Antonelli, M. et al, Martinez-Vidal, F., & Pich, A. (2010). Flavor physics in the quark sector. Phys. Rep., 494(3-4), 197–414.
Abstract: In the past decade, one of the major challenges of particle physics has been to gain an in-depth understanding of the role of quark flavor. In this time frame, measurements and the theoretical interpretation of their results have advanced tremendously. A much broader understanding of flavor particles has been achieved; apart from their masses and quantum numbers, there now exist detailed measurements of the characteristics of their interactions allowing stringent tests of Standard Model predictions. Among the most interesting phenomena of flavor physics is the violation of the CP symmetry that has been subtle and difficult to explore. In the past, observations of CP violation were confined to neutral K mesons, but since the early 1990s, a large number of CP-violating processes have been studied in detail in neutral B mesons. In parallel, measurements of the couplings of the heavy quarks and the dynamics for their decays in large samples of K, D, and B mesons have been greatly improved in accuracy and the results are being used as probes in the search for deviations from the Standard Model. In the near future, there will be a transition from the current to a new generation of experiments; thus a review of the status of quark flavor physics is timely. This report is the result of the work of physicists attending the 5th CKM workshop, hosted by the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, September 9-13, 2008. It summarizes the results of the current generation of experiments that are about to be completed and it confronts these results with the theoretical understanding of the field which has greatly improved in the past decade.
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Gomez Dumm, D., Roig, P., Pich, A., & Portoles, J. (2010). Hadron structure in tau -> KK pi nu(tau) decays. Phys. Rev. D, 81(3), 034031–17pp.
Abstract: We analyze the hadronization structure of both vector and axial-vector currents leading to tau -> KK pi nu(tau) decays. At leading order in the 1/N-C expansion, and considering only the contribution of the lightest resonances, we work out, within the framework of the resonance chiral Lagrangian, the structure of the local vertices involved in those processes. The couplings in the resonance theory are constrained by imposing the asymptotic behavior of vector and axial-vector spectral functions ruled by QCD. In this way we predict the hadron spectra and conclude that, contrary to previous assertions, the vector contribution dominates by far over the axial-vector one in all KK pi charge channels.
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Ilisie, V., & Pich, A. (2012). QCD exotics versus a standard model Higgs boson. Phys. Rev. D, 86(3), 033001–8pp.
Abstract: The present collider data put severe constraints on any type of new strongly interacting particle coupling to the Higgs boson. We analyze the phenomenological limits on exotic quarks belonging to nontriplet SU(3)(C) representations and their implications on Higgs searches. The discovery of the standard model Higgs, in the experimentally allowed mass range, would exclude the presence of exotic quarks coupling to it. Thus, such QCD particles could only exist provided that their masses do not originate in the SM Higgs mechanism.
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Pich, A., & Rodriguez-Sanchez, A. (2016). Determination of the QCD coupling from ALEPH tau decay data. Phys. Rev. D, 94(3), 034027–26pp.
Abstract: We present a comprehensive study of the determination of the strong coupling from tau decay, using the most recent release of the experimental ALEPH data. We critically review all theoretical strategies used in previous works and put forward various novel approaches which allow one to study complementary aspects of the problem. We investigate the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods, trying to uncover their potential hidden weaknesses and test the stability of the obtained results under slight variations of the assumed inputs. We perform several determinations, using different methodologies, and find a very consistent set of results. All determinations are in excellent agreement, and allow us to extract a very reliable value for alpha(s)(m(tau)(2)). The main uncertainty originates in the pure perturbative error from unknown higher orders. Taking into account the systematic differences between the results obtained with the contour-improved perturbation theory and fixed-order perturbation theory prescriptions, we find alpha((nf=3))(s) (m(tau)(2)) = 0.328 +/- 0.013 which implies alpha((nf=5))(s) (M-Z(2)) = 0.1197 +/- 0.0015.
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Pich, A., Rosell, I., & Sanz-Cillero, J. J. (2020). Bottom-up approach within the electroweak effective theory: Constraining heavy resonances. Phys. Rev. D, 102(3), 035012–12pp.
Abstract: The LHC has confirmed the existence of a mass gap between the known particles and possible new states. Effective field theory is then the appropriate tool to search for low-energy signals of physics beyond the Standard Model. We adopt the general formalism of the electroweak effective theory, with a nonlinear realization of the electroweak symmetry breaking, where the Higgs is a singlet with independent couplings. At higher energies we consider a generic resonance Lagrangian which follows the above-mentioned nonlinear realization and couples the light particles to bosonic heavy resonances with J(P) = 0(+/-) and J(P) = 1(+/-). Integrating out the resonances and assuming a proper short-distance behavior, it is possible to determine or to constrain most of the bosonic low-energy constants in terms of resonance masses. Therefore, the current experimental bounds on these bosonic low-energy constants allow us to constrain the resonance masses above the TeV scale, by following a typical bottom-up approach, i.e., the fit of the low-energy constants to precise experimental data enables us to learn about the high-energy scales, the underlying theory behind the Standard Model.
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