Huang, J. W., Madden, A., Racco, D., & Reig, M. (2020). Maximal axion misalignment from a minimal model. J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 143–39pp.
Abstract: The QCD axion is one of the best motivated dark matter candidates. The misalignment mechanism is well known to produce an abundance of the QCD axion consistent with dark matter for an axion decay constant of order 10(12) GeV. For a smaller decay constant, the QCD axion, with Peccei-Quinn symmetry broken during inflation, makes up only a fraction of dark matter unless the axion field starts oscillating very close to the top of its potential, in a scenario called “large-misalignment”. In this scenario, QCD axion dark matter with a small axion decay constant is partially comprised of very dense structures. We present a simple dynamical model realising the large-misalignment mechanism. During inflation, the axion classically rolls down its potential approaching its minimum. After inflation, the Universe reheats to a high temperature and a modulus (real scalar field) changes the sign of its minimum dynamically, which changes the sign of the mass of a vector-like fermion charged under QCD. As a result, the minimum of the axion potential during inflation becomes the maximum of the potential after the Universe has cooled through the QCD phase transition and the axion starts oscillating. In this model, we can produce QCD axion dark matter with a decay constant as low as 6 x 10(9) GeV and an axion mass up to 1 meV. We also summarise the phenomenological implications of this mechanism for dark matter experiments and colliders.
|
De Romeri, V., Karamitros, D., Lebedev, O., & Toma, T. (2020). Neutrino dark matter and the Higgs portal: improved freeze-in analysis. J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 137–41pp.
Abstract: Sterile neutrinos are one of the leading dark matter candidates. Their masses may originate from a vacuum expectation value of a scalar field. If the sterile neutrino couplings are very small and their direct coupling to the inflaton is forbidden by the lepton number symmetry, the leading dark matter production mechanism is the freeze-in scenario. We study this possibility in the neutrino mass range up to 1 GeV, taking into account relativistic production rates based on the Bose-Einstein statistics, thermal masses and phase transition effects. The specifics of the production mechanism and the dominant mode depend on the relation between the scalar and sterile neutrino masses as well as on whether or not the scalar is thermalized. We find that the observed dark matter abundance can be produced in all of the cases considered. We also revisit the freeze-in production of a Higgs portal scalar, pointing out the importance of a fusion mode, as well as the thermalization constraints.
|
ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo, F. L., Castillo Gimenez, V., et al. (2020). Search for new non-resonant phenomena in high-mass dilepton final states with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 005–41pp.
Abstract: A search for new physics with non-resonant signals in dielectron and dimuon final states in the mass range above 2 TeV is presented. This is the first search for non-resonant signals in dilepton final states at the LHC to use a background estimate from the data. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1), were recorded by the ATLAS experiment in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of root s= 13 TeV during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. The benchmark signal signature is a two-quark and two-lepton contact interaction, which would enhance the dilepton event rate at the TeV mass scale. To model the contribution from background processes a functional form is fit to the dilepton invariant-mass spectra in data in a mass region below the region of interest. It is then extrapolated to a high-mass signal region to obtain the expected background there. No significant deviation from the expected background is observed in the data. Upper limits at 95% CL on the number of events and the visible cross-section times branching fraction for processes involving new physics are provided. Observed (expected) 95% CL lower limits on the contact interaction energy scale reach 35.8 (37.6) TeV.
|
Lattanzi, M., Gerbino, M., Freese, K., Kane, G., & Valle, J. W. F. (2020). Cornering (quasi) degenerate neutrinos with cosmology. J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 213–24pp.
Abstract: In light of the improved sensitivities of cosmological observations, we examine the status of quasi-degenerate neutrino mass scenarios. Within the simplest extension of the standard cosmological model with massive neutrinos, we find that quasi-degenerate neutrinos are severely constrained by present cosmological data and neutrino oscillation experiments. We find that Planck 2018 observations of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies disfavour quasi-degenerate neutrino masses at 2.4 Gaussian sigma 's, while adding baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) data brings the rejection to 5.9 sigma 's. The highest statistical significance with which one would be able to rule out quasi-degeneracy would arise if the sum of neutrino masses is Sigma m(v) = 60 meV (the minimum allowed by neutrino oscillation experiments); indeed a sensitivity of 15 meV, as expected from a combination of future cosmological probes, would further improve the rejection level up to 17 sigma. We discuss the robustness of these projections with respect to assumptions on the underlying cosmological model, and also compare them with bounds from beta decay endpoint and neutrinoless double beta decay studies.
|
Fileviez Perez, P., Murgui, C., & Plascencia, A. D. (2020). Axion dark matter, proton decay and unification. J. High Energy Phys., 01(1), 091–18pp.
Abstract: We discuss the possibility to predict the QCD axion mass in the context of grand unified theories. We investigate the implementation of the DFSZ mechanism in the context of renormalizable SU(5) theories. In the simplest theory, the axion mass can be predicted with good precision in the range m(a) = (2-16) neV, and there is a strong correlation between the predictions for the axion mass and proton decay rates. In this context, we predict an upper bound for the proton decay channels with antineutrinos, tau(p -> K+(nu) over bar) less than or similar to 4 x 10(37) yr and tau(p -> pi(+)(nu) over bar) less than or similar to 2 x 10(36) yr. This theory can be considered as the minimal realistic grand unified theory with the DFSZ mechanism and it can be fully tested by proton decay and axion experiments.
|
de Anda, F. J., Antoniadis, I., Valle, J. W. F., & Vaquera-Araujo, C. A. (2020). Scotogenic dark matter in an orbifold theory of flavor. J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 190–13pp.
Abstract: We propose a flavour theory in which the family symmetry results naturally from a six-dimensional orbifold compactification. “Diracness” of neutrinos is a consequence of the spacetime dimensionality, and the fact that right-handed neutrinos live in the bulk. Dark matter is incorporated in a scotogenic way, as a result of an auxiliary Z(3) symmetry, and its stability is associated to the conservation of a “dark parity” symmetry. The model leads naturally to a “golden” quark-lepton mass relation.
|
Molina, R., & Ruiz de Elvira, J. (2020). Light- and strange-quark mass dependence of the rho(770) meson revisited. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 017–74pp.
Abstract: Recent lattice data on pi pi -scattering phase shifts in the vector-isovector channel, pseudoscalar meson masses and decay constants for strange-quark masses smaller or equal to the physical value allow us to study the strangeness dependence of these observables for the first time. We perform a global analysis on two kind of lattice trajectories depending on whether the sum of quark masses or the strange-quark mass is kept fixed to the physical point. The quark mass dependence of these observables is extracted from unitarized coupled-channel one-loop Chiral Perturbation Theory. This analysis guides new predictions on the rho (770) meson properties over trajectories where the strange-quark mass is lighter than the physical mass, as well as on the SU(3) symmetric line. As a result, the light- and strange-quark mass dependence of the rho (770) meson parameters are discussed and precise values of the Low Energy Constants present in unitarized one-loop Chiral Perturbation Theory are given. Finally, the current discrepancy between two- and three-flavor lattice results for the rho (770) meson is studied.
|
LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Henry, L., Jashal, B. K., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., et al. (2020). Searches for low-mass dimuon resonances. J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 156–26pp.
Abstract: Searches are performed for a low-mass dimuon resonance, X, produced in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.1 fb(-1) and collected with the LHCb detector. The X bosons can either decay promptly or displaced from the proton-proton collision, where in both cases the requirements placed on the event and the assumptions made about the production mechanisms are kept as minimal as possible. The searches for promptly decaying X bosons explore the mass range from near the dimuon threshold up to 60 GeV, with nonnegligible X widths considered above 20 GeV. The searches for displaced X -> μ(+)mu (-) decays consider masses up to 3 GeV. None of the searches finds evidence for a signal and 90% confidence-level exclusion limits are placed on the X -> μ(+)mu (-) cross sections, each with minimal model dependence. In addition, these results are used to place world-leading constraints on GeV-scale bosons in the two-Higgs-doublet and hidden-valley scenarios.
|
Falkowski, A., Gonzalez-Alonso, M., & Tabrizi, Z. (2020). Consistent QFT description of non-standard neutrino interactions. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 048–23pp.
Abstract: Neutrino oscillations are precision probes of new physics. Apart from neutrino masses and mixings, they are also sensitive to possible deviations of low-energy interactions between quarks and leptons from the Standard Model predictions. In this paper we develop a systematic description of such non-standard interactions (NSI) in oscillation experiments within the quantum field theory framework. We calculate the event rate and oscillation probability in the presence of general NSI, starting from the effective field theory (EFT) in which new physics modifies the flavor or Lorentz structure of charged-current interactions between leptons and quarks. We also provide the matching between the EFT Wilson coefficients and the widely used simplified quantum-mechanical approach, where new physics is encoded in a set of production and detection NSI parameters. Finally, we discuss the consistency conditions for the standard NSI approach to correctly reproduce the quantum field theory result.
|
NA62 Collaboration(Cortina Gil, E. et al), & Husek, T. (2020). An investigation of the very rare K+ -> pi+ nu nubar decay. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 042–57pp.
Abstract: The NA62 experiment reports an investigation of the K+-> pi+nu nu <overbar></mml:mover> mode from a sample of K+ decays collected in 2017 at the CERN SPS. The experiment has achieved a single event sensitivity of (0.389 +/- 0.024) x 10(-10), corresponding to 2.2 events assuming the Standard Model branching ratio of (8.4 +/- 1.0) x 10(-11). Two signal candidates are observed with an expected background of 1.5 events. Combined with the result of a similar analysis conducted by NA62 on a smaller data set recorded in 2016, the collaboration now reports an upper limit of 1.78 x 10(-10) for the K+-> pi+nu nu <overbar></mml:mover> branching ratio at 90% CL. This, together with the corresponding 68% CL measurement of (0.48<mml:mo>-0.48<mml:mo>+0.72) x 10(-10), are currently the most precise results worldwide, and are able to constrain some New Physics models that predict large enhancements still allowed by previous measurements.
|