NA64 Collaboration(Andreev, Y. M. et al), Molina Bueno, L., & Tuzi, M. (2024). First constraints on the Lμ – Lτ explanation of the muon g-2 anomaly from NA64-e at CERN. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 212–15pp.
Abstract: The inclusion of an additional U(1) gauge L-mu – L-tau symmetry would release the tension between the measured and the predicted value of the anomalous muon magnetic moment: this paradigm assumes the existence of a new, light Z ' vector boson, with dominant coupling to μand tau leptons and interacting with electrons via a loop mechanism. The L-mu – L-tau model can also explain the Dark Matter relic abundance, by assuming that the Z ' boson acts as a “portal” to a new Dark Sector of particles in Nature, not charged under known interactions. In this work we present the results of the Z ' search performed by the NA64-e experiment at CERN SPS, that collected similar to 9 x 10(11) 100 GeV electrons impinging on an active thick target. Despite the suppressed Z ' production yield with an electron beam, NA64-e provides the first accelerator-based results excluding the g – 2 preferred band of the Z ' parameter space in the 1 keV < m(Z ') less than or similar to 2 MeV range, in complementarity with the limits recently obtained by the NA64-mu experiment with a muon beam.
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Agius, D., Essig, R., Gaggero, D., Scarcella, F., Suczewski, G., & Valli, M. (2024). Feedback in the dark: a critical examination of CMB bounds on primordial black holes. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 07(7), 003–36pp.
Abstract: If present in the early universe, primordial black holes (PBHs) would have accreted matter and emitted high-energy photons, altering the statistical properties of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This mechanism has been used to constrain the fraction of dark matter that is in the form of PBHs to be much smaller than unity for PBH masses well above one solar mass. Moreover, the presence of dense dark matter mini -halos around the PBHs has been used to set even more stringent constraints, as these would boost the accretion rates. In this work, we critically revisit CMB constraints on PBHs taking into account the role of the local ionization of the gas around them. We discuss how the local increase in temperature around PBHs can prevent the dark matter mini -halos from strongly enhancing the accretion process, in some cases significantly weakening previously derived CMB constraints. We explore in detail the key ingredients of the CMB bound and derive a conservative limit on the cosmological abundance of massive PBHs.
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Beltran, R., Bolton, P. D., Deppisch, F. F., Hati, C., & Hirsch, M. (2024). Probing heavy neutrino magnetic moments at the LHC using long-lived particle searches. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 153–44pp.
Abstract: We explore long-lived particle (LLP) searches using non-pointing photons at the LHC as a probe for sterile-to-sterile and active-to-sterile transition magnetic dipole moments of sterile neutrinos. We consider heavy sterile neutrinos with masses ranging from a few GeV to several hundreds of GeV. We discuss transition magnetic dipole moments using the Standard Model effective field theory and low-energy effective field theory extended by sterile neutrinos (NRSMEFT and NRLEFT) and also provide a simplified UV-complete model example. LLP searches at the LHC using non-pointing photons will probe sterile-to-sterile dipole moments two orders of magnitude below the current best constraints from LEP, while an unprecedented sensitivity to sterile neutrino mass of about 700 GeV is expected for active-to-sterile dipole moments. For the UV model example with one-loop transition magnetic moments, the searches for charged lepton flavour violating processes in synergy with LLP searches at the LHC can probe new physics at several TeV mass scales and provide valuable insights into the lepton flavour structure of new physics couplings.
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Centelles Chulia, S., Herrero-Brocal, A., & Vicente, A. (2024). The Type-I Seesaw family. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 060–35pp.
Abstract: We provide a comprehensive analysis of the Type-I Seesaw family of neutrino mass models, including the conventional type-I seesaw and its low-scale variants, namely the linear and inverse seesaws. We establish that all these models essentially correspond to a particular form of the type-I seesaw in the context of explicit lepton number violation. We then focus into the more interesting scenario of spontaneous lepton number violation, systematically categorizing all inequivalent minimal models. Furthermore, we identify and flesh out specific models that feature a rich majoron phenomenology and discuss some scenarios which, despite having heavy mediators and being invisible in processes such as μ-> e gamma, predict sizable rates for decays including the majoron in the final state.
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Cepedello, R., Esser, F., Hirsch, M., & Sanz, V. (2024). Fermionic UV models for neutral triple gauge boson vertices. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 275–28pp.
Abstract: Searches for anomalous neutral triple gauge boson couplings (NTGCs) provide important tests for the gauge structure of the standard model. In SMEFT (“standard model effective field theory”) NTGCs appear only at the level of dimension-8 operators. While the phenomenology of these operators has been discussed extensively in the literature, renormalizable UV models that can generate these operators are scarce. In this work, we study a variety of extensions of the SM with heavy fermions and calculate their matching to d = 8 NTGC operators. We point out that the complete matching of UV models requires four different CP-conserving d = 8 operators and that the single CPC d = 8 operator, most commonly used by the experimental collaborations, does not describe all possible NTGC form factors. Despite stringent experimental constraints on NTGCs, limits on the scale of UV models are relatively weak, because their contributions are doubly suppressed (being d = 8 and 1-loop). We suggest a series of benchmark UV scenarios suitable for interpreting searches for NTGCs in the upcoming LHC runs, obtain their current limits and provide estimates for the expected sensitivity of the high-luminosity LHC.
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