Search

We study the phenomenology of the Georgi-Machacek model at next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD matched to parton shower, using a fully-automated tool chain based on MadGraph5_aMC@NLO and FeynRules. We focus on the production of the fermiophobic custodial fiveplet scalars H_5^0, H_5^+/-, and H_5^++/-- through vector boson fusion (VBF), associated production with a vector boson (V H_5), and scalar pair production (H_5 H_5). For these production mechanisms we compute NLO corrections to production rates as well as to differential distributions. Our results demonstrate that the Standard Model (SM) overall K-factors for such processes cannot in general be directly applied to beyond-the-SM distributions, due both to differences in the scalar electroweak charges and to variation of the K-factors over the differential distributions., Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures

Evidence for dark matter self-interactions has recently been reported based on the observation of a spatial offset between the dark matter halo and the stars in a galaxy in the cluster Abell 3827. Interpreting the offset as due to dark matter self-interactions leads to a cross section measurement of sigma_DM/m ~ (1-1.5) cm^2/g, where m is the mass of the dark matter particle. We use this observation to constrain singlet scalar dark matter coupled to the Standard Model and to two-Higgs-doublet models. We show that the most natural scenario in this class of models is very light dark matter, below about 0.1 GeV, whose relic abundance is set by freeze-in, i.e., by slow production of dark matter in the early universe via extremely tiny interactions with the Higgs boson, never reaching thermal equilibrium. We also show that the dark matter abundance can be established through the usual thermal freeze-out mechanism in the singlet scalar extension of the Yukawa-aligned two-Higgs-doublet model, but that it requires rather severe fine tuning of the singlet scalar mass., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. V4: We included the Higgs width in equation and modified the paragraph following eqn 11 to reflect this change. This modification had no effect on our subsequent conclusions. The revised paper subsumes the erratum submitted to the journal

After the extraordinary discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC, the next goal is to pin down its underlying dynamics by measuring the Higgs self-couplings, along with its couplings to gauge and matter particles. As a prototype model of new physics in the scalar sector, we consider the Two Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM) with CP-conservation, and evaluate the prospects for measuring the trilinear scalar couplings among the CP-even Higgs bosons $h$ and $H$ ($\lambda^{hhh}$, $\lambda^{hhH}$, $\lambda^{hHH}$) at LHC14. The continuum and resonant production of CP-even Higgs boson pairs, $hh$ and $hH$, offer complementary probes of the scalar potential away from the light-Higgs decoupling limit. We identify the viable search channels at LHC14 and estimate their expected discovery sensitivities., Comment: 36 pages, 17 figures, 3 tables

We advocate a search for an extended scalar sector at the LHC via $hh$ production, where $h$ is the 125 GeV Higgs boson. A resonance feature in the $hh$ invariant mass is a smoking gun of an $s$-channel heavy Higgs resonance, $H$. With one $h$ decaying to two photons and the other decaying to $b$-quarks, the resonant signal may be discoverable above the $hh$ continuum background for $M_H<$ 1 TeV. The product of the scalar and top Yukawa couplings can be measured to better than $10-20\%$ accuracy, and its sign can be inferred from the $hh$ lineshape via interference effects., Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures

We point out that W' bosons may decay predominantly into Higgs particles associated with their broken gauge symmetry. We demonstrate this in a renormalizable model where the W' and W couplings to fermions differ only by an overall normalization. This "meta-sequential" W' boson decays into a scalar pair, with the charged one subsequently decaying into a W boson and a neutral scalar. These scalars are odd under a parity of the Higgs sector, which consists of a complex bidoublet and a doublet. The W' and Z' bosons have the same mass and branching fractions into scalars, and may show up at the LHC in final states involving one or two electroweak bosons and missing transverse energy., Comment: 24 pages

We customize the simulation code FEWZ (Fully Exclusive W, Z Production) to study Z' production at the LHC for both \sqrt{s}=8 TeV and 14 TeV. Using the results of our simulation for several standard benchmark Z' models, we derive a semi-empirical expression for the differential cross section, that permits the determination of Z' couplings in a model-independent manner. We evaluate cross sections and other observables for large classes of models, including the common E_6, left-right and B-L models, as a function of model parameters. We also consider a hidden sector Z' that couples to standard model fermions via kinetic and mass mixing and serves as a mediator of isospin-violating interactions with dark matter. We combine the results of LHC Z' searches and dark matter direct detection experiments with global electroweak data to obtain mass-dependent constraints on the model parameters., Comment: 30 pages, 19 figures, 2 tables. Published version