Search

A muon collider would enable the big jump ahead in energy reach that is needed for a fruitful exploration of fundamental interactions. The challenges of producing muon collisions at high luminosity and 10~TeV centre of mass energy are being investigated by the recently-formed International Muon Collider Collaboration. This Review summarises the status and the recent advances on muon colliders design, physics and detector studies. The aim is to provide a global perspective of the field and to outline directions for future work., Comment: 118 pages, 103 figures

Many scenarios beyond the standard model, aiming to solve long-standing cosmological and particle physics problems, suggest that dark matter might experience long-distance interactions mediated by an unbroken dark $U(1)$ gauge symmetry, hence foreseeing the existence of a massless dark photon. Contrary to the massive dark photon, a massless dark photon can only couple to the standard model sector by means of effective higher dimensional operators. Massless dark-photon production at colliders will then in general be suppressed at low energy by a UV energy scale, which is of the order of the masses of portal (messenger) fields connecting the dark and the observable sectors. A violation of this expectation is provided by dark-photon production mediated by the Higgs boson, thanks to the non-decoupling Higgs properties. Higgs-boson production at colliders, followed by the Higgs decay into a photon and a dark photon, provides then a very promising production mechanism for the dark photon discovery, being insensitive in particular regimes to the UV scale of the new physics. This decay channel gives rise to a peculiar signature characterized by a monochromatic photon with energy half the Higgs mass (in the Higgs rest frame) plus missing energy. We show how such resonant photon-plus-missing-energy signature can uniquely be connected to a dark photon production. Higgs boson production and decay into a photon and a dark photon as a source of dark photons is reviewed at the Large Hadron Collider, in the light of the present bounds on the corresponding signature by the CMS and ATLAS collaborations. Perspectives for the dark-photon production in Higgs-mediated processes at future $e^+e^-$ colliders are also discussed., Comment: same as published version, text improved, new references added, 41 pages, 14 figures

In the path towards a muon collider with center of mass energy of 10 TeV or more, a stage at 3 TeV emerges as an appealing option. Reviewing the physics potential of such muon collider is the main purpose of this document. In order to outline the progression of the physics performances across the stages, a few sensitivity projections for higher energy are also presented. There are many opportunities for probing new physics at a 3 TeV muon collider. Some of them are in common with the extensively documented physics case of the CLIC 3 TeV energy stage, and include measuring the Higgs trilinear coupling and testing the possible composite nature of the Higgs boson and of the top quark at the 20 TeV scale. Other opportunities are unique of a 3 TeV muon collider, and stem from the fact that muons are collided rather than electrons. This is exemplified by studying the potential to explore the microscopic origin of the current $g$-2 and $B$-physics anomalies, which are both related with muons., Comment: 73 pages, 28 figures; Contribution to Snowmass 2021

The perspective of designing muon colliders with high energy and luminosity, which is being investigated by the International Muon Collider Collaboration, has triggered a growing interest in their physics reach. We present a concise summary of the muon colliders potential to explore new physics, leveraging on the unique possibility of combining high available energy with very precise measurements., Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures; Contribution to Snowmass 2021

Multi-TeV muon colliders promise an unprecedented potential for exploring the particle-physics energy frontier, and, at the same time, can probe with fantastic accuracy the precise structure of the Standard Model, and in particular of the Higgs boson sector. Here we consider the possibility to measure the loop-suppressed single-, double-, triple-Higgs boson production mediated by the collinear-photon scattering in the channels $\mu^+\mu^-\to\mu^+\mu^-\gamma^\ast \gamma^\ast \to \mu^+\mu^- [H,HH,HHH]$. We study total rates and kinematical distributions in the Standard Model, and compare them with the corresponding vector-boson-fusion processes $V^\ast V^\ast\to H,HH,HHH$ at muon collisions center-of-mass energies in the range between 1.5 and 100 TeV. Possible strategies for enhancing the $\gamma\gamma\to H,HH,HHH$ signal over the dominant vector-boson-fusion production are proposed. The sensitivity of total rates to possible anomalies in the Higgs-boson self-couplings is also discussed., Comment: Minimal changes. References updated. Published in EPJC

We explore the possibility of probing flavor violations in the charged-lepton sector by means of high-luminosity lepton-photon and electron-muon collisions, by inverting initial and final states in a variety of decay channels presently used to bound such violations. In particular, we analyse the resonant lepton, $\gamma\, \ell \to \ell^{\prime}$, and neutral-meson, $e^- \mu ^+ \to \phi,\eta,\pi^0\!$, scattering channels, whose cross sections are critically dependent on the colliding-beams energy spread, being particularly demanding in the case of leptonic processes. For these processes, we compute upper bounds to the cross-section corresponding to present limits on the inverse decay channel rates. In order to circumvent the beam energy spread limitations we extend the analysis to processes in which a photon accompanies the resonance in the final state, compensating the off-shellness effects by radiative return. These processes might be studied at future facilities with moderate energies, in case lepton-photon and electron-muon collisions with sufficiently high luminosity will be available., Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, new references and results included, same as published version

We consider an extension of the Standard Model with two right-handed singlet fermions with mass at the electroweak scale that induce neutrino masses, plus a generic new physics sector at a higher scale $\Lambda$. We focus on the effective operators of lowest dimension $d=5$, which induce new production and decay modes for the singlet fermions. We assess the sensitivity of future Higgs Factories, such as FCC-ee, CLIC-380, ILC and CEPC, to the coefficients of these operators for various center of mass energies. We show that future lepton colliders can test the cut-off of the theory up to $\Lambda \simeq 500 - 1000\;$TeV, surpassing the reach of future indirect measurements of the Higgs and $Z$ boson widths. We also comment on the possibility of determining the underlying model flavor structure should a New Physics signal be observed, and on the impact of higher dimensional $d=6$ operators on the experimental signatures., Comment: 31 pages, 13 figures, matches published version

Measuring the shape of the Higgs boson potential is of paramount importance and will be a challenging task at current as well as future colliders. While the expectations for the measurement of the trilinear Higgs self-coupling are rather promising, an accurate measurement of the quartic self-coupling interaction is presently considered extremely challenging even at a future 100 TeV proton-proton collider. In this work we explore the sensitivity that a muon collider with a center of mass energy in the multi-TeV range, and luminosities of the order of 10^35cm^-2s^-1, as presently under discussion, might provide thanks to a rather large three Higgs-boson production and to a limited background. By performing a first and simple analysis, we find a clear indication that a muon collider could provide a determination of the quartic Higgs self-coupling that is significantly better than what is currently considered attainable at other future colliders., Comment: Table 3 and figs.14-18 added. Matches version published on JHEP

We study portal interactions connecting visible and dark sectors, and involving local interactions of a photon, a dark photon and a axion-like particle (ALP) at future $e^+e^-$ colliders. These interactions, mediated by higher-dimensional effective operators, may arise at one-loop by kinetic mixing between dark and ordinary photons, or, for massless dark photons, by direct short-distance contributions. We explore these portal interactions for a heavy ALP with masses between about 10 GeV and 230 GeV by investigating the sensitivity of the production $e^+e^- \to \gamma \gamma \bar{\gamma}$ to the effective couplings, where the dark photon $\bar\gamma$ gives rise to missing momentum in the final state. We will show how an appropriate choice of missing-energy and missing-mass cuts can optimize the signal to standard-model background ratio. Exclusion regions for the effective photon-dark-photon-ALP couplings versus the ALP mass are worked out for a few representative values of the collision energy and integrated luminosity, as presently envisaged by future $e^+e^-$ projects., Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables; LEP bound included, references added

We study the $ZH$ associated production followed by the Higgs $H\to \gamma \bar{\gamma}$ decay into a photon plus an invisible and massless dark photon, at future high-energy $e^+e^-$ facilities. Large $H\to \gamma \bar{\gamma}$ decay rates (with branching ratios up to a few percent) are allowed, thanks to possible non-decoupling properties of the Higgs boson under specific conditions, and unsuppressed dark-photon couplings in the dark sector. Such large decay rates can be obtained in the framework of recent flavor models that aim to naturally explain the observed spread in the fermion mass spectrum. We analyze the experimental prospects for observing the $e^+e^-\rightarrow ZH$ process followed by the semi invisible Higgs decay into a photon plus a massless invisible system. Search strategies for both the leptonic and the hadronic final states (arising from $Z\rightarrow \mu^+\mu^-$ and $Z\rightarrow q\bar{q}$, respectively) are outlined. We find that a $5\sigma$ sensitivity to a branching fraction $BR_{\gamma\bar{\gamma}}\sim 3\times 10^{-4}$ can be achieved by combining the two channels with an integrated luminosity of 10 ab$^{-1}$ at a c.m. energy of 240 GeV. This is considerably better than the corresponding sensitivity in alternative channels previously studied at lepton colliders. The analysis is model independent, and its results can be straightforwardly applied to the search of any Higgs two-body decay into a photon plus an undetected light particle., Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, a few comments included, version matches the PRD one

We analyze a new class of FCNC processes, the $f \to f^{\prime} \, \bar{\gamma}$ decays of a fermion $f$ into a lighter (same-charge) fermion $f^{\prime}$ plus a {\it massless} neutral vector boson, a {\it dark photon} $\bar{\gamma}$. A massless dark photon does not interact at tree level with observable fields, and the $f \!\to\! f^{\prime} \, \bar{\gamma}$ decay presents a characteristic signature where the final fermion $f^{\prime}$ is balanced by a {\it massless invisible} system. Models recently proposed to explain the exponential spread in the standard-model Yukawa couplings can indeed foresee an extra unbroken {\it dark} $U(1)$ gauge group, and the possibility to couple on-shell dark photons to standard-model fermions via one-loop magnetic-dipole kind of FCNC interactions. The latter are suppressed by the characteristic scale related to the mass of heavy messengers, connecting the standard model particles to the dark sector. We compute the corresponding decay rates for the top, bottom, and charm decays ($t\to c\, \bar{\gamma},u\, \bar{\gamma}$, $\;b\to s\, \bar{\gamma},d\, \bar{\gamma}$, and $c\to u \bar{\gamma}$), and for the charged-lepton decays ($\tau \to \mu\, \bar{\gamma}, e\, \bar{\gamma}$, and $\mu \to e \bar{\gamma}$) in terms of model parameters. We find that large branching ratios for both quark and lepton decays are allowed in case the messenger masses are in the discovery range of the LHC. Implications of these new decay channels at present and future collider experiments are briefly discussed., Comment: 44 pages, 9 figures, BBbar constraints and new references included, same version as the published one

Dark photons $\bar \gamma$ mediating long-range forces in a dark sector are predicted by various new physics scenarios, and are being intensively searched for in experiments. We extend a previous study of a new discovery process for dark photons proceedings via Higgs-boson production at the LHC. Thanks to the non-decoupling properties of the Higgs boson, BR($H\to \gamma\bar \gamma$) values up to a few percent are possible for a massless dark photon, even for heavy dark-sector scenarios. The corresponding signature consists (for a Higgs boson at rest) of a striking monochromatic photon with energy $E_{\gamma}= m_H/2$, and similar amount of missing energy. We perform a model independent analysis at the LHC of both the gluon-fusion and VBF Higgs production mechanisms at 14 TeV, including parton-shower effects, and updating our previous parton-level analysis at 8 TeV in the gluon-fusion channel by a more realistic background modeling. We find that a $5\sigma$ sensitivity can be reached in the gluon-fusion channel for BR($H\to \gamma\bar \gamma)\simeq\,$0.1% with an integrated luminosity of $L\simeq 300\, {\rm fb}^{-1}$. The corresponding VBF reach is instead restricted to 1%. Such decay rates can be naturally obtained in dark-photon scenarios arising from unbroken $U(1)_F$ models explaining the origin and hierarchy of the Yukawa couplings, strongly motivating the search for this exotic Higgs decay at the LHC., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures

We study the inclusive production of a Higgs boson in association with a high-$p_T$ photon at the LHC, detailing the leading-order features of the main processes contributing to the $H\gamma$ final state. Requiring an extra hard photon in Higgs production upsets the cross-section hierarchy for the dominant channels. The $H\gamma$ inclusive production comes mainly from photons radiated in vector-boson fusion (VBF), which accounts for about 2/3 of the total rate, for $p_T^{\gamma,j} >30$ GeV, at leading order. On the other hand, radiating a high-$p_T$ photon in the main top-loop Higgs channel implies an extra parton in the final state, which suppresses the production rate by a further $\alpha_S$ power. As a result, the $H\gamma$ production via top loops at the LHC has rates comparable with the ones arising from either the $H t\bar t$ production or the $HW(Z)\gamma$ associated production. Then, in order of decreasing cross section, comes the single-top-plus-Higgs channel, followed in turn by the heavy-flavor fusion processes $b\bar b \to H\gamma$ and $c\bar c \to H\gamma$. The $H\gamma$ production via electroweak loops has just a minor role. At larger c.m. energies, the $H t\bar t\gamma$ channel surpasses the total contribution of top-loop processes. In particular, requiring $p_T^{\gamma,j} >30$ GeV at $\sqrt S \simeq 100$ TeV, $H t\bar t\gamma$ accounts for about $1/4$ of the inclusive $H\gamma$ production at leading order, about half of the total being due to VBF production., Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, two comments added; one typo corrected; version published in JHEP

We study the production of a Higgs boson recoiling from a massless invisible system in $e^ + e^ -$ collisions. This is a quite distinctive signature that can arise when the Higgs boson is produced in association with a massless dark photon, which can happen in BSM scenarios foreseeing an extra unbroken $U(1)$ gauge group. Dark photons can indeed acquire effective couplings to the Higgs boson as occurs in models recently proposed to generate exponentially-spread Yukawa couplings. We analyze the signal and corresponding backgrounds for $H\to b\bar{b}$, and estimate ILC and FCC-ee sensitivities in a model-independent way., Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures; Conclusion Section expandend, to appear in JHEP; v5: typographical errors corrected

Motivated by dark-photon $\bar{\gamma}$ scenarios extensively considered in the literature, we explore experimentally allowed models where the Higgs boson coupling to photon and dark photon $H\gamma\bar{\gamma}$ can be enhanced. Correspondingly, large rates for the $H\to \gamma\bar \gamma$ decay become plausible, giving rise to one monochromatic photon with $E^{\gamma}\simeq m_H/2$ (i.e., more than twice the photon energy in the rare standard-model decay $H\to \gamma Z\to\gamma\bar\nu\nu$), and a similar amount of missing energy. We perform a model-independent study of this exotic resonant monophoton signature at the LHC, featuring a distinctive $E^{\gamma}_T$ peak around 60 GeV, and $\gamma+\slashed{E}_T$ transverse invariant mass ruled by $m_H$. At parton level, we find a $5\,\sigma$ sensitivity of the present LHC data set for a $H\to \gamma\bar{\gamma}$ branching fraction of $0.5\%$. Such large branching fractions can be naturally obtained in dark $U(1)_F$ models explaining the origin and hierarchy of the standard model Yukawa couplings. We urge the LHC experiments to search for this new exotic resonance in the present data set, and in future LHC runs., Comment: Final version to appear in PRD

We compare the impact of top-quark spin polarization effects in Higgs boson production in association with top-quark pairs and in corresponding backgrounds at the LHC. Because of the spin-zero nature of the Higgs boson, one expects, in the chiral limit for the top quarks, a substantial complementarity in $t\bar t$ spin correlations for a Higgs decaying into fermions/gauge-bosons and $t\bar{t}$ spin correlations for the corresponding irreducible $t\bar t f\bar f/VV$ backgrounds. Although top mass effects in $t\bar t H$ production are in general dominant, and seriously spoil the chiral-limit expectations, one can find observables that capture the $t \bar t$ angular spin correlations and can help in separating the signal from irreducible backgrounds. In particular, we show that, for both $H\to b\bar b$ and $H\to \gamma\gamma$, taking into account $t\bar{t}$ spin correlations in $t\bar t H$ production and irreducible backgrounds could appreciably improve the LHC sensitivity to the $t\bar t H$ channel., Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures; implementation of cuts corrected in figures 7-9

We study the LHC associated production of a Higgs boson and a W^+W^- vector-boson pair at 14 TeV, in the Standard Model and beyond. We consider different signatures corresponding to the cleanest H and W decay channels, and discuss the potential of the high-luminosity phase of the LHC. In particular, we investigate the sensitivity of the HWW production to possible anomalous Higgs couplings to vector bosons and fermions. Since the b-quark initiated partonic channel contributes significantly to this process, we find a moderate sensitivity to both the size and sign of an anomalous top-quark Yukawa coupling, because perturbative unitarity in the standard model implies a destructive interference in the b b-bar subprocess. We show that a combination of various signatures can reach a ~9 standard-deviation sensitivity in the presently allowed negative region of the top-Higgs coupling, if not previously excluded., Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures

The LHC experiments have analyzed the 7 and 8 TeV LHC data in the main Higgs production and decay modes. Current analyses only loosely constrain an anomalous top-Higgs coupling in a direct way. In order to strongly constrain this coupling, the Higgs-top associated production is reanalyzed. Thanks to the strong destructive interference in the t-channel for standard model couplings, this process can be very sensitive to both the magnitude and the sign of a non-standard top-Higgs coupling. We project the sensitivity to anomalous couplings to the integrated luminosity of 50 fb^{-1}, corresponding to the data collected by the ATLAS and CMS experiments in 7 and 8 TeV collisions, as of 2012. We show that the combination of di-photon and multi-lepton signatures, originating from different combinations of the top and Higgs decay modes, can be a potential probe to constrain a large portion of the negative top-Higgs coupling space presently allowed by the ATLAS and CMS global fits., Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures; a few reducible backgrounds included, final results unchanged, to appear in JHEP

The LHC sensitivity to an anomalous Higgs coupling to the top quark in the Higgs-top associated production is analyzed. Thanks to the strong destructive interference in the t-channel for standard model couplings, this process can be very sensitive to both the magnitude and the sign of a nonstandard top-Higgs coupling. We analyze cross sections and the main irreducible backgrounds for the $H \to \gamma \gamma$ decay channel. Sensitivities to an anomalous sign for the top Yukawa coupling are found to be large. In particular, at \sqrt{s}=14 TeV, assuming a universal rescaling in the Yukawa sector, a parton-level analysis with realistic selection cuts gives a signal-to-background ratio S/B ~ 5, for -1.5 < Y_t/Y_t^{SM} < 0. A number of events S ~ 10 (with corresponding significances ~ 3 \sigma) are expected for 60 fb^{-1}, to be compared with the standard-model expectation S ~ 0.3., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, v2: a few references added, to appear in JHEP

If a light Higgs boson with mass 125 GeV is fermiophobic, or partially fermiophobic, then the MSSM is excluded. The minimal supersymmetric fermiophobic Higgs scenario can naturally be formulated in the context of the NMSSM that admits Z_3 discrete symmetries. In the fermiophobic NMSSM, the SUSY naturalness criteria are relaxed by a factor N_c y_t^4/g^4 \sim 25, removing the little hierarchy problem and allowing sparticle masses to be naturally of order 2--3 TeV. This scale motivates wino or higgsino dark matter. The SUSY flavour and CP problems as well as the constraints on sparticle and Higgs boson masses from b \to s\gamma, B_s \to \mu\mu\ and direct LHC searches are relaxed in fermiophobic NMSSM. The price to pay is that a new, yet unknown, mechanism must be introduced to generate fermion masses. We show that in the fermiophobic NMSSM the radiative Higgs boson branchings to \gamma\gamma, \gamma Z can be modified compared to the fermiophobic and ordinary standard model predictions, and fit present collider data better. Suppression of dark matter scattering off nuclei explains the absence of signal in XENON100., Comment: added discussion on the general tan\beta\ case, same as published version, 26 pages, 6 figures

We show that, in the present inclusive searches for the Higgs boson at the LHC, a fermiophobic Higgs mimics the standard-model-like Higgs if its mass is around 125 GeV. For that mass the order-of-magnitude reduction of fermiophobic Higgs production cross sections is compensated by a corresponding increase in the Higgs branching fraction into $\gamma\gamma$, while the $WW^*,$ $ZZ^*,$ $Z\gamma$ signal yields are predicted to be somewhat smaller. The excess seen in the ATLAS and CMS fermiophobic Higgs boson searches in $\gamma\gamma$ channel, including the exclusive vector-boson-fusion analysis, suggests that the LHC sees a fermiophobic instead of a standard-model-like Higgs boson. If the Higgs boson turns out to be fermiophobic, many of our present ideas of new physics should be revised., Comment: New fermiophobic Higgs hint from the LHC announced in Moriond 2012 included, discussion expanded, results unchanged

We analyze the advantages of a linear-collider program for testing a recent theoretical proposal where the Higgs-boson Yukawa couplings are radiatively generated, keeping unchanged the standard-model mechanism for electroweak-gauge-symmetry breaking. Fermion masses arise at a large energy scale through an unknown mechanism, and the standard model at the electroweak scale is regarded as an effective field theory. In this scenario, Higgs boson decays into photons and electroweak gauge-boson pairs are considerably enhanced for a light Higgs boson, which makes a signal observation at the LHC straightforward. On the other hand, the clean environment of a linear collider is required to directly probe the radiative fermionic sector of the Higgs boson couplings. Also, we show that the flavor-changing Higgs-boson decays are dramatically enhanced with respect to the standard model. In particular, we find a measurable branching ratio in the range (10^{-4}-10^{-3}) for the decay H\to bs for a Higgs boson lighter than 140 GeV, depending on the high-energy scale where Yukawa couplings vanish. We present a detailed analysis of the Higgs boson production cross sections at linear colliders for interesting decay signatures, as well as branching-ratio correlations for different flavor-conserving/nonconserving fermionic decays., Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables

We explore the possibility that, while the Higgs mechanism provides masses to the weak-gauge bosons at the electroweak scale as in the standard model, fermion masses are generated by an unknown mechanism at a higher energy scale. At low energies, the standard model can then be regarded as an effective field theory, where fermion masses explicitly break the electroweak SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y gauge symmetry. If \Lambda is the renormalization scale where the renormalized Yukawa couplings vanish, then at energies lower than \Lambda, effective Yukawa couplings will be radiatively induced by nonzero fermion masses. In this scenario, Higgs-boson decays into photons and weak gauge-bosons pairs are in general quite enhanced for a light Higgs. However, depending on \Lambda, a substantial decay rate into b \bar{b} can arise, that can be of the same order as, or larger than, the enhanced H\to gamma gamma rate. A new framework for Higgs searches at hadron colliders is outlined, vector-boson fusion becoming the dominant production mechanism at the CERN LHC, with an important role also played by the WH/ZH associated production. A detailed analysis of the Higgs branching fractions and their implications in Higgs searches is provided, versus the energy scale \Lambda., Comment: 35 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables, Fig.[10] corrected, 1 new reference added

The LHC potential for a measurement of the Higgs boson coupling to the b quark in the standard model is not well established yet. We show that requiring a large transverse momentum photon in the light Higgs boson production via vector-boson fusion (with subsequent H->bb decay) could provide a further handle on the Hbb coupling determination, and on the measurement of the HWW coupling as well., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, invited talk at IFAE 2007, April 11-13, Naples, Italy, to appear in the Proceedings

Higgs boson production in association with a high pT photon at the CERN Large Hadron Collider is analyzed, in the framework of the MSSM model, for the heavier neutral Higgs bosons. The request of an additional photon in the exclusive Higgs boson final state selects b-quark pairs among the possible initial partonic states, since gluon-gluon initial states are not allowed by C-parity conservation. Hence, the measurement of cross sections for neutral Higgs boson plus photon production can provide a clean probe of the b-quark density in the proton as well as of the b-quark Yukawa coupling. The suppression of the production rates by the b-quark electromagnetic coupling can be compensated by the enhanced Higgs boson Yukawa coupling to b's in the large tan(beta) regime. The Higgs boson decay into a tau-lepton pair is considered, and irreducible backgrounds with corresponding signal significances are evaluated., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, a few comments and 3 references added at the end. To appear in Physical Review D

Higgs boson production in association with two forward jets and a central photon at the CERN Large Hadron Collider is analyzed, for the Higgs boson decaying into a b bbar pair in the m_H <= 140 GeV mass region. We study both irreducible and main reducible backgrounds at parton level. Compared to the Higgs production via vector-boson fusion, the request of a further photon at moderate rapidities dramatically enhances the signal/background ratio. Inclusive cross sections for p_T^\gamma >= 20 GeV can reach a few tens of fb's. After a suitable choice of kinematical cuts, the cross-section ratio for signal and irreducible-background can be enhanced up to >= ~1/10, with a signal cross section of the order of a few fb's, for m_H ~ 120 GeV. The request of a central photon radiation also enhances the relative signal sensitivity to the WWH coupling with respect to the ZZH coupling. Hence, a determination of the cross section for the associated production of a Higgs boson decaying into a b bbar pair plus a central photon in vector-boson fusion could help in constraining the b bbar H coupling, and the WWH coupling as well. A preliminary study of QCD showering effects points to a further significant improvement of the signal detectability over the background., Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, 8 tables; minor corrections to the text; version appeared in Nuclear Physics B

In the Top-down scenarios, the decay of super-heavy particles (m~10^{12-16}GeV), situated in dark-matter halos not very far from our Galaxy, can explain the ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic-ray spectrum beyond the Griesen-Zatasepin-Kuzmin cut-off. In the MSSM, a major component of the UHE cosmic-ray flux at PeV-EeV energies could be given by the lightest neutralino \chi, that is the lightest stable supersymmetric particle. Then, the signal of UHE \chi's on earth might emerge over the interactions of a comparable neutrino component. We compute the event rates for the resonant production of "right" selectrons and "right" squarks in mSUGRA, when UHE neutralinos of energy larger than 10^5 GeV scatter off electrons and quarks in an earth-based detector like IceCube. When the resonant channel dominates in the total \chi-e,\chi-q scattering cross section, the only model parameters affecting the corresponding visible signal rates turn out to be the physical masses of the resonant right-scalar and of the lightest neutralino. We compare the expected number of supersymmetric events with the rates corresponding to the expected Glashow W resonance and to the continuum UHE \nu-N scattering for realistic power-law spectra. We find that the event rate in the leptonic selectron channel is particularly promising, and can reach a few tens for a one-year exposure in IceCube. Finally, we note that UHE neutralinos at much higher energies (up to hundreds ZeV) may produce sneutrino resonances by scattering off relic neutrinos in the Local Group hot dark halo. The consequent \tilde{\nu}-burst into hadronic final states could mimic Z-burst events, although with quite smaller conversion efficiency., Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures; one reference added

In this talk, I review the main motivations for expecting new physics at the TeV energy scale, that will be explorable at the CERN Large Hadron Collider., Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, Plenary talk, Proceedings IFAE Conference, Torino, April 14-16, 2004; modified one sentence on TC theories

We discuss the associated production of a light Higgs boson and a light chargino pair in the process e+e- -> h chi+ chi- in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) at linear colliders (LC) with \sqrt s=500 GeV. This process gives direct informations about the Higgs-boson coupling to light charginos, that cannot be analyzed in decay processes due to phase-space restrictions. We compute total cross sections in the regions of the MSSM parameter space where the process cannot proceed via on-shell production and subsequent decay of either heavier charginos or pseudoscalar Higgs bosons A. Cross sections up to a few 0.1 fb are allowed, making this process potentially detectable at high-luminosity linear colliders. We also compute analytically the final h momentum distributions in the limit of very heavy electron-sneutrino masses., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings, IFAE Conference, Torino, April 14-16,2004

In the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), we study the light Higgs-boson radiation off a light-chargino pair in the process e+e- -> h chi^+ chi^- at linear colliders with \sqs=500 GeV. We analyze cross sections in the regions of the MSSM parameter space where the process can not proceed via on-shell production and subsequent decay of either heavier charginos or the pseudoscalar Higgs boson A. Cross sections up to a few fb's are allowed, according to present experimental limits on the Higgs-boson, chargino and sneutrino masses. We also show how a measurement of the process production rate could provide a determination of the Higgs-boson couplings to charginos., Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures; figure misplacement fixed; to appear in Eur.Phys.J.C

We consider the s-channel scattering of massive fermion or vector-boson pairs with equal helicities, mediated by a graviton in the linearized Einstein theory. We show that, although in general both spin-2 and spin-0 components are present in the exchanged graviton, there is a special set of reference frames where the spin-0 graviton component vanishes. This is connected to the dependence of the trace of the graviton propagator on the effective dimension of the space-time spanned by the sources. On the other hand, one finds a non-vanishing (Lorentz-invariant) interference of the graviton amplitude with the scalar-exchange amplitude, that in principle could give measurable effects., Comment: Latex 13 pages, 1 eps figure, improved text

A simple consequence of the angular momentum conservation in quantum field theories is that the interference of s-channel amplitudes exchanging particles with different spin J vanishes after complete angular integration. We show that, while this rule holds in scattering processes mediated by a massive graviton in Quantum Gravity, a massless graviton s-channel exchange breaks orthogonality when considering its interference with a scalar-particle s-channel exchange, whenever all the external states are massive. As a consequence, we find that, in the Einstein theory, unitarity implies that angular momentum is not conserved at quantum level in the graviton coupling to massive matter fields. This result can be interpreted as a new anomaly, revealing unknown aspects of the well-known van Dam - Veltman - Zakharov discontinuity., Comment: Latex 15 pages, 2 eps figures; improved text

In the framework of quantum gravity propagating in large extra dimensions, the effects of virtual Kaluza-Klein graviton and graviscalar interference with Higgs boson production amplitudes are computed at linear colliders and Higgs factories. The interference of the almost-continuous spectrum of the KK gravitons with the standard model resonant amplitude is finite and predictable in terms of the fundamental D-dimensional Plank scale M_D and the number of extra dimensions \delta. We find that, for M_D ~ 1 TeV and \delta=2, effects of the order of a few percent could be detected for heavy Higgs bosons (m_H>500 GeV) in Higgs production both via WW fusion in e^+e^- colliders and at \mu^+\mu^- Higgs-boson factories., Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures ; a few comments and references added ; version to appear in JHEP

In the framework of quantum gravity propagating in large extra dimensions, the effects of virtual Kaluza-Klein gravitons on the imaginary part of the amplitude of the process e+ e- --> f f-bar are analyzed at the Z-pole. Notably, the interference of the almost-continuous spectrum of the KK gravitons with the standard model resonant amplitude is finite and predictable in terms of the fundamental D-dimensional Plank scale M_D. We find that, while the virtual-gravitons effect on total cross sections vanishes at tree-level, both angular and polarization asymmetries are modified by terms whose relative effect is at most of order 10^(-4) for M_D > 1 TeV. Possible shifts in the M_Z, due to changes in the Breit-Wigner line shape are also discussed., Comment: Version to appear in Physics Letters B

The Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray (UHECR), by UHE neutrino-relic neutrino--Z showering in Hot Dark Halos (HDM), shows an energy spectra, an anisotropy following the relic neutrino masses and clustering in dark halo. The lighter are the relic neutrinos masses, the higher their corresponding Z resonance energy peaks. A twin light neutrino mass splitting may reflect into a twin Z resonance and a complex UHECR spectra modulation as a twin bump at at highest GZK energy cut-off. Each possible neutrino mass associates a characteristic dark halo size (galactic, local, super cluster) and its anisotropy due to our peculiar position within that dark matter distribution. The expected Z or WW,ZZ showering into proton-anti proton and neutron-anti neutron might correspond to peculiar clustering in observed UHECR at 10^{19}, 2 10^{19}, 4 10^{19} eV. A neutrino light HDM halo around a Mpc will allow to the UHECR neutron--anti-neutron secondary component at E_n> 10^{20} eV (due to Z decay) to arise playing a role comparable with the charged p-bar{p} ones. Their un-deflected n-bar{n} flight is shorter leading to a prompt and hard UHECR trace pointing toward the original UHECR source direction. The direct proton-antiproton pairs are split and spread by random magnetic fields into a more diluted and smeared and lower energy UHECR signal around the original source direction. Additional prompt TeVs signals by synchrotron radiation of electro-magnetic Z showering must also occur solving the Infrared-TeV cut-off. The observed hard doublet and triplets spectra, their time and space clustering already favour the rising key role of UHECR n-bar n secondaries originated by neutrino-Z tail shower., Comment: 17 pages,10 figures, Vulcano Conference Multichannel Astrophysics,May 2001 Minor Typo Corrections and Conference Discussion

Theoretical predictions for the top quark rare decays are reviewed within and beyond the standard model. Expectations at the CERN Large Hadron Collider are discussed., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Published in *Moscow 1999, High energy physics and quantum field theory* 224-230. A few references added

UHE neutrinos may transfer highest cosmic-rays energies overcoming $2.75K^\circ$ BBR and radio-waves opacities (the GZK cut off) from most distant AGN sources at the age of the Universe. These UHE $\nu$ might scatter onto those (light and cosmological) relic neutrinos clustered around our galactic halo or nearby neutrino hot dark halo clustered around the AGN blazar and its jets. The branched chain reactions from a primordial nucleon (via photo production of pions and decay to UHE neutrinos) toward the consequent beam dump scattering on galactic relic neutrinos is at least three order of magnitude more efficient than any known neutrino interactions with Earth atmosphere or direct nucleon propagation. Therefore the rarest cosmic rays (as the 320 EeV event) might be originated at far $(\tilde{>} 100 Mpc)$ distances (as Seyfert galaxy MCG 8-11-11); its corresponding UHE radiation power is in agreement with the observed one in MeV gamma energies. The final chain products observed on Earth by the Fly's Eye and AGASA detectors might be mainly neutron and anti-neutrons and delayed, protons and anti-protons at symmetric off-axis angles. These hadronic products are most probably secondaries of $W^+ W^-$ or $ZZ$ pair productions and might be consistent with the last AGASA discoveries of doublets and one triplet event., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure.To be presented at the 26th ICRC Conference 1999,Salt Lake

The main physics topics of interest at LEP2, the CERN electron-positron collider with center-of-mass energy in the range (161-192) GeV, are reviewed. Progresses in both the precision tests of the standard model and the field of discovery physics attainable at this machine are discussed. A few results of the analysis of data collected in the 1996 first runs of LEP2 are also presented., Comment: 37 pages, LaTeX file + 21 figures and 7 tables (not included). Lectures given at the First School of Field Theory and Gravitation, 14-19 April, 1997, Vitoria (Brasil)

The radiative decay of the next-to-lightest neutralino into a lightest neutralino and a photon is analyzed in the MSSM. We find that significant regions of the supersymmetric parameter space with large radiative BR's (up to about 100%) do exist. The radiative channel turns out to be enhanced when the neutralino tree-level decays are suppressed either "kinematically" or "dynamically". In general, in the regions allowed by LEP data and not characterized by asymptotic values of the SuSy parameters, the radiative enhancement requires tan beta ~= 1 and/or M_1 ~= M_2, and negative values of \mu. We present typical specific scenarios where these "necessary" conditions are fulfilled, relaxing the usual relation M_1=(5/3)*tan^2(th_W)*M_2. The influence of varying the stop masses and mixing angle when the radiative decay is enhanced is also considered. Some phenomenological consequences of the above picture are discussed., Comment: 32 pages, LaTeX file + 23 figures embedded with epsf.sty. In this revised version, Eq.(3) plus some related notations and text passages have been changed. Minor error corrected in Fig.12(a). The numerical analysis and the conclusions of the paper are not affected. (Includes the erratum to appear in Phys. Rev. D.) Source and ps files are also available at ftp://hpteo.roma1.infn.it/pub/preprints/ambr-mele/Rome1-1148/ or at http://feynman.physics.lsa.umich.edu/~ambros/Physics.html#16

I review the present state of knowledge on lepton energy spectra in the inclusive semileptonic decay of beauty hadrons, as a means to measure b polarization effects on the Z peak. Charged-lepton as well as neutrino spectra are considered., Comment: 15 pages + 5 figs (available upon request), LaTex, preprint Rome University "La Sapienza" n.1009, March 1994