De Romeri, V., Kim, J. S., Martin Lozano, V., Rolbiecki, K., & Ruiz de Austri, R. (2016). Confronting dark matter with the diphoton excess from a parent resonance decay. Eur. Phys. J. C, 76(5), 262–13pp.
Abstract: A diphoton excess with an invariant mass of about 750 GeV has been recently reported by both ATLAS and CMS experiments at LHC. While the simplest interpretation requires the resonant production of a 750 GeV (pseudo) scalar, here we consider an alternative setup, with an additional heavy parent particle which decays into a pair of 750 GeV resonances. This configuration improves the agreement between the 8 and 13 TeV data. Moreover, we include a dark matter candidate in the form of a Majorana fermion which interacts through the 750 GeV portal. The invisible decays of the light resonance help to suppress additional decay channels into Standard Model particles in association with the diphoton signal. We realise our hierarchical framework in the context of an effective theory, and we analyse the diphoton signal as well as the consistency with other LHC searches. We finally address the interplay of the LHC results with the dark matter phenomenology, namely the compatibility with the relic density abundance and the indirect detection bounds.
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MoEDAL Collaboration(Acharya, B. et al), Bernabeu, J., Garcia, C., Mamuzic, J., Mitsou, V. A., Ruiz de Austri, R., et al. (2017). Search for Magnetic Monopoles with the MoEDAL Forward Trapping Detector in 13 TeV Proton-Proton Collisions at the LHC. Phys. Rev. Lett., 118(6), 061801–6pp.
Abstract: MoEDAL is designed to identify new physics in the form of long-lived highly ionizing particles produced in high-energy LHC collisions. Its arrays of plastic nuclear-track detectors and aluminium trapping volumes provide two independent passive detection techniques. We present here the results of a first search for magnetic monopole production in 13 TeV proton-proton collisions using the trapping technique, extending a previous publication with 8 TeV data during LHC Run 1. A total of 222 kg of MoEDAL trapping detector samples was exposed in the forward region and analyzed by searching for induced persistent currents after passage through a superconducting magnetometer. Magnetic charges exceeding half the Dirac charge are excluded in all samples and limits are placed for the first time on the production of magnetic monopoles in 13 TeV pp collisions. The search probes mass ranges previously inaccessible to collider experiments for up to five times the Dirac charge.
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Caron, S., Kim, J. S., Rolbiecki, K., Ruiz de Austri, R., & Stienen, B. (2017). The BSM-AI project: SUSY-AI-generalizing LHC limits on supersymmetry with machine learning. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(4), 257–25pp.
Abstract: A key research question at the Large Hadron Collider is the test of models of new physics. Testing if a particular parameter set of such a model is excluded by LHC data is a challenge: it requires time consuming generation of scattering events, simulation of the detector response, event reconstruction, cross section calculations and analysis code to test against several hundred signal regions defined by the ATLAS and CMS experiments. In the BSM-AI project we approach this challenge with a new idea. A machine learning tool is devised to predict within a fraction of a millisecond if a model is excluded or not directly from the model parameters. A first example is SUSY-AI, trained on the phenomenological supersymmetric standard model (pMSSM). About 300,000 pMSSM model sets – each tested against 200 signal regions by ATLAS – have been used to train and validate SUSY-AI. The code is currently able to reproduce theATLAS exclusion regions in 19 dimensions with an accuracy of at least 93%. It has been validated further within the constrained MSSM and the minimal natural supersymmetric model, again showing high accuracy. SUSY-AI and its future BSM derivatives will help to solve the problem of recasting LHC results for any model of new physics. SUSY-AI can be downloaded from http://susyai.hepforge.org/. An on-line interface to the program for quick testing purposes can be found at http://www.susy-ai.org/.
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Gomez-Vargas, G. A., Lopez-Fogliani, D. E., Muñoz, C., Perez, A. D., & Ruiz de Austri, R. (2017). Search for sharp and smooth spectral signatures of μnu SSM gravitino dark matter with Fermi- LAT. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 03(3), 047–23pp.
Abstract: The μnu SSM solves the μproblem of supersymmetric models and reproduces neutrino data, simply using couplings with right-handed neutrinos nu's. Given that these couplings break explicitly R parity, the gravitino is a natural candidate for decaying dark matter in the μnu SSM. In this work we carry out a complete analysis of the detection of μnu SSM gravitino dark matter through gamma-ray observations. In addition to the two-body decay producing a sharp line, we include in the analysis the three-body decays producing a smooth spectral signature. We perform first a deep exploration of the low-energy parameter space of the μnu SSM taking into account that neutrino data must be reproduced. Then, we compare the gamma-ray fluxes predicted by the model with Fermi-LAT observations. In particular, with the 95% CL upper limits on the total diffuse extragalactic gamma-ray background using 50 months of data, together with the upper limits on line emission from an updated analysis using 69.9 months of data. For standard values of bino and wino masses, gravitinos with masses larger than about 4 GeV, or lifetimes smaller than about 10(28) s, produce too large fluxes and are excluded as dark matter candidates. However, when limiting scenarios with large and close values of the gaugino masses are considered, the constraints turn out to be less stringent, excluding masses larger than 17 GeV and lifetimes smaller than 4 x 10(25) s.
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van Beekveld, M., Beenakker, W., Caron, S., Peeters, R., & Ruiz de Austri, R. (2017). Supersymmetry with dark matter is still natural. Phys. Rev. D, 96(3), 035015–7pp.
Abstract: We identify the parameter regions of the phenomenological minimal supersymmetric standard model (pMSSM) with the minimal possible fine-tuning. We show that the fine-tuning of the pMSSM is not large, nor under pressure by LHC searches. Low sbottom, stop and gluino masses turn out to be less relevant for low fine-tuning than commonly assumed. We show a link between low fine-tuning and the dark matter relic density. Fine-tuning arguments point to models with a dark matter candidate yielding the correct dark matter relic density: a bino-higgsino particle with a mass of 35-155 GeV. Some of these candidates are compatible with recent hints seen in astrophysics experiments such as Fermi-LAT and AMS-02. We argue that upcoming direct search experiments, such as XENON1T, will test all of the most natural solutions in the next few years due to the sensitivity of these experiments on the spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon cross section.
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