Kittel, O., & Pilaftsis, A. (2012). CP violation in correlated production and decay of unstable particles. Nucl. Phys. B, 856(3), 682–697.
Abstract: We study resonant CP-violating Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlations that may take place in the production and decay of unstable scalar particles at high-energy colliders. We show that as a consequence of unitarity and CPT invariance of the S-matrix, in 2 -> 2 scatterings mediated by mixed scalar particles, at least three linearly independent decay matrices associated with the unstable scalar states are needed to obtain non-zero CP-odd observables that are also odd under C-conjugation. Instead, for the correlated production and decay of two unstable particle systems in 2 -> 4 processes, we find that only two independent decay matrices are sufficient to induce a net non-vanishing CP-violating phenomenon. As an application of this theorem, we present numerical estimates of CP asymmetries for the correlated production and decay of supersymmetric scalar top anti-top pairs at the LHC, and demonstrate that these could reach values of order one. As a byproduct of our analysis, we develop a novel spinorial trace technique, which enables us to efficiently evaluate lengthy expressions of squared amplitudes describing the resonant scalar transitions.
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Esteves, J. N., Romao, J. C., Hirsch, M., Porod, W., Staub, F., & Vicente, A. (2012). Dark matter and LHC phenomenology in a left-right supersymmetric model. J. High Energy Phys., 01(1), 095–33pp.
Abstract: Left-right symmetric extensions of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model can explain neutrino data and have potentially interesting phenomenology beyond that found in minimal SUSY seesaw models. Here we study a SUSY model in which the left-right symmetry is broken by triplets at a high scale, but significantly below the GUT scale. Sparticle spectra in this model differ from the usual constrained MSSM expectations and these changes affect the relic abundance of the lightest neutralino. We discuss changes for the standard stau (and stop) co-annihilation, the Higgs funnel and the focus point regions. The model has potentially large lepton flavour violation in both, left and right, scalar leptons and thus allows, in principle, also for flavoured co-annihilation. We also discuss lepton flavour signals due to violating decays of the second lightest neutralino at the LHC, which can be as large as 20 fb(-1) at root s = 14 TeV.
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De Romeri, V., & Hirsch, M. (2012). Sneutrino dark matter in low-scale seesaw scenarios. J. High Energy Phys., 12(12), 106–28pp.
Abstract: We consider supersymmetric models in which sneutrinos are viable dark matter candidates. These are either simple extensions of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with additional singlet superfields, such as the inverse or linear seesaw, or a model with an additional U(1) group. All of these models can accomodate the observed small neutrino masses and large mixings. We investigate the properties of sneutrinos as dark matter candidates in these scenarios. We check for phenomenological bounds, such as correct relic abundance, consistency with direct detection cross section limits and laboratory constraints, among others lepton flavour violating (LFV) charged lepton decays. While inverse and linear seesaw lead to different results for LFV, both models have very similar dark matter phenomenology, consistent with all experimental bounds. The extended gauge model shows some additional and peculiar features due to the presence of an extra gauge boson Z' and an additional light Higgs. Specifically, we point out that for sneutrino LSPs there is a strong constraint on the mass of the Z' due to the experimental bounds on the direct detection scattering cross section.
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Kleiss, R. H. P., Malamos, I., Papadopoulos, C. G., & Verheyen, R. (2012). Counting to one: reducibility of one- and two-loop amplitudes at the integrand level. J. High Energy Phys., 12(12), 038–24pp.
Abstract: Calculation of amplitudes in perturbative quantum field theory involve large loop integrals. The complexity of those integrals, in combination with the large number of Feynman diagrams, make the calculations very difficult. Reduction methods proved to be very helpful, lowering the number of integrals that need to be actually calculated. Especially reduction at the integrand level improves the speed and set-up of these calculations. In this article we demonstrate, by counting the numbers of tensor structures and independent coefficients, how to write such relations at the integrand level for one-and two-loop amplitudes. We clarify their connection to the so-called spurious terms at one loop and discuss their structure in the two-loop case. This method is also applicable to higher loops, and the results obtained apply to both planar and non-planar diagrams.
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Bridges, M., Cranmer, K., Feroz, F., Hobson, M., Ruiz de Austri, R., & Trotta, R. (2011). A coverage study of the CMSSM based on ATLAS sensitivity using fast neural networks techniques. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 012–23pp.
Abstract: We assess the coverage properties of confidence and credible intervals on the CMSSM parameter space inferred from a Bayesian posterior and the profile likelihood based on an ATLAS sensitivity study. In order to make those calculations feasible, we introduce a new method based on neural networks to approximate the mapping between CMSSM parameters and weak-scale particle masses. Our method reduces the computational effort needed to sample the CMSSM parameter space by a factor of similar to 10(4) with respect to conventional techniques. We find that both the Bayesian posterior and the profile likelihood intervals can significantly over-cover and identify the origin of this effect to physical boundaries in the parameter space. Finally, we point out that the effects intrinsic to the statistical procedure are conflated with simplifications to the likelihood functions from the experiments themselves.
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Hirsch, M., Reichert, L., & Porod, W. (2011). Supersymmetric mass spectra and the seesaw scale. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 086–32pp.
Abstract: Supersymmetric mass spectra within two variants of the seesaw mechanism, commonly known as type-II and type-III seesaw, are calculated using full 2-loop RGEs and minimal Supergravity boundary conditions. The type-II seesaw is realized using one pair of 15 and (15) over bar superfields, while the type-III is realized using three copies of 24(M) superfields. Using published, estimated errors on SUSY mass observables attainable at the LHC and in a combined LHC+ILC analysis, we calculate expected errors for the parameters of the models, most notably the seesaw scale. If SUSY particles are within the reach of the ILC, pure mSugra can be distinguished from mSugra plus type-II or type-III seesaw for nearly all relevant values of the seesaw scale. Even in the case when only the much less accurate LHC measurements are used, we find that indications for the seesaw can be found in favourable parts of the parameter space. Since our conclusions crucially depend on the reliability of the theoretically forecasted error bars, we discuss in some detail the accuracies which need to be achieved for the most important LHC and ILC observables before an analysis, such as the one presented here, can find any hints for type-II or type-III seesaw in SUSY spectra.
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Feroz, F., Cranmer, K., Hobson, M., Ruiz de Austri, R., & Trotta, R. (2011). Challenges of profile likelihood evaluation in multi-dimensional SUSY scans. J. High Energy Phys., 06(6), 042–23pp.
Abstract: Statistical inference of the fundamental parameters of supersymmetric theories is a challenging and active endeavor. Several sophisticated algorithms have been employed to this end. While Markov-Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and nested sampling techniques are geared towards Bayesian inference, they have also been used to estimate frequentist confidence intervals based on the profile likelihood ratio. We investigate the performance and appropriate configuration of MULTINEST, a nested sampling based algorithm, when used for profile likelihood-based analyses both on toy models and on the parameter space of the Constrained MSSM. We find that while the standard configuration previously used in the literarture is appropriate for an accurate reconstruction of the Bayesian posterior, the profile likelihood is poorly approximated. We identify a more appropriate MULTINEST configuration for profile likelihood analyses, which gives an excellent exploration of the profile likelihood (albeit at a larger computational cost), including the identification of the global maximum likelihood value. We conclude that with the appropriate configuration MULTINEST is a suitable tool for profile likelihood studies, indicating previous claims to the contrary are not well founded.
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Olmo, G. J. (2011). Palatini actions and quantum gravity phenomenology. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 10(10), 018–15pp.
Abstract: We show that an invariant an universal length scale can be consistently introduced in a generally covariant theory through the gravitational sector using the Palatini approach. The resulting theory is able to capture different aspects of quantum gravity phenomenology in a single framework. In particular, it is found that in this theory field excitations propagating with different energy-densities perceive different background metrics, which is a fundamental characteristic of the DSR and Rainbow Gravity approaches. We illustrate these properties with a particular gravitational model and explicitly show how the soccer ball problem is avoided in this framework. The isotropic and anisotropic cosmologies of this model also avoid the big bang singularity by means of a big bounce.
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Olmo, G. J. (2011). Palatini approach to modified gravity: f(R) theories and beyond. Int. J. Mod. Phys. D, 20(4), 413–462.
Abstract: We review the recent literature on modified theories of gravity in the Palatini approach. After discussing the motivations that lead to consider alternatives to Einstein's theory and to treat the metric and the connection as independent objects, we review several topics that have been recently studied within this framework. In particular, we provide an in-depth analysis of the cosmic speed-up problem, laboratory and solar system tests, the structure of stellar objects, the Cauchy problem, and bouncing cosmologies. We also discuss the importance of going beyond the f(R) models to capture other phenomenological aspects related with dark matter/energy and quantum gravity.
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Bruhnke, M., Herrmann, B., & Porod, W. (2010). Signatures of bosonic squark decays in non-minimally flavour-violating supersymmetry. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 006–35pp.
Abstract: We investigate couplings of squarks to gauge and Higgs-bosons within the framework of non-minimal flavour violation in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Introducing non-diagonal elements in the mass matrices of squarks, we first study their impact on the self-energies and physical mass eigenvalues of squarks. We then present an extensive analysis of bosonic squark decays for variations of the flavour-violating parameters around the two benchmark scenarios SPS1a' and SPS1b. Signatures, that would be characteristic for a non-minimal flavour structure in the squark sector, can be found in wide regions of the parameter space.
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