Becchetti, M., Bonciani, R., Cieri, L., Coro, F., & Ripani, F. (2024). Full top-quark mass dependence in diphoton production at NNLO in QCD. Phys. Lett. B, 848, 138362–7pp.
Abstract: In this paper we consider the diphoton production in hadronic collisions at the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in perturbative QCD, taking into account for the first time the full top quark mass dependence up to two loops (full NNLO). We show selected numerical distributions, highlighting the kinematic regions where the massive corrections are more significant. We make use of the recently computed two-loop massive amplitudes for diphoton production in the quark annihilation channel. The remaining massive contributions at NNLO are also considered, and we comment on the weight of the different types of contributions to the full and complete result.
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Jueid, A., Kip, J., Ruiz de Austri, R., & Skands, P. (2024). The Strong Force meets the Dark Sector: a robust estimate of QCD uncertainties for anti-matter dark matter searches. J. High Energy Phys., 02(2), 119–48pp.
Abstract: In dark-matter annihilation channels to hadronic final states, stable particles – such as positrons, photons, antiprotons, and antineutrinos – are produced via complex sequences of phenomena including QED/QCD radiation, hadronisation, and hadron decays. These processes are normally modelled by Monte Carlo (MC) event generators whose limited accuracy imply intrinsic QCD uncertainties on the predictions for indirect-detection experiments like Fermi-LAT, Pamela, IceCube or Ams-02. In this article, we perform a comprehensive analysis of QCD uncertainties, meaning both perturbative and nonperturbative sources of uncertainty are included – estimated via variations of MC renormalization-scale and fragmentation-function parameters, respectively – in antimatter spectra from dark-matter annihilation, based on parametric variations of the Pythia 8 event generator. After performing several retunings of light-quark fragmentation functions, we define a set of variations that span a conservative estimate of the QCD uncertainties. We estimate the effects on antimatter spectra for various annihilation channels and final-state particle species, and discuss their impact on fitted values for the dark-matter mass and thermally-averaged annihilation cross section. We find dramatic impacts which can go up to O(10%) for the annihilation cross section. We provide the spectra in tabulated form including QCD uncertainties and code snippets to perform fast dark-matter fits, in this github repository.
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De Romeri, V., Papoulias, D. K., & Ternes, C. A. (2024). Light vector mediators at direct detection experiments. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 165–22pp.
Abstract: Solar neutrinos induce elastic neutrino-electron scattering in dark matter direct detection experiments, resulting in detectable event rates at current facilities. We analyze recent data from the XENONnT, LUX-ZEPLIN, and PandaX-4T experiments and we derive stringent constraints on several U(1) ' extensions of the Standard Model, accommodating new neutrino-electron interactions. We provide bounds on the relevant coupling and mass of light vector mediators for a variety of models, including the anomaly-free B – L model, lepton flavor-dependent interactions like L alpha – L beta , B – 2L e – L mu,tau , B – 3L alpha , and B + 2L μ+ 2L tau models. We compare our results with other limits obtained in the literature from both terrestrial and astrophysical experiments. Finally, we present forecasts for improving current bounds with a future experiment like DARWIN.
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Kalliokoski, M., Mitsou, V. A., de Montigny, M., Mukhopadhyay, A., Ouimet, P. P. A., Pinfold, J., et al. (2024). Searching for minicharged particles at the energy frontier with the MoEDAL-MAPP experiment at the LHC. J. High Energy Phys., 04(4), 137–22pp.
Abstract: The MoEDAL's Apparatus for Penetrating Particles (MAPP) Experiment is designed to expand the search for new physics at the LHC, significantly extending the physics program of the baseline MoEDAL Experiment. The Phase-1 MAPP detector (MAPP-1) is currently undergoing installation at the LHC's UA83 gallery adjacent to the LHCb/MoEDAL region at Interaction Point 8 and will begin data-taking in early 2024. The focus of the MAPP experiment is on the quest for new feebly interacting particles – avatars of new physics with extremely small Standard Model couplings, such as minicharged particles (mCPs). In this study, we present the results of a comprehensive analysis of MAPP-1's sensitivity to mCPs arising in the canonical model involving the kinetic mixing of a massless dark U(1) gauge field with the Standard Model hypercharge gauge field. We focus on several dominant production mechanisms of mCPs at the LHC across the mass-mixing parameter space of interest to MAPP: Drell-Yan pair production, direct decays of heavy quarkonia and light vector mesons, and single Dalitz decays of pseudoscalar mesons. The 95% confidence level background-free sensitivity of MAPP-1 for mCPs produced at the LHC's Run 3 and the HL-LHC through these mechanisms, along with projected constraints on the minicharged strongly interacting dark matter window, are reported. Our results indicate that MAPP-1 exhibits sensitivity to sizable regions of unconstrained parameter space and can probe effective charges as low as 8 x 10 -4 e and 6 x 10 -4 e for Run 3 and the HL-LHC, respectively.
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Flores, M. M., Kim, J. S., Rolbiecki, K., & Ruiz de Austri, R. (2023). Updated LHC bounds on MUED after run 2. Int. J. Mod. Phys. A, 38(1), 2350002–14pp.
Abstract: We present updated LHC limits on the minimal universal extra dimensions (MUEDs) model from the Run 2 searches. We scan the parameter space against a number of searches implemented in the public code CheckMATE and derive up-to-date limits on the MUED parameter space from 13TeV searches. The strongest constraints come from a search dedicated to squarks and gluinos with one isolated lepton, jets and missing transverse energy. In the procedure, we take into account initial state radiation and stress its importance in the MUED searches, which is not always appreciated.
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Caron, S., Ruiz de Austri, R., & Zhang, Z. Y. (2023). Mixture-of-Theories training: can we find new physics and anomalies better by mixing physical theories? J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 004–37pp.
Abstract: Model-independent search strategies have been increasingly proposed in recent years because on the one hand there has been no clear signal for new physics and on the other hand there is a lack of a highly probable and parameter-free extension of the standard model. For these reasons, there is no simple search target so far. In this work, we try to take a new direction and ask the question: bearing in mind that we have a large number of new physics theories that go beyond the Standard Model and may contain a grain of truth, can we improve our search strategy for unknown signals by using them “in combination”? In particular, we show that a signal hypothesis based on a large, intermingled set of many different theoretical signal models can be a superior approach to find an unknown BSM signal. Applied to a recent data challenge, we show that “mixture-of-theories training” outperforms strategies that optimize signal regions with a single BSM model as well as most unsupervised strategies. Applications of this work include anomaly detection and the definition of signal regions in the search for signals of new physics.
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Breso-Pla, V., Falkowski, A., Gonzalez-Alonso, M., & Monsalvez-Pozo, K. (2023). EFT analysis of New Physics at COHERENT. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 074–53pp.
Abstract: Using an effective field theory approach, we study coherent neutrino scattering on nuclei, in the setup pertinent to the COHERENT experiment. We include non-standard effects both in neutrino production and detection, with an arbitrary flavor structure, with all leading Wilson coefficients simultaneously present, and without assuming factorization in flux times cross section. A concise description of the COHERENT event rate is obtained by introducing three generalized weak charges, which can be associated (in a certain sense) to the production and scattering of nu(e), nu(mu) and (nu) over bar (mu) on the nuclear target. Our results are presented in a convenient form that can be trivially applied to specific New Physics scenarios. In particular, we find that existing COHERENT measurements provide percent level constraints on two combinations of Wilson coefficients. These constraints have a visible impact on the global SMEFT fit, even in the constrained flavor-blind setup. The improvement, which affects certain 4-fermion LLQQ operators, is significantly more important in a flavor-general SMEFT. Our work shows that COHERENT data should be included in electroweak precision studies from now on.
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Alvarez, M., Cantero, J., Czakon, M., Llorente, J., Mitov, A., & Poncelet, R. (2023). NNLO QCD corrections to event shapes at the LHC. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 129–24pp.
Abstract: In this work we perform the first ever calculation of jet event shapes at hadron colliders at next-to-next-to leading order (NNLO) in QCD. The inclusion of higher order corrections removes the shape difference observed between data and next-to-leading order predictions. The theory uncertainty at NNLO is comparable to, or slightly larger than, existing measurements. Except for narrow kinematical ranges where all-order resummation becomes important, the NNLO predictions for the event shapes considered in the present work are reliable. As a prime application of the results derived in this work we provide a detailed investigation of the prospects for the precision determination of the strong coupling constant and its running through TeV scales from LHC data.
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Bertolez-Martinez, T., Arguelles, C., Esteban, I., Lopez-Pavon, J., Martinez-Soler, I., & Salvado, J. (2023). IceCube and the origin of ANITA-IV events. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 005–24pp.
Abstract: Recently, the ANITA collaboration announced the detection of new, unsettling upgoing Ultra-High-Energy (UHE) events. Understanding their origin is pressing to ensure success of the incoming UHE neutrino program. In this work, we study their internal consistency and the implications of the lack of similar events in IceCube. We introduce a generic, simple parametrization to study the compatibility between these two observatories in Standard Model-like and Beyond Standard Model scenarios: an incoming flux of particles that interact with Earth nucleons with cross section sigma, producing particle showers along with long-lived particles that decay with lifetime iota and generate a shower that explains ANITA observations. We find that the ANITA angular distribution imposes significant constraints, and when including null observations from IceCube only iota similar to 10(-3)-10(-2) s and sigma similar to 10(-33) -10(-32) cm(2) can explain the data. This hypothesis is testable with future IceCube data. Finally, we discuss a specific model that can realize this scenario. Our analysis highlights the importance of simultaneous observations by high-energy optical neutrino telescopes and new UHE radio detectors to uncover cosmogenic neutrinos or discover new physics.
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Dreiner, H. K., Koay, Y. S., Kohler, D., Martin Lozano, V., Montejo Berlingen, J., Nangia, S., et al. (2023). The ABC of RPV: classification of R-parity violating signatures at the LHC for small couplings. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 215–52pp.
Abstract: We perform a classification of all potential supersymmetric R-parity violating signatures at the LHC to address the question: are existing bounds on supersymmetric models robust, or are there still signatures not covered by existing searches, allowing LHCscale supersymmetry to be hiding? We analyze all possible scenarios with one dominant RPV trilinear coupling at a time, allowing for arbitrary LSPs and mass spectra. We consider direct production of the LSP, as well as production via gauge-cascades, and find 6 different experimental signatures for the LL <overline> E -case, 6 for the LQ <overline> D -case, and 5 for the <overline> U <overline> D <overline> D -case; together these provide complete coverage of the RPV-MSSM landscape. This set of signatures is confronted with the existing searches by ATLAS and CMS. We find all signatures have been covered at the LHC, although not at the sensitivity level needed to probe the direct production of all LSP types. For the case of a dominant LL <overline> E -operator, we use CheckMATE to quantify the current lower bounds on the supersymmetric masses and find the limits to be comparable to or better than the R-parity conserving case. Our treatment can be easily extended to scenarios with more than one non-zero RPV coupling.
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