalness in supersymmetry (SUSY) is under siege by increasingly stringent LHC constraints, but natural electroweak symmetry breaking still remains the most powerful motivation for superpartner masses within experimental reach. If naturalness is the wrong criterion then what determines the mass scale of the superpartners? We motivate supersymmetry by (1) gauge coupling unification, (2) dark matter, and (3) precision b-tau Yukawa unification. We show that for an LSP that is a bino-Higgsino admixture, these three requirements lead to an upper-bound on the stop and sbottom masses in the several TeV regime because the threshold correction to the bottom mass at the superpartner scale is required to have a particular size. For tan beta about 50, which is needed for t-b-tau unification, the stops must be lighter than 2.8 TeV when A_t has the opposite sign of the gluino mass, as is favored by renormalization group scaling. For lower values of tan beta, the top and bottom squarks must be even lighter. Yukawa unification plus dark matter implies that superpartners are likely in reach of the LHC, after the upgrade to 14 (or 13) TeV, independent of any considerations of naturalness. We present a model-independent, bottom-up analysis of the SUSY parameter space that is simultaneously consistent with Yukawa unification and the hint for m_h = 125 GeV. We study the flavor and dark matter phenomenology that accompanies this Yukawa unification. A large portion of the parameter space predicts that the branching fraction for B_s to mu^+ mu^- will be observed to be significantly lower than the SM value., 34 pages plus appendices, 20 figures

The naturalness of a Higgs boson with a mass near 125 GeV is explored in a variety of weak-scale supersymmetric models. A Higgs mass of this size strongly points towards a non-minimal implementation of supersymmetry. The Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model now requires large A-terms to avoid multi-TeV stops. The fine-tuning is at least 1% for low messenger scales, and an order of magnitude worse for high messenger scales. Naturalness is significantly improved in theories with a singlet superfield S coupled to the Higgs superfields via \lambda\ S H_u H_d. If \lambda\ is perturbative up to unified scales, a fine-tuning of about 10% is possible with a low mediation scale. Larger values of \lambda, implying new strong interactions below unified scales, allow for a highly natural 125 GeV Higgs boson over a wide range of parameters. Even for \lambda\ as large as 2, where a heavier Higgs might be expected, a light Higgs boson naturally results from singlet-doublet scalar mixing. Although the Higgs is light, naturalness allows for stops as heavy as 1.5 TeV and a gluino as heavy as 3 TeV. Non-decoupling effects among the Higgs doublets can significantly suppress the coupling of the light Higgs to b quarks in theories with a large \lambda, enhancing the \gamma \gamma\ and WW signal rates at the LHC by an order one factor relative to the Standard Model Higgs., Comment: 25 pages, 14 figures; v2: updated figures and references

The LHC has strongly constrained models of supersymmetry with traditional missing energy signatures. We present a variety of models that realize the concept of Stealth Supersymmetry, i.e. models with R-parity in which one or more nearly-supersymmetric particles (a "stealth sector") lead to collider signatures with only a small amount of missing energy. The simplest realization involves low-scale supersymmetry breaking, with an R-odd particle decaying to its superpartner and a soft gravitino. We clarify the stealth mechanism and its differences from compressed supersymmetry and explain the requirements for stealth models with high-scale supersymmetry breaking, in which the soft invisible particle is not a gravitino. We also discuss new and distinctive classes of stealth models that couple through a baryon portal or Z' gauge interactions. Finally, we present updated limits on stealth supersymmetry in light of current LHC searches., Comment: 45 pages, 16 figures

The first 1/fb of LHC searches have set impressive limits on new colored particles decaying to missing energy. We address the implication of these searches for naturalness in supersymmetry (SUSY). General bottom-up considerations of natural electroweak symmetry breaking show that higgsinos, stops, and the gluino should not be too far above the weak scale. The rest of the spectrum, including the squarks of the first two generations, can be heavier and beyond the current LHC reach. We have used collider simulations to determine the limits that all of the 1/fb searches pose on higgsinos, stops, and the gluino. We find that stops and the left-handed sbottom are starting to be constrained and must be heavier than about 200-300 GeV when decaying to higgsinos. The gluino must be heavier than about 600-800 GeV when it decays to stops and sbottoms. While these findings point toward scenarios with a lighter third generation split from the other squarks, we do find that moderately-tuned regions remain, where the gluino is just above 1 TeV and all the squarks are degenerate and light. Among all the searches, jets plus missing energy and same-sign dileptons often provide the most powerful probes of natural SUSY. Overall, our results indicate that natural SUSY has survived the first 1/fb of data. The LHC is now on the brink of exploring the most interesting region of SUSY parameter space., 55 pages, 21 figures

We present a broad class of supersymmetric models that preserve R-parity but lack missing energy signatures. These models have new light particles with weak-scale supersymmetric masses that feel SUSY breaking only through couplings to the MSSM. This small SUSY breaking leads to nearly degenerate fermion/boson pairs, with small mass splittings and hence small phase space for decays carrying away invisible energy. The simplest scenario has low-scale SUSY breaking, with missing energy only from soft gravitinos. This scenario is natural, lacks artificial tunings to produce a squeezed spectrum, and is consistent with gauge coupling unification. The resulting collider signals will be jet-rich events containing false resonances that could resemble signatures of R-parity violation. We discuss several concrete examples of the general idea, and emphasize gamma + jet + jet resonances, displaced vertices, and very large numbers of b-jets as three possible discovery modes., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures

This document proposes a collection of simplified models relevant to the design of new-physics searches at the LHC and the characterization of their results. Both ATLAS and CMS have already presented some results in terms of simplified models, and we encourage them to continue and expand this effort, which supplements both signature-based results and benchmark model interpretations. A simplified model is defined by an effective Lagrangian describing the interactions of a small number of new particles. Simplified models can equally well be described by a small number of masses and cross-sections. These parameters are directly related to collider physics observables, making simplified models a particularly effective framework for evaluating searches and a useful starting point for characterizing positive signals of new physics. This document serves as an official summary of the results from the "Topologies for Early LHC Searches" workshop, held at SLAC in September of 2010, the purpose of which was to develop a set of representative models that can be used to cover all relevant phase space in experimental searches. Particular emphasis is placed on searches relevant for the first ~50-500 pb-1 of data and those motivated by supersymmetric models. This note largely summarizes material posted at http://lhcnewphysics.org/, which includes simplified model definitions, Monte Carlo material, and supporting contacts within the theory community. We also comment on future developments that may be useful as more data is gathered and analyzed by the experiments., 40 pages, 2 figures. This document is the official summary of results from "Topologies for Early LHC Searches" workshop (SLAC, September 2010). Supplementary material can be found at http://lhcnewphysics.org

We present a new realization of asymmetric dark matter in which the dark matter and lepton asymmetries are generated simultaneously through two-sector leptogenesis. The right-handed neutrinos couple both to the Standard Model and to a hidden sector where the dark matter resides. This framework explains the lepton asymmetry, dark matter abundance and neutrino masses all at once. In contrast to previous realizations of asymmetric dark matter, the model allows for a wide range of dark matter masses, from keV to 10 TeV. In particular, very light dark matter can be accommodated without violating experimental constraints. We discuss several variants of our model that highlight interesting phenomenological possibilities. In one, late decays repopulate the symmetric dark matter component, providing a new mechanism for generating a large annihilation rate at the present epoch and allowing for mixed warm/cold dark matter. In a second scenario, dark matter mixes with the active neutrinos, thus presenting a distinct method to populate sterile neutrino dark matter through leptogenesis. At late times, oscillations and dark matter decays lead to interesting indirect detection signals., Comment: 32 pages + appendix, references added, minor changes