Search

Hidden sector SUSY breaking where charged hidden sector fields obtain SUSY breaking vevs once seemed common in dynamical SUSY breaking (DSB). In such a case, scalars can obtain large masses but gauginos and A-terms gain loop-suppressed anomaly-mediated contributions which may be smaller by factors of 1/16\pi^2 ~1/160. This situation leads to models such as PeV or mini-split supersymmetry with m(scalars)~ 160 m(gauginos). In order to generate a light Higgs mass m_h~ 125 GeV, the scalar mass terms are required in the 10-100 TeV range, leading to large, unnatural contributions to the weak scale. Alternatively, in gravity mediation with singlet hidden sector fields, then m(scalars)~ m(gauginos)~ A-terms and the large A-terms lift m_h ->125 GeV even for natural values of m(stop1)~ 1-3 TeV. Requiring naturalness, which is probabilistically preferred by the string landscape, then the measured Higgs mass seems to favor singlets in the hidden sector, which can be common in metastable and retrofitted DSB models., Comment: 18 pages with 8 .png figures

We explore flavored resonant leptogenesis embedded in a neutrinophilic 2HDM. Successful leptogenesis is achieved by the very mildly degenerate two heavier right-handed neutrinos~(RHNs) $N_2$ and $N_3$ with a level of only $\Delta M_{32}/M_2 \sim \mathcal{O}(0.1\%-1\%)$. The lightest RHN, with a MeV-GeV mass, lies below the sphaleron freeze-out temperature and is stable, serving as a dark matter candidate. The model enables TeV-scale leptogenesis while avoiding the extreme mass degeneracy typically plagued conventional resonant leptogenesis. Baryon asymmetry, neutrino masses, and potentially dark matter relic density can be addressed within a unified, experimentally testable framework., Comment: 9 pages with 5 figures

The string landscape statistical draw to large scalar soft masses leads to a mixed quasi-degeneracy/decoupling solution to the SUSY flavor and CP problems where first/second generation matter scalars lie in the 20-40 TeV range. With increasing first/second generation scalars, SUSY models actually become more natural due to two-loop RG effects which suppress the corresponding third generation soft masses. This can also lead to substantial parameter space regions which are forbidden by the presence of charge and/or color breaking (CCB) minima of the scalar potential. We outline the allowed SUSY parameter space for the gravity-mediated three extra-parameter-non-universal Higgs model NUHM3. The natural regions with m_h~ 125 GeV, \Delta_{EW}<~ 30 and decoupled first/second generation scalar are characterized by rather heavy gluinos and EW gauginos, but with rather small \mu and top-squarks not far beyond LHC Run 2 limits. This scenario also explains why SUSY has so far eluded discovery at LHC in that the parameter space with small scalar and gaugino masses is all excluded by the presence of CCB minima., Comment: 18 pages with 11 .png figures

Natural supersymmetry with light higgsinos is most likely to emerge from the string landscape since the volume of scan parameter space shrinks to tiny volumes for electroweak unnatural models. Rather general arguments favor a landscape selection of soft SUSY breaking terms tilted to large values, but tempered by the atomic principle: that the derived value of the weak scale in each pocket universe lie not too far from its measured value in our universe. But that leaves (at least) three different paradigms for gaugino masses in natural SUSY models: unified (as in nonuniversal Higgs models), anomaly-mediation form (as in natural AMSB) and mirage mediation form (with comparable moduli- and anomaly-mediated contributions). We perform landscape scans for each of these, and show they populate different, but overlapping, positions in m(\ell\bar{\ell}) and m(wino) space. The first of these may be directly measurable at high-lumi LHC via the soft opposite-sign dilepton plus jets plus MET signature arising from higgsino pair production while the second of these could be extracted from direct wino pair production leading to same-sign diboson production., Comment: 17 pages with 3 .png figures

Natural supersymmetry (SUSY) with light higgsinos is perhaps the most plausible of all weak scale SUSY models while a variety of motivations point to (right) tau sleptons as the lightest of all the sleptons. We examine a SUSY model line with rather light right-staus embedded within natural SUSY. For light stau_1 of a few hundred GeV, then the decays stau_1 -> \tau\tchi_{1,2}^0 and \nu_\tau\tchi_1^- occur at comparable rates where the (higgsino-like) \tchi_1^\pm and \tchi_2^0 release only small visible energy: in this case, the expected \tau^+\tau^- +\eslt signature is diminished from usual expectations due to the presence of the nearly invisible decay mode \ttau_1 -> \nu_\tau\tchi_1^-. However, once m_{\ttau_1}> ~m(bino), then decays to binos such as \ttau_1 -> \tau\tchi_3^0 open up where \tchi_3^0 decays to higgsinos plus W^\pm, Z^0 and h at comparable rates. For these heavier staus, then stau pair production gives rise to diboson+\eslt events which may contain 0, 1 or 2 additional hard \tau leptons. From these considerations, we examine the potential for future discovery of tau-slepton pair production at high-luminosity LHC. While we do not find a 5\sigma HL-LHC discovery reach for 3000 fb^{-1}, we do find a 95\% CL exclusion reach, ranging between m_{\ttau_1}:100-450 GeV for m_{\tchi_1^0}~ 100 GeV. This latter reach disappears for m_{\tchi_1^0}>~ 200 GeV., Comment: 20 pages including 7 .png figures; version 2 should coincide with published version and fixes several typos

In natural supersymmetric models defined by no worse than a part in thirty electroweak fine-tuning, winos and binos are generically expected to be much heavier than higgsinos. Moreover, the splitting between the higgsinos is expected to be small, so that the visible decay products of the heavier higgsinos are soft, rendering the higgsinos quasi-invisible at the LHC. Within the natural SUSY framwork, heavy electroweak gauginos decay to W, Z or h bosons plus higgsinos in the ratio ~2:1:1, respectively. This is in sharp contrast to models with a bino-like lightest superpartner and very heavy higgsinos, where the charged (neutral) wino essentially always decays to a W (h) boson and an invisible bino. Wino pair production at the LHC, in natural SUSY, thus leads to VV, Vh and hh+MET final states (V=W, Z) where, for TeV scale winos, the vector bosons and h daughters are considerably boosted. We identify eight different channels arising from the leptonic and hadronic decays of the vector bosons and the decay h-> b\bar{b}, each of which offers an avenue for wino discovery at the high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). By combining the signal in all eight channels we find, assuming \sqrt{s}=14 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb^{-1}, that the discovery reach for winos extends to m(wino)~1.1~TeV, while the 95% CL exclusion range extends to a wino mass of almost 1.4~TeV. We also identify ``higgsino specific channels'' which could serve to provide 3\sigma evidence that winos lighter than 1.2~TeV decay to light higgsinos rather than to a bino-like LSP, should a wino signal appear at the HL-LHC., Comment: 36 pages with 19 .png figures; version 2 coincides with published version

Supersymmetric models with low electroweak finetuning are expected to be more prevalent on the string landscape than finetuned models. We assume a fertile patch of landscape vacua containing the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) as low energy/weak scale effective field theory (LE-EFT). Then, a statistical pull by the landscape to large soft terms is balanced by the requirement of a derived value of the weak scale which is not too far from its measured value in our universe. Such models are characterized by light higgsinos in the few hundred GeV range whilst top squarks are in the 1-2.5 TeV range with large trilinear soft terms which helps to push m_h~ 125 GeV. Other sparticles are generally beyond current LHC reach and the BR(b -> s\gamma ) branching fraction is nearly equal to its SM value. The light top-squarks decay comparably via \tst_1 -> b\tchi_1^+ and \tst_1 -> t\tchi_{1,2}^0 yielding mixed final states of b\bar{b}+MET, t\bar{b}/\ \bar{t}b + MET and t\bar{t}+ MET. We evaluate prospects for top squark discovery at high-luminosity (HL) LHC for the well-motivated case of natural SUSY from the landscape. We find for HL-LHC a 5\sigma reach out to m_{\tst_1}~ 1.7 TeV and a 95\% CL exclusion reach to m_{\tst_1} ~ 2 TeV. These reaches cover {\it most} (but not all) of the allowed stringy natural parameter space!, Comment: 26 pages with 16 .png figures

We continue our examination of prospects for discovery of heavy Higgs bosons of natural SUSY (natSUSY) models at the high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), this time focussing on charged Higgs bosons. In natSUSY, higgsinos are expected at the few hundred GeV scale whilst electroweak gauginos inhabit the TeV scale and the heavy Higgs bosons, H, A and H^\pm could range up tens of TeV without jeopardizing naturalness. For TeV-scale heavy SUSY Higgs bosons H, A and H^\pm, as currently required by LHC searches, SUSY decays into gaugino plus higgsino can dominate H^\pm decays provided these decays are kinematically accessible. The visible decay products of higgsinos are soft making them largely invisible, whilst the gauginos decay to W, Z or h plus missing transverse energy (MET). Charged Higgs bosons are dominantly produced at LHC14 via the parton subprocess, gb-> H^\pm t. In this paper, we examine the viability of observing signtures from H^\pm -> \tau\nu, H^\pm -> tb and H^\pm -> W, Z, h + MET events produced in association with a top quark at the HL-LHC over large Standard Model (SM) backgrounds from (mainly) t\bar{t}, t\bar{t}V and t\bar{t}h production (where V=W, Z). We find that the greatest reach is found via the SM H^\pm(-> \tau\nu) +t channel with a subdominant contribution from the H^\pm(-> tb) +t channel. Unlike for neutral Higgs searches, the SUSY decay modes appear to be unimportant for H^\pm searches at the HL-LHC. We delineate regions of the m_A vs. \tan\beta plane, mostly around m_A \sim 1-2 TeV, where signals from charged Higgs bosons would serve to confirm signals of a heavy, neutral Higgs boson at the 5\sigma level or, alternatively, to exclude heavy Higgs bosons at the 95% confidence level at the high luminosity LHC., Comment: 33 pages with 22 .png figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2212.09198

In supersymmetry (SUSY) models with low electroweak naturalness (natSUSY), which have been suggested to be the most likely version of SUSY to emerge from the string landscape, higgsinos are expected at the few hundred GeV scale whilst electroweak gauginos inhabit the TeV scale. For TeV-scale heavy neutral SUSY Higgs bosons H and A, as currently required by LHC searches, then the dominant decay modes of H, A are into gaugino plus higgsino provided these decays are kinematically open. The light higgsinos decay to soft particles so are largely invisible whilst the gauginos decay to W, Z or h plus missing transverse energy (MET). Thus, we examine the viability of H,A-> W+MET, Z+MET and h+MET signatures at the high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) in light of large Standard Model (SM) backgrounds from (mainly) t\bar{t}, VV and Vh production (where V=W, Z). We also examine whether these signal channels can be enhanced over backgrounds by requiring the presence of an additional soft lepton from the decays of the light higgsinos. We find significant regions in the vicinity of m_A~ 1-2 TeV of the m_A vs. \tan\beta plane which can be probed at the high luminosity LHC using these dominant signatures by HL-LHC at 5\sigma and at the 95% confidence level (CL)., Comment: 24 pages with 26 .png figures

We examine production and decay of heavy neutral SUSY Higgs bosons pp-> H,\ A -> \tau\bar{\tau} within the hMSSM and compare against a perhaps more plausible natural supersymmetry scenario dubbed m_h^{125}({\rm nat}) which allows for a natural explanation for m_{weak}\simeq m_{W,Z,h}\sim 100 GeV while maintaining m_h\simeq 125 GeV. We evaluate signal against various Standard Model backgrounds from \gamma ,Z ->\tau\bar{\tau}, t\bar{t} and vector boson pair production VV. We combine the transverse mass method for back-to-back (BtB) taus along with the ditau mass peak m_{\tau\tau} method for acollinear taus as our signal channels. This technique ultimately gives a boost to the signal significance over the standard technique of using just the BtB signal channel. We evaluate both the 95% CL exclusion and 5\sigma discovery reach in the m_A vs. \tan\beta plane for present LHC with 139 fb^{-1}, Run 3 with 300 fb^{-1} and high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) with 3000 fb^{-1} of integrated luminosity. For \tan\beta =10, the exclusion limits range up to m_A\sim 1, 1.1 and 1.4 TeV, respectively. These may be compared to the range of m_A values gleaned from a statistical analysis of the string landscape wherein m_A can range up to ~8 TeV., Comment: 24 pages with 38 .png figures