Abstract: Theoretical interpretations of particle physics data, such as the determination of the Wilson coefficients of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT), often involve the inference of multiple parameters from a global dataset. Optimizing such interpretations requires the identification of observables that exhibit the highest possible sensitivity to the underlying theory parameters. In this work we develop a flexible open source frame-work, ML4EFT, enabling the integration of unbinned multivariate observables into global SMEFT fits. As compared to traditional measurements, such observables enhance the sensitivity to the theory parameters by preventing the information loss incurred when binning in a subset of final-state kinematic variables. Our strategy combines machine learning regression and classification techniques to parameterize high-dimensional likelihood ratios, using the Monte Carlo replica method to estimate and propagate methodological uncertainties. As a proof of concept we construct unbinned multivariate observables for top-quark pair and Higgs+Z production at the LHC, demonstrate their impact on the SMEFT parameter space as compared to binned measurements, and study the improved constraints associated to multivariate inputs. Since the number of neural networks to be trained scales quadratically with the number of parameters and can be fully parallelized, the ML4EFT framework is well-suited to construct unbinned multivariate observables which depend on up to tens of EFT coefficients, as required in global fits.

Abstract: The Scotogenic model is a popular scenario that induces radiative Majorana neutrino masses and includes a weakly-interacting dark matter candidate. We classify all possible ultraviolet extensions of the Scotogenic model in which (i) the dark DOUBLE-STRUCK CAPITAL Z(2) parity emerges at low energies after the spontaneous breaking of a global U(1)(L) lepton number symmetry, and (ii) the low-energy effective theory contains a naturally small lepton number breaking parameter, suppressed by the mass of a heavy mediator integrated out at tree-level. We find 50 such models and discuss two of them in detail to illustrate our setup. We also discuss some general aspects of the phenomenology of the models in our classification, exploring possible lepton flavor violating signals, collider signatures and implications for dark matter. The phenomenological prospects of these scenarios are very rich due to the presence of additional scalar states, including a massless Goldstone boson.

Abstract: We investigate gravitational -wave backgrounds (GWBs) of primordial origin that would manifest only at ultrahigh frequencies, from kilohertz to 100 gigahertz, and leave no signal at LIGO, the Einstein Telescope, the Cosmic Explorer, LISA, or pulsar -timing arrays. We focus on GWBs produced by cosmic strings and make predictions for the GW spectra scanning over high-energy scale (beyond 10 10 GeV) particle physics parameters. Signals from local string networks can easily be as large as the big bang nucleosynthesis/ cosmic microwave background bounds, with a characteristic strain as high as 10 – 26 in the 10 kHz band, offering prospects to probe grand unification physics in the 10 14 -10 17 GeV energy range. In comparison, GWB from axionic strings is suppressed (with maximal characteristic strain similar to 10 – 31 ) due to the early matter era induced by the associated heavy axions. We estimate the needed reach of hypothetical futuristic GW detectors to probe such GWB and, therefore, the corresponding high-energy physics processes. Beyond the information of the symmetry -breaking scale, the high -frequency spectrum encodes the microscopic structure of the strings through the position of the UV cutoffs associated with cusps and kinks, as well as potential information about friction forces on the string. The IR slope, on the other hand, reflects the physics responsible for the decay of the string network. We discuss possible strategies for reconstructing the scalar potential, particularly the scalar self -coupling, from the measurement of the UV cutoff of the GW spectrum.