|
|
Belanger, G., Bharucha, A., Fuks, B., Goudelis, A., Heisig, J., Jueid, A., et al. (2022). Leptoquark manoeuvres in the dark: a simultaneous solution of the dark matter problem and the R-D(*) anomalies. J. High Energy Phys., 02(2), 042–58pp.
Abstract: The measured branching fractions of B-mesons into leptonic final states derived by the LHCb, Belle and BaBar collaborations hint towards the breakdown of lepton flavour universality. In this work we take at face value the so-called R-D(()*()) observables that are defined as the ratios of neutral B-meson charged-current decays into a D-(*())-meson, a charged lepton and a neutrino final state in the tau and light lepton channels. A well-studied and simple solution to this charged current anomaly is to introduce a scalar leptoquark S-1 that couples to the second and third generation of fermions. We investigate how S-1 can also serve as a mediator between the Standard Model and a dark sector. We study this scenario in detail and estimate the constraints arising from collider searches for leptoquarks, collider searches for missing energy signals, direct detection experiments and the dark matter relic abundance. We stress that the production of a pair of leptoquarks that decays into different final states (i.e. the commonly called “mixed” channels) provides critical information for identifying the underlying dynamics, and we exemplify this by studying the t tau b nu and the resonant S-1 plus missing energy channels. We find that direct detection data provides non-negligible constraints on the leptoquark coupling to the dark sector, which in turn affects the relic abundance. We also show that the correct relic abundance can not only arise via standard freeze-out, but also through conversion-driven freeze-out. We illustrate the rich phenomenology of the model with a few selected benchmark points, providing a broad stroke of the interesting connection between lepton flavour universality violation and dark matter.
|
|
|
|
Beltran, R., Cottin, G., Helo, J. C., Hirsch, M., Titov, A., & Wang, Z. S. (2022). Long-lived heavy neutral leptons at the LHC: four-fermion single-N-R operators. J. High Energy Phys., 01(1), 044–18pp.
Abstract: Interest in searches for heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) at the LHC has increased considerably in the past few years. In the minimal scenario, HNLs are produced and decay via their mixing with active neutrinos in the Standard Model (SM) spectrum. However, many SM extensions with HNLs have been discussed in the literature, which sometimes change expectations for LHC sensitivities drastically. In the N-R SMEFT, one extends the SM effective field theory with operators including SM singlet fermions, which allows to study HNL phenomenology in a “model independent” way. In this paper, we study the sensitivity of ATLAS to HNLs in the N-R SMEFT for four-fermion operators with a single HNL. These operators might dominate both production and decay of HNLs, and we find that new physics scales in excess of 20 TeV could be probed at the high-luminosity LHC.
|
|
|
|
Beniwal, A., Herrero-Garcia, J., Leerdam, N., White, M., & Williams, A. G. (2021). The ScotoSinglet Model: a scalar singlet extension of the Scotogenic Model. J. High Energy Phys., 06(6), 136–34pp.
Abstract: The Scotogenic Model is one of the most minimal models to account for both neutrino masses and dark matter (DM). In this model, neutrino masses are generated at the one-loop level, and in principle, both the lightest fermion singlet and the lightest neutral component of the scalar doublet can be viable DM candidates. However, the correct DM relic abundance can only be obtained in somewhat small regions of the parameter space, as there are strong constraints stemming from lepton flavour violation, neutrino masses, electroweak precision tests and direct detection. For the case of scalar DM, a sufficiently large lepton-number-violating coupling is required, whereas for fermionic DM, coannihilations are typically necessary. In this work, we study how the new scalar singlet modifies the phenomenology of the Scotogenic Model, particularly in the case of scalar DM. We find that the new singlet modifies both the phenomenology of neutrino masses and scalar DM, and opens up a large portion of the parameter space of the original model.
|
|
|
|
Bernabeu, J., & Segarra, A. (2018). Stimulated transitions in resonant atom Majorana mixing. J. High Energy Phys., 02(2), 017–16pp.
Abstract: Massive neutrinos demand to ask whether they are Dirac or Majorana particles. Majorana neutrinos are an irrefutable proof of physics beyond the Standard Model. Neutrinoless double electron capture is not a process but a virtual Delta L = 2 mixing between a parent (A)Z atom and a daughter (A)(Z – 2) excited atom with two electron holes. As a mixing between two neutral atoms and the observable signal in terms of emitted two-hole X-rays, the strategy, experimental signature and background are different from neutrinoless double beta decay. The mixing is resonantly enhanced for almost degeneracy and, under these conditions, there is no irreducible background from the standard two-neutrino channel. We reconstruct the natural time history of a nominally stable parent atom since its production either by nature or in the laboratory. After the time periods of atom oscillations and the decay of the short-lived daughter atom, at observable times the relevant 'stationary" states are the mixed metastable long-lived state and the non-orthogonal short-lived excited state, as well as the ground state of the daughter atom. We find that they have a natural population inversion which is most appropriate for exploiting the bosonic nature of the observed atomic transitions radiation. Among different observables of the atom Majorana mixing, we include the enhanced rate of stimulated X-ray emission from the long-lived metastable state by a high-intensity X-ray beam: a gain factor of 100 can be envisaged at current XFEL facilities. On the other hand, the historical population of the daughter atom ground state can be probed by exciting it with a current pulsed optical laser, showing the characteristic absorption lines: the whole population can be excited in a shorter time than typical pulse duration.
|
|
|
|
Bernal, N., Donini, A., Folgado, M. G., & Rius, N. (2020). Kaluza-Klein FIMP dark matter in warped extra-dimensions. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 142–31pp.
Abstract: We study for the first time the case in which Dark Matter (DM) is made of Feebly Interacting Massive Particles (FIMP) interacting just gravitationally with the standard model particles in an extra-dimensional Randall-Sundrum scenario. We assume that both the dark matter and the standard model are localized in the IR-brane and only interact via gravitational mediators, namely the graviton, the Kaluza-Klein gravitons and the radion. We found that in the early Universe DM could be generated via two main processes: the direct freeze-in and the sequential freeze-in. The regions where the observed DM relic abundance is produced are largely compatible with cosmological and collider bounds.
|
|
