Search

We introduce a tree-level chemical potential mechanism for spin-1 particles within cosmological collider physics, allowing them to be detected in primordial non-Gaussianities for masses above the inflationary Hubble scale. We apply this mechanism to orbifold grand unification and the massive unification partners of the standard model gauge bosons. Our mechanism requires at least a pair of massive vector fields which are singlets of the standard model, a condition which is satisfied in the classic "trinification" scenario. Assuming that the gauge hierarchy problem is solved by supersymmetry, gauge coupling running points to unification partners at ~ $10^{15}$ GeV. We show that, within high-scale inflation, chemical potential enhancement can lead to observably strong signals for trinification partners in future cosmological surveys., Comment: 33 pages, 7 figures

We argue that the striking similarity between the cosmic abundances of baryons and dark matter, despite their very different astrophysical behavior, strongly motivates the scenario in which dark matter resides within a rich dark sector parallel in structure to that of the standard model. The near cosmic coincidence is then explained by an approximate $\mathbb{Z}_2$ exchange symmetry between the two sectors, where dark matter consists of stable dark neutrons, with matter and dark matter asymmetries arising via parallel WIMP baryogenesis mechanisms. Taking a top-down perspective, we point out that an adequate $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry necessitates solving the electroweak hierarchy problem in each sector, without our committing to a specific implementation. A higher-dimensional realization in the far UV is presented, in which the hierarchical couplings of the two sectors and the requisite $\mathbb{Z}_2$-breaking structure arise naturally from extra-dimensional localization and gauge symmetries. We trace the cosmic history, paying attention to potential pitfalls not fully considered in previous literature. Residual $\mathbb{Z}_2$-breaking can very plausibly give rise to the asymmetric reheating of the two sectors, needed to keep the cosmological abundance of relativistic dark particles below tight bounds. We show that, despite the need to keep inter-sector couplings highly suppressed after asymmetric reheating, there can naturally be order-one couplings mediated by TeV scale particles which can allow experimental probes of the dark sector at high energy colliders. Massive mediators can also induce dark matter direct detection signals, but likely at or below the neutrino floor., Comment: Published version. 29 pages + references, 6 figures, 2 sectors

Identifying the anisotropies in a cosmologically sourced stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) would be of significance in shedding light on the nature of primordial inhomogeneities. For example, if SGWB carries isocurvature fluctuations, it would provide evidence for a multi-field inflationary origin of these inhomogeneities. However, this is challenging in practice due to finite detector sensitivity and also the presence of the astrophysical foregrounds that can compete with the cosmological signal. In this work, we explore the prospects for measuring cosmological SGWB anisotropies in the presence of an astrophysical counterpart and detector noise. To illustrate the main idea, we perform a Fisher analysis using a well-motivated cosmological SGWB template corresponding to a first order phase transition, and an astrophysical SGWB template corresponding to extra-galactic binary mergers, and compute the uncertainty with which various parameters characterizing the isotropic and anisotropic components can be extracted. We also discuss some subtleties and caveats involving shot noise in the astrophysical foreground. Overall, we show that upcoming experiments, e.g., LISA, Taiji, Einstein Telescope, Cosmic Explorer, and BBO, can all be effective in discovering plausible anisotropic cosmological SGWBs., Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures

This is a written version of lectures delivered at TASI 2022 ``Ten Years After the Higgs Discovery: Particle Physics Now and Future''. Mechanisms and symmetries beyond the Standard Model (BSM) are presented capable of elegantly and robustly generating the striking hierarchies we observe in particle physics. They are shown to be among the central archetypes of quantum effective field theory and to strongly resonate with the tight structure and phenomenology of the Standard Model itself, allowing one to motivate, develop and test a worthy successor. The (Little) Hiearchy Problem is discussed within this context. The lectures culminate in specific BSM case-studies, gaugino-mediated (dynamical) supersymmetry breaking to generate the weak/Planck hierarchy, and (in less detail) extra-dimensional wavefunction overlaps to generate flavor hierarchies., Comment: 62 pages, 24 figures, TASI 2022 lectures, new references added in [3] and [20]

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

It is well-known that first order phase transitions in the early universe can be a powerful source of observable stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds. Any such gravitational wave background must exhibit large-scale anisotropies at least as large as those seen in the CMB $\sim 10^{-5}$, providing a valuable new window onto the (inflationary) origins of primordial fluctuations. While significantly larger fractional anisotropies are possible (for example, in multi-field inflation) and would be easier to interpret, it has been argued that these can only be consistent with CMB bounds if the gravitational wave signal is correspondingly smaller. In this paper, we show that this argument, which relies on assuming radiation dominance of the very early universe, can be evaded if there is an era of early matter dominance of a certain robust type. This allows large gravitational wave anisotropies to be consistent with observable signals at proposed future gravitational wave detectors. Constraints from the CMB on large scales, as well as primordial black hole and mini-cluster formation on small scales, and secondary scalar-induced gravitational waves are all taken into account., Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures

We summarize the state of Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) model building in particle physics for Snowmass 2021, focusing mainly on several whitepaper contributions to BSM model building (TF08) and closely related areas., Comment: 44 pages, 1 figure, Submitted to the Proceedings of the US Community Study on the Future of Particle Physics (Snowmass 2021). Topical Group Report for TF08 - BSM Model Building

A multi-TeV muon collider offers a spectacular opportunity in the direct exploration of the energy frontier. Offering a combination of unprecedented energy collisions in a comparatively clean leptonic environment, a high energy muon collider has the unique potential to provide both precision measurements and the highest energy reach in one machine that cannot be paralleled by any currently available technology. The topic generated a lot of excitement in Snowmass meetings and continues to attract a large number of supporters, including many from the early career community. In light of this very strong interest within the US particle physics community, Snowmass Energy, Theory and Accelerator Frontiers created a cross-frontier Muon Collider Forum in November of 2020. The Forum has been meeting on a monthly basis and organized several topical workshops dedicated to physics, accelerator technology, and detector R&D. Findings of the Forum are summarized in this report.

A first-order phase transition in the early universe can give an observable stochastic gravitational background (SGWB), which will necessarily have primordial anisotropies across the sky. In multi-field inflationary scenarios, these anisotropies may have a significant isocurvature component very different from adiabatic fluctuations, providing an alternate discovery channel for high energy physics at inflationary scales. Here, we consider classically oscillating heavy fields during inflation that can imprint distinctive scale-invariance-breaking features in the power spectrum of primordial anisotropies. While such features are highly constrained in the cosmic microwave background, we show that their amplitude can be observably large in isocurvature SGWB, despite both probing a similar period of inflation. Measuring SGWB multipoles at the required level, $\ell \sim {\cal O}(10-100)$, will be technologically challenging. However, we expect that early detection of a strong isotropic SGWB, and the guarantee of anisotropies, would spur development of next-generation detectors with sufficient sensitivity, angular resolution, and foreground discrimination., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures

Detection of a gravitational-wave signal of non-astrophysical origin would be a landmark discovery, potentially providing a significant clue to some of our most basic, big-picture scientific questions about the Universe. In this white paper, we survey the leading early-Universe mechanisms that may produce a detectable signal -- including inflation, phase transitions, topological defects, as well as primordial black holes -- and highlight the connections to fundamental physics. We review the complementarity with collider searches for new physics, and multimessenger probes of the large-scale structure of the Universe., Comment: contribution to Snowmass 2021; 3 figures, 67 pages

The International Linear Collider (ILC) is on the table now as a new global energy-frontier accelerator laboratory taking data in the 2030s. The ILC addresses key questions for our current understanding of particle physics. It is based on a proven accelerator technology. Its experiments will challenge the Standard Model of particle physics and will provide a new window to look beyond it. This document brings the story of the ILC up to date, emphasizing its strong physics motivation, its readiness for construction, and the opportunity it presents to the US and the global particle physics community., Comment: 356 pages, Large pdf file (40 MB) submitted to Snowmass 2021; v2 references to Snowmass contributions added, additional authors; v3 references added, some updates, additional authors

Particle physics has evolved in the past decade through evaluating the consequences of experimental measurements as well as exploiting theoretical tools that permit exploration of new model building and cosmological possibilities. Particularly due to insights from the AdS/CFT correspondence, higher-dimensional warped compactifications, in particular, have played a big role in recent developments by allowing a study of regimes of parameters that would otherwise be intractable. Similarly, theoretical developments in quantum gravity benefit from the bigger range of possibilities that can be explored using warped geometry, allowing for constructions of string vacua with positive cosmological constant and for the exploration of entanglement and information transfer in arbitrary dimensions. Puzzles remain in both more phenomenologically oriented and more theoretically oriented contexts which form the basis for a rich research program in the future as well., Comment: 12 pages, 3 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

We study an attractive scenario, "Sleptonic SUSY", which reconciles the $125$ GeV Higgs scalar and the non-observation of superpartners thus far with potentially pivotal roles for slepton phenomenology: providing viable ongoing targets for LHC discovery, incorporating a co-annihilation partner for detectable thermal relic dark matter, and capable of mediating the potential muon $g-2$ anomaly. This is accomplished by a modestly hierarchical spectrum, with sub-TeV sleptons and electroweakinos and with multi-TeV masses for the other new states. We study new elements in the UV MSSM realization of Sleptonic SUSY based on higher-dimensional sequestering and the synergy between the resulting gaugino-mediation, hypercharge $D$-term mediation and Higgs-mediation of SUSY-breaking, so as to more fully capture the range of possibilities. This framework stands out by harmoniously solving the flavor, CP and $\mu - B\mu$ problems of the supersymmetric paradigm. We discuss its extension to orbifold GUTs, including gauge-coupling and $b$-tau unification. We also develop a non-minimal model with extra Higgs fields, in which the electroweak vacuum is more readily cosmologically stable against decay to a charge-breaking vacuum, allowing a broader range of sleptonic spectra than in the MSSM alone. We survey the rich set of signals possible at the LHC and future colliders, covering both $R$-parity conservation and violation, as well as for dark matter detection. While the multi-TeV squarks imply a Little Hierarchy Problem, intriguingly, small changes in parameter space to improve naturalness result in dramatic phase transitions to either electroweak-preservation or charge-breaking. In a Multiverse setting, the modest unnaturalness may then be explained by the "principle of living dangerously"., Comment: 56 pages, 4 figures. v3: journal version

We lay out a comprehensive physics case for a future high-energy muon collider, exploring a range of collision energies (from 1 to 100 TeV) and luminosities. We highlight the advantages of such a collider over proposed alternatives. We show how one can leverage both the point-like nature of the muons themselves as well as the cloud of electroweak radiation that surrounds the beam to blur the dichotomy between energy and precision in the search for new physics. The physics case is buttressed by a range of studies with applications to electroweak symmetry breaking, dark matter, and the naturalness of the weak scale. Furthermore, we make sharp connections with complementary experiments that are probing new physics effects using electric dipole moments, flavor violation, and gravitational waves. An extensive appendix provides cross section predictions as a function of the center-of-mass energy for many canonical simplified models., Comment: 105 pages, 41 figures, 5 tables

Cosmological phase transitions in the primordial universe can produce anisotropic stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds (GWB), similar to the cosmic microwave background (CMB). For adiabatic perturbations, the fluctuations in GWB follow those in the CMB, but if primordial fluctuations carry an isocurvature component, this need no longer be true. It is shown that in non-minimal inflationary and reheating settings, primordial isocurvature can survive in GWB and exhibit significant non-Gaussianity (NG) in contrast to the CMB, while obeying current observational bounds. While probing such NG GWB is at best a marginal possibility at LISA, there is much greater scope at future proposed detectors such as DECIGO and BBO. It is even possible that the first observations of inflation-era NG could be made with gravitational wave detectors as opposed to the CMB or Large-Scale Structure surveys., Comment: 12+3 pages, 2 figures

The general structure of Hybrid Inflation remains a very well-motivated mechanism for lower-scale cosmic inflation in the face of improving constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio. However, as originally modeled, the "waterfall" field in this mechanism gives rise to a hierarchy problem ($\eta-$problem) for the inflaton after demanding standard effective field theory (EFT) control. We modify the hybrid mechanism and incorporate a discrete "twin" symmetry, thereby yielding a viable, natural and EFT-controlled model of non-supersymmetric low-scale inflation, "Twinflation". Analogously to Twin Higgs models, the discrete exchange-symmetry with a "twin" sector reduces quadratic sensitivity in the inflationary potential to ultra-violet physics, at the root of the hierarchy problem. The observed phase of inflation takes place on a hilltop-like potential but without fine-tuning of the initial inflaton position in field-space. We also show that all parameters of the model can take natural values, below any associated EFT-cutoff mass scales and field values, thus ensuring straightforward theoretical control. We discuss the basic phenomenological considerations and constraints, as well as possible future directions., Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures

In-In perturbation theory is a vital tool for cosmology and nonequilibrium physics. Here, we reconcile an apparent conflict between two of its important aspects with particular relevance to De Sitter/inflationary contexts: (i) the need to slightly deform unitary time evolution with an i*epsilon prescription that projects the free ("Bunch-Davies") vacuum onto the interacting vacuum and renders vertex integrals well-defined, and (ii) Weinberg's "nested commutator" reformulation of in-in perturbation theory which makes manifest the constraints of causality within expectation values of local operators, assuming exact unitarity. We show that a modified i*epsilon prescription maintains the exact unitarity on which the derivation of (ii) rests, while nontrivially agreeing with (i) to all orders of perturbation theory., Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure; v2: corrected discussion of asymptotic series arguments in De Sitter section

Non-analyticity in co-moving momenta within the non-Gaussian bispectrum is a distinctive sign of on-shell particle production during inflation, presenting a unique opportunity for the "direct detection" of particles with masses as large as the inflationary Hubble scale ($H$). However, the strength of such non-analyticity ordinarily drops exponentially by a Boltzmann-like factor as masses exceed $H$. In this paper, we study an exception provided by a dimension-5 derivative coupling of the inflaton to heavy-particle currents, applying it specifically to the case of two real scalars. The operator has a "chemical potential" form, which harnesses the large kinetic energy scale of the inflaton, $\dot{\phi}_{0}^{1/2} \approx 60H$, to act as an efficient source of scalar particle production. Derivative couplings of inflaton ensure radiative stability of the slow-roll potential, which in turn maintains (approximate) scale-invariance of the inflationary correlations. We show that a signal not suffering Boltzmann suppression can be obtained in the bispectrum with strength $f_{\mathrm{NL}} \sim \mathcal{O}(0.01-10)$ for an extended range of scalar masses, $M \lesssim \dot{\phi}_{0}^{1/2}$, potentially as high as $10^{15}$ GeV, within the sensitivity of upcoming LSS and more futuristic 21-cm experiments. The mechanism does not invoke any particular fine-tuning of parameters or breakdown of perturbation-theoretic control. The leading contribution appears at tree-level, which makes the calculation analytically tractable and removes the loop-suppression as compared to earlier chemical potential studies of non-zero spins. The steady particle production allows us to infer the effective mass of the heavy particles and the chemical potential from the variation in bispectrum oscillations as a function of co-moving momenta. Our analysis sets the stage for generalization to heavy bosons with non-zero spin., Comment: 38 pages, 6 figures, v2: text added for clarification, figs. 2 and 3 changed to better represent the conclusions of our analysis, matches publication in JHEP

We study the cosmological transition of 5D warped compactifications, from the high-temperature black-brane phase to the low-temperature Randall-Sundrum I phase. The transition proceeds via percolation of bubbles of IR-brane nucleating from the black-brane horizon. The violent bubble dynamics can be a powerful source of observable stochastic gravitational waves. While bubble nucleation is non-perturbative in 5D gravity, it is amenable to semiclassical treatment in terms of a "bounce" configuration interpolating between the two phases. We demonstrate how such a bounce configuration can be smooth enough to maintain 5D effective field theory control, and how a simple ansatz for it places a rigorous lower-bound on the transition rate in the thin-wall regime, and gives plausible estimates more generally. When applied to the Hierarchy Problem, the minimal Goldberger-Wise stabilization of the warped throat leads to a slow transition with significant supercooling. We demonstrate that a simple generalization of the Goldberger-Wise potential modifies the IR-brane dynamics so that the transition completes more promptly. Supercooling determines the dilution of any (dark) matter abundances generated before the transition, potentially at odds with data, while the prompter transition resolves such tensions. We discuss the impact of the different possibilities on the strength of the gravitational wave signals. Via AdS/CFT duality the warped transition gives a theoretically tractable holographic description of the 4D Composite Higgs (de)confinement transition. Our generalization of the Goldberger-Wise mechanism is dual to, and concretely models, our earlier proposal in which the composite dynamics is governed by separate UV and IR RG fixed points. The smooth 5D bounce configuration we introduce complements the 4D dilaton/radion dominance derivation presented in our earlier work., Comment: journal version

Light scalars in inflationary spacetimes suffer from logarithmic infrared divergences at every order in perturbation theory. This corresponds to the scalar field values in different Hubble patches undergoing a random walk of quantum fluctuations, leading to a simple toy "landscape" on superhorizon scales, in which we can explore questions relevant to eternal inflation. However, for a sufficiently long period of inflation, the infrared divergences appear to spoil computability. Some form of renormalization group approach is thus motivated to resum the log divergences of conformal time. Such a resummation may provide insight into De Sitter holography. We present here a novel diagrammatic analysis of these infrared divergences and their resummation. Basic graph theory observations and momentum power counting for the in-in propagators allow a simple and insightful determination of the leading-log contributions. One thus sees diagrammatically how the superhorizon sector consists of a semiclassical theory with quantum noise evolved by a first-order, interacting classical equation of motion. This rigorously leads to the "Stochastic Inflation" ansatz developed by Starobinsky to cure the scalar infrared pathology nonperturbatively. Our approach is a controlled approximation of the underlying quantum field theory and is systematically improvable., Comment: 39 pages, 7 figures. v2: Appendix edited for clarity and references added. v3: Discussion of i*epsilon for perturbation theory, and references added

The QCD axion provides an elegant solution to the Strong CP Problem. While the minimal realization is vulnerable to the so-called "Axion Quality Problem", we will consider a more robust realization in the presence of a mirror sector related to the Standard Model by a (softly broken) $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. We point out that the resulting "heavy" axion, while satisfying all theoretical and observational constraints, has a large and uncharted parameter space which allows it to be probed at the LHC as a Long-Lived Particle (LLP). The small defining axionic coupling to gluons results in a challenging hadronic decay signal which we argue can be distinguished against the background in such a long-lived regime, and yet, the same coupling allows for sufficient production at hadron colliders thanks to the large gluon parton luminosity. Our study opens up a new window towards accelerator observable axions, and more generally, singly produced LLPs., Comment: 8+8 pages, 9 figures, 1 table

The dynamics of a cosmological (de)confinement phase transition is studied in nearly conformally invariant field theories, where confinement is predominantly spontaneously generated and associated with a light "dilaton" field. We show how the leading contribution to the transition rate can be computed within the dilaton effective theory. In the context of Composite Higgs theories, we demonstrate that a simple scenario involving two renormalization-group fixed points can make the transition proceed much more rapidly than in the minimal scenario, thereby avoiding excessive dilution of matter abundances generated before the transition. The implications for gravitational wave phenomenology are discussed. In general, we find that more (less) rapid phase transitions are associated with weaker (stronger) gravitational wave signals. The various possible features of the strongly coupled composite Higgs phase transition discussed here can be concretely modeled at weak coupling within the AdS/CFT dual Randall-Sundrum extra-dimensional description, which offers important insights into the nature of the transition and its theoretical control. These aspects will be presented in a companion paper., Comment: journal version

Primordial non-Gaussianity signatures of extremely heavy particles are re-examined within a simple alternative to the standard inflationary paradigm, in which the primordial fluctuations and the inflationary spacetime expansion are sourced by two different fields. The curvaton scenario provides an example of this in which the distinct roles are played by the curvaton and the inflaton fields, respectively. We study couplings of the curvaton to heavy particles with masses of order the inflationary Hubble scale, and show that they can lead to non-Gaussian signals orders of magnitude larger than those in standard inflation, consistent with explicit effective field theory control of inflationary dynamics. This brings various motivated particle physics signatures, such as loops of heavy gauge-charged scalars and fermions, within future observational reach., Comment: clarifications added, conclusions unchanged, journal version